When it comes to teaching kids about money, I believe that telling stories is a great way for them to learn. Stories are fun and provide simple language for kids to understand and ask questions about.
My kids recently enjoyed my story ‘The Dragon that pooped too much!’ to teach them about buying their first car.
As they are really into dragons at the moment (especially as they love the new Disney movie Raya and the Last Dragon), I thought I’d come up with another dragon money story. This covers a few different money lessons.
The Dragon that won the Lottery story
On Dragon Island there was one dragon that all the other dragons wanted to be like. Her name was Teresa Blue, but the dragons called her Blue for short. She was super kind and wise. She had her own lake full of fish. As she didn’t have to work to get her fish, she was free to do whatever she wanted, when she wanted.
All the other dragons on the island had to do whatever their human masters wanted them to do in order to get food.
One day, a young dragon named Eric the Eyes (due to his big eyes) had just dropped off his master and was travelling home to his cave when he saw a lottery ticket lying on the ground. He had no idea whose ticket it was. He asked the other dragons if they had noticed any of their masters dropping a ticket.
“We have no idea who it belongs to! If no one claims it in 3 days it will be yours” they said.
Eric waited 3 days and no one claimed the ticket.
It was then that Eric checked the internet and found out that it was the winning lottery ticket. Eric was RICH!!! He could be just like Teresa the Blue dragon.
[Before you ask, yes, dragons can use the internet …. They’re not animals!!]
The only problem was that Eric wasn't a human. He couldn't just walk into the Lottery Office and claim the money he had won. He needed to find a way to look like a human. He first tried dressing up as a human but the fact that he was 3 times the size and had wings meant he wasn’t going to trick anyone.
He then heard of a dragon called Titu. She had a magic gem which had the power to turn a dragon into a human for a few hours. After agreeing to pay Titu some of his winnings, Eric was soon a human.
At first he was so busy enjoying being a human (riding on the backs of dragons, eating food that wasn't fish and using a 'toilet') that he nearly forgot to go and collect his lottery winnings.
Just before turning back into a dragon, he collected his winnings and spent it all buying the biggest lake he could find.
Eric had never seen so many fish before in his life! He couldn’t believe it was all his. With all the fish in his lake, he’d never have to work for a master again!
Eric then started to tell all his friends about his lake and fish. He invited them over so they could eat some of his fish. He felt just like Blue - he was totally free to do what he wanted.
Each day, as Eric posted photos on FireBook (Facebook for dragons), more dragons found out about Eric’s lake and came to visit.
Eric couldn’t have been happier. New friends, freedom and lots and lots of fish. He felt like he had it all. He finally knew what it felt like to be like Blue.
Then after a few weeks, Eric woke up and crawled out of his cave. It was then he noticed that there weren’t any fish in his lake.
“WHERE HAVE ALL MY FISH GONE!?!!” He shouted.
“Call the Dragon Police! There must be a theft!” he claimed.
Before he could call the police, Teresa the Blue dragon flew down and explained what had happened.
“No one has stolen your fish. You and your friends have simply eaten them all. Whilst you saw more fish than you’d ever seen, you’ve still managed to eat them all. Especially as you invited so many other dragons to eat them too.”
Eric couldn't believe it and asked Blue “You eat fish from your lake and there are still plenty of fish for you to eat. How can that be? It doesn't seem fair!”
Blue explained that to make sure you have fish in the lake forever, you need to make sure you don’t eat them all. If you leave some fish, they will have babies. Those babies will grow into fish and have more babies. Soon you’ll have lots of fish to eat and still have plenty of fish left and therefore you’ll always be free to do what you want with your time.
Eric was devastated! Not only did he lose all his fish, he noticed that a lot of dragons who he had thought were new friends didn’t come back to see him. He now realised that they only liked him when he had fish. They weren’t really true friends at all.
Eric told Blue that he would play the lottery and use the winnings to get more fish and not waste them. “Before you try and win the lottery again, here are 10 dice. Roll them all and see how often you get all ten dice to show the number 6 at the same time.”
Eric took the dice and started to roll them. He did this all day and night. He didn’t get close. He once got 5 sixes at the same time but nowhere near 10 sixes.
“This is impossible! I’m never going to get 10 sixes at the same time” said Blue.
Blue told Eric that when he found the winning lottery ticket he was super lucky. It was just like anyone who rolls 10 sixes at the same time. Eric soon realised that he wouldn’t get his fish back from playing the lottery.
Eric decided to go back to his old master to ask to work for him again. The master agreed. Although, he was going to do something completely different this time.
Once he got some fish from his master, he ate eight of them and put two into his lake. Soon the fish had babies and he started to see that the number of fish in his lake was slowly but surely increasing.
It took some years but eventually his lake had enough fish for him to eat whilst still leaving enough left to have babies. He then decided to leave his master and be free. When he did, he made sure to only share his fish with his real friends and those who needed help, making sure he always had enough fish to have babies.
Now he has what he always wanted, Fish and Freedom.
The end!
Lessons from the story
A key message is that it doesn't matter how much money you have, it's about how you look after your money. There are lots of real-life stories of people who have won the lottery and then lost it all.
This story covers a number of other money topics which I would encourage you to talk to your kids about.
Freedom is the goal - Eric wanted to be like Teresa the Blue, who had fish and freedom. This is a powerful lesson. Just having lots of fish (money) is nice but if you eat all your fish (spend all your money), you’ll have to keep working and never be free. Those that are free are the ones who look after their money. If you can help your kids see that a goal should be to be able to do what they want, when they want, they will start to see money as a tool for achieving that. For more on this topic, please make sure you read ‘Rich Kids vs Wealthy Kids’
Looking after their fish - In order to be ‘free’, we need to help train our kids to look after their fish (money). This means not spending all the money they receive (not eating all the fish). This means getting them to save a little bit of money, every time they receive some. I would strongly recommend that you all read the blog ‘The 3 Rules of Wealth’ to learn how to train your kids to look after their money and make it grow.
Gambling - We don’t want our kids to base their financial future on luck. We need to help our kids understand the chances of winning when gambling, i.e. very low! Get your kids to try and roll 10 sixes in a row to show them how unlikely they are to win the lottery. For more tips on how to teach your kids about gambling them please read this blog.
Why not share this story with a friend so they can start teaching their kids about money?
Thanks for reading!
Will
If you like this dragon story, make sure you've read: The Dragon that pooped too much