2019: Ask Farnoosh: What to Ask My Parents Before They Retire?

**Farnoosh Torabi** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:49)
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**Farnoosh Torabi** (1:01)
Welcome back to So Money everybody. I'm Farnoosh. It's Ask Farnoosh Friday. Today we're talking about money and aging parents, the best way to fund a 529 plan. But first, my daughter had a lemonade stand this past weekend with three of her friends, three hours, and they earned about $60 give or take.
It was so much fun. They had been wanting to do this all summer long, and finally the weather was good. If you live on the East Coast, it's been rain, rain, rain all summer. But Saturday, last Saturday, it was nice and sunny. And at one point, a neighbor walked up to them and was like, I'm very impressed, girls. So what cause are you supporting?
And we all kind of looked at each other, me, Tim, the kids.
My daughter finally spoke up and said, us.
We're supporting us. But this was after a friend of hers actually got nervous and said that they were going to support Homeless Whales, which got a chuckle. But my daughter was just like, sir, you seem to be confused. The sign here says, thanks for supporting. And by that, I mean us, not thanks for supporting, you know, a charity, which there's nothing wrong with doing that. But this is not what we're doing today. Now as a parent, I had mixed feelings about this moment because, sure, I mean, maybe it would have been right to have them donate somewhere.
These girls are very fortunate. Do they need money from a lemonade stand more than a homeless whale? Probably not. But, you know, for us, the purpose of this lemonade stand was to have them learn about sales and entrepreneurship, have fun, and talk to people in real life, you know, be off of an iPad or a TV or any other screen. And I sort of reject the notion that there needs to be like a charity or cause tied to your sales efforts always. We and these other girls' families, they all teach generosity and the importance of donating in other ways in their households.
That being said, there was a part of me that felt like, am I failing at this? Like, is there a missed opportunity here? Should we consider donating some of this money? Since so many people, neighbors and strangers, had just walked up to them, handed them money, didn't want any lemonade. We also had cookies. They didn't want that. They were like anti-sugar or whatever, get it. And one of them even just, she was on her way to another neighborhood, and she parked in front of our house, came up, gave them $2 and said, I just love what you're doing. I remember this when I was a kid. I think it's great. Keep it up. So all this generosity, they experienced that day. And I thought, should we pay it forward? So I asked the girls, and again, I was met with resistance. But then I thought, what if I sweeten the pot? So they had raised about $60. And I said, what if, and this is still up to you, what if I offer to match your earnings if you agree to also donate 30% of this to charity or cause of your choice? And at that point, they were like, yes. So that meant each of them would get $20, and then the rest, which was about $40, would be donated. And they all picked, not the homeless whales, but clothes, an animal shelter, which is gonna now turn into another get together. They're very smart. They skein these girls to figure out if they can hang out again. So they're like, let's go to an animal shelter. Let's bring gifts. Let's call the animal shelter ahead of time, see what they need, and then spend time with the animals. So I was really proud of myself, proud of them too for saying, yeah, this works for us. So that was our little weekend. Our kids also went to see Spider-Man Brand New Day, which apparently everybody in the world has seen. It crossed a billion dollars worldwide in six days. It's the second fastest movie ever to do this.