Kelly Makiha: Why your kids need to know the value of money

Multimedia Journalist·Rotorua Daily Post·

27 Nov, 2019 06:29 PM3 mins to read

Photo / File

Young people these days! They all want something for nothing. Or do they? Journalist Kelly Makiha talks about learning the value of money and why meeting new BurgerFuel franchise owner 21-year-old Ashleigh Nairn was such a breath of fresh air.

Dad was on the phone to his insurance broker mate.

"I've bought my daughter a car, what deal can ya do for ya cobber?"

(That's how people in Timaru talk).

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I saw red.

I was 15, had sold hundreds of fertiliser bags of chicken poo for $10 each and washed dishes in a Mexican restaurant for $5 an hour for the past two years to save $5000 for my red Honda Civic.

There was no way my father bought me the car so naturally I started squawking in the background.

But bless my dad's heart, he thought the broker was more likely to give him the better deal so decided to massage the truth a little.

While washing dishes was a hell job every Friday and Saturday night, it was the chicken poo business that was the real goldmine.

After school I'd shovel the stinky stuff at a "cobber's" egg farm to keep up with the hundreds of orders, while Dad ferried the loads into town on the back of his farm truck.

The money rolled in and I had enough left over to buy myself return flights from Timaru to Auckland and tickets to see Garth Brooks live in concert.

When it wasn't chicken poo or nacho-stained plates, it was thistles in paddocks. Dad would haul my brother and I out of bed on Sundays and make us grub paddocks for money.

I'm certainly not rich now but I know how to work hard and appreciate money.

It makes my skin crawl when I see children handed everything on a plate without getting off their chuffs or at the very least appreciating where it's come from.

Ashleigh Nairn has bought a BurgerFuel franchise at just 21. Photo / Stephen Parker

So it was an utter pleasure to meet Ashleigh Nairn this week, a 21-year-old who has become the youngest person to own a BurgerFuel franchise.

She started working part-time at the Fairy Springs store in Rotorua at 15, earning $14.25 an hour, worked her way up the ranks and saved $20,000 by the time she was 19.

What a breath of fresh air she is in today's times when some (or is it many?) young people feel entitled to have things or simply clock up their purchases with credit cards or loans.

So, if you see me in the queue at Kmart with two adorable but screaming twins begging for lollies, I'm that mean mother who is only letting them buy one thing because that's all their pocket money earned from cleaning something can afford.