Today marks the end of the last full week that Brainy Bird is a minor. He turns 18 on Wednesday. Monday will be the start of the “Week of Brainy Bird”. We have a tradition in our family that one gets an entire week to celebrate their birthday. When it is your week, you get to decide what we cook for dinner, and if we go out to eat, you get to decide where we go and what we order when we dine family style.
I have an entire week of little activities planned for Brainy Bird. I LOVE planning.
On Monday, he will wake up to find donuts to mark the kick off of his special week. This will earn me a half smile. He is no longer big on donuts for breakfast, but once upon a time his whole birthday morning evolved around donuts. He will arrive home on Monday afternoon in between the time he finishes up at school, and the time that he is to go pick up Little Chirp. He will find a birthday card with a lottery ticket that he will be able to cash later in the week if he wins.
On Tuesday, Brainy Bird will start the day at his dad’s house. He will again come home in between school and picking up Little Chirp, and he will find a birthday card with spending money for our weekend trip. The boys love to have cash in their pockets to treat themselves and each other when we visit new places.
On Wednesday, Brainy Bird will again start the day at his dad’s house, but when he arrives home from school the fun begins! First, I am sending him to the store with $5 to buy lottery tickets, and to cash the one from Monday. Then we are going to check Brainy Bird’s credit score for the first time and have a talk about the impact that credit scores have on one’s financial wellbeing. This discussion will be followed by completing a credit card application, and another discussion on using credit responsibly.
Lastly, on the financial front. We are going to set up a brokerage account, and I am going to move a fourth of Brainy Bird’s investments into this account for him to manage himself. He earned all of the basis money himself. He never spent any of the money he made over the past couple of summers, so I invested it for him, and I more than doubled it. I plan to transfer 25% of it to him each year on his birthday until he graduates college. This money plus his scholarships, and money earned working during college will position him to pay his own way through school with minimal debt.
In short, come Wednesday one of my two children will be off the payroll. Paying one’s own way through college without financial aid, which he does not qualify for, is a tremendous accomplishment, and I believe that this will be foundational for his success in life. He will inevitably make financial mistakes along the way, but I would rather he learn now in his final teen years than in his twenties.
Interesting sidebar – I had an employee about seven years ago that introduced me to all of the things that I am doing as a parent to have my kid financially independent at age 18. His parents took the same approach with him and his five siblings. When I first met this employee, I could not stand him. I actually refused to hire him. One of my peer’s overrode my decision, and I am forever grateful that she did. This young man turned out to be the best employee that I ever had, and I learned more from him than he did from me.
After our finances 201 session, we are headed out to eat to the eatery of Brainy Bird’s choice. I can almost guarantee that he will choose Bloofin. The boys love sushi, and Bloofin is one of the best sushi restaurants in our area. We often order family style, and the birthday person gets to do all the ordering. Bloofin is the best place ever to be in charge of ordering.
On Thursday, we are off to the Carolinas to visit the University of South Carolina, North Carolina State and the University of North Carolina. The only university that we get a scheduled tour for is South Carolina, so we will be there on Friday. South Carolina is one of Brainy Bird’s top choices, so this worked out well.
On Saturday, we will visit the two North Carolina schools and as odd as it sounds, we will have dinner at the Melting Pot. As a family, we are all about locally owned, our one cheat is Melting Pot. All meals, snacks and drinks on our trip will come from locally owned places, which we already have mapped out, except the Melting Pot. We love our Melting Pot tradition.
This tradition began many years ago when we were supposed to go for dinner at a nice restaurant in Philadelphia, but we were hungry and exhausted. We would have to have taken a cab to get to the nice restaurant, but I was not up for the cost of the cab, or the stress of Philadelphia traffic. We cancelled our reservations, and we decided we would go to the first place we found on foot that seemed okay. This happened to be Melting Pot. The boys LOVED it, and I loved having them engaged in a multiple hour conversations without boredom. So it began, we enjoy a lunch or dinner at Melting Pot on every trip. Every Melting Pot has a special menu item or two specific to their local traditional foods. We love seeing what each place has.
The two faucets of the trip that I am looking forward to the most are the tour of University of South Carolina and the Melting Pot. I just checked the weather for Friday in Columbia, South Carolina for our walking tour. I first erroneously looked at the weather for Columbia, North Carolina, and I found the forecast to be a high chance of rain. I realized my mistake and found the weather is going to be perfect for us in Columbia, South Carolina.
On Sunday, we will have a lazy day of a late breakfast and then our flight back to Houston. I like lazy travel days. We will be back just in time to watch the Super Bowl together as a family. Go Chiefs!
Needless to say, I can hardly wait until Monday, the start of “The Week of Brainy Bird”.