The Return on Luck: How to help your kids maximise their financial outcomes
- Will Rainey
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
I was recently listening to the Modern Wisdom podcast with the guest Jim Colins (the author of the book Great by Choice), and there was a segment on the "Return of Luck" that stuck with me. It made me reflect on how lucky my wife and I have been financially, and more importantly, what we actually did about it. I shared this with my daughters, along with a short story to help them remember the lesson.
Before I go further, let me be clear about one thing: this blog isn't about gambling. I'm not talking about chasing luck or putting yourself in risky situations hoping for a payoff. I'm talking about the moments that land in your lap through no effort of your own, and what you choose to do with them when they arrive.
We all need a bit of luck
In my blogs and books, I help kids follow the 3 Rules of Wealth:
Save at least 10% of everything you receive
Invest to grow your savings
Be patient
I believe kids who grow up following these rules will have a big financial advantage in life. That doesn't mean every kid who follows them ends up in the same place. There are many variables that affect financial outcomes: parents, the job you get, where you live, and a host of other factors. One big factor is luck.
Our Two Lucky Breaks
My wife and I have had a few moments where we got lucky with money. I shared these with my daughters recently, and the point I wanted to highlight wasn't the luck itself. It was what we did with it, i.e., how we got a return on luck.
Currency: In 2014 we moved to Hong Kong for work. We would send money back to the UK to help pay the mortgage on our house. We had a set amount we sent each month. At the time every 10,000 Hong Kong Dollars we sent, it covered around £800 of mortgage.
Then Brexit happened, and we got lucky from a financial point of view (I won't touch on the politics here). After Brexit, that same 10,000 Hong Kong Dollars covered over £1,000 of mortgage (as the pound became weaker).
We got lucky and could instantly pay more off our mortgage for the same amount of work. We could have simply sent less money back and pocketed the difference. Instead, we chose to send even more back and used that money to build up our savings/investments.
Interest Rates: In the early 2020s we needed to remortgage our house. Interest rates were very low at the time, and we managed to lock in a good rate for 5 years. Soon after, interest rates started climbing, but ours stayed low. That wasn't down to any clever insight from my wife or me. It was luck.
Because our mortgage rate was low, we reduced how much we were paying off the mortgage each month and put that money into high interest savings accounts earning over 3% more per year than our mortgage rate. For every £1,000 we saved this way, we came out roughly £30 ahead per year. So we pushed to save as much as we could to get the most return from our luck.
Why this isn't about showing off
Neither of these examples is about bragging. We know we were lucky in both situations. We simply wanted to make sure we took advantage of it. This isn't about being greedy. It's about offsetting the times we're likely to lose out when luck runs against us, because it will. We still live overseas, so currency could easily turn against us. There could be periods when we can't rent out our house etc.
The lesson here is that money is about doing the right thing consistently, and accepting that even when you do the right thing, luck will sometimes help you and sometimes hurt you. What happens next depends on what you do during those lucky (and unlucky) stretches.
To help kids my kids remember this important lesson, I came up with a new seed based story. It’s been a while since I created on and if you’ve read Grandpa’s Fortune Fables, you’ll know I love use seeds to help kids learn different money lessons.
📒 NEW BOOK ... COMING 26th July 2026
Later this month, I’ll be releasing my second book, Frankie Fortune: The Boy Who Believed The Internet
It follows a kid on a mission to get rich… by copying what he sees on the internet. As you can imagine, it doesn’t quite go to plan. Along the way, your kids will learn powerful money lessons through Frankie’s misadventures.
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The Most Beautiful Seed Story
Clarke and Theory were playing in the forest when they saw something shining on the ground. At first they thought it was a jewel, but as they got closer, they realised it was a seed. Not just any seed. It was the most beautiful seed either of them had ever seen, bright blue and shining like a diamond.
They looked around and Theory found a second one nearby. They searched everywhere else, but there were no more to find. They couldn't believe how lucky they were. They each took one seed home.
Clarke couldn't wait for everyone to see his. He showed his family, his neighbours, and even brought it to school the next day. Everyone stared in awe at its beauty. He built a little display for it and gave it pride of place on the shelf in his room.
When Theory got home, she turned her seed over in her hand and wondered what it might become. She asked her parents if she could plant it at the back of the garden. Clarke couldn't believe it. She had buried the most beautiful seed in the world.
A few weeks later, Clarke went round to Theory's house. He was upset. His seed had shrunk, lost its shine, and turned a dirty green-brown colour. As he was telling her, something caught his eye: a small, beautiful tree sprouting at the back of Theory's garden.
"Oh my! Is that from the seed you planted?" asked Clarke.
Theory nodded, smiling.
"We were both lucky to find those seeds," said Clarke, a little disgruntled, "but you've definitely made the most of yours."
"It's okay," said Theory. "I'm sure this tree will grow more seeds one day, and I'll happily give you one. Hopefully you'll use it to grow, rather than just to display."
Tell your kids: finding the seed was luck. What you do with it after that is up to you.
Help your kids get a return on their luck
This lesson matters for the younger generation, who might feel, rightly or wrongly, that previous generations had more luck than they do. That means they can't simply copy what their parents did, because their parents may not have carried the same student loan debt or needed the same huge deposit to get on the property ladder.
It's about them writing their own story and understanding that they will have their own periods of luck too. What that story looks like depends on what they do when luck shows up.
I hope you share this lesson with your kids so they can get the most out of any lucky scenrios they find themselves in as they grow up.
Thanks for reading,
Will
👉 What to read next:
How To Teach Your Kids About The Stock Market (essential)
Grandpa's Fortune Fables: stories that teach kids more about money than most adults know (if you've already read the book, it would be amazing if you could leave a review)
