Eric Siu discusses parenting and money with a parent whose kid wants a Bugatti. The father drives a Honda Odyssey but owns a Range Rover, and worries his son doesn't understand hardship. Siu suggests making kids contribute or pay for what they want through chores.
But my son tells me the other day, Daddy, you need to work harder. He's like, I need a Bugatti.
Wait, how old is he?
My kids don't know pain yet. They're young, 4 and 6. They're growing. But my son the other day— I live in a neighborhood where some people have a lot, lot, lot more money than I do, right? Like, I'm not sitting in a $100 million home. I literally have People in my neighborhood with $100+ million.
Yours is just, you know, a fraction of that.
Correct. So then I drive a Honda Odyssey. That's my daily commuter.
How many cars do you have?
I got rid of a lot of them.
You liar.
No, no, I just got rid of them. Yeah. The Range goes to my dad this weekend.
I didn't even know you had a Range.
Yeah, I have a new Range. It's all blacked out. It's in the front in valet.
Oh, that's the car there. I was like, who's—
I've had that for like almost a year now.
Who's an ass is in the handicap spot? It's you.
No, no, the valet puts it in the handicap spot.
Yeah, I was going to park in the handicap spot.
You could have. Then they told me to stop parking It's for you. No, I don't. We don't park. They valet our car. So wherever they put it.
Anyway, continue. Continue.
Okay. But I got rid of— we're getting rid of more cars. The one I drive, and Eric knows I'm not the best driver, I tend to drive a Honda Odyssey because I'm very comfortable driving the Honda Odyssey. I could drive a nicer car. Yes, Eric's point is we have nicer cars in our house. So for me to get a Range Rover, you can imagine some of the other cars we have that I'm not giving away. I won't get into that. But my son tells me the other day, Daddy, you need to work harder. He's like, I need a Bugatti.
Wait, how old is he?
4.
Dude, that is insane. I didn't even know what a Bugatti was at 4.
I don't think they were that popular back then because remember, they came out, I don't know, like 10 years ago and they made the world's fastest car, whatever time frame. But either way, we knew what Ferraris were when we were kids and stuff. He straight up says, work harder so we could buy— because he asked me for a Bugatti before his birthday. He turned 4 last month. And I didn't get him a Bugatti. And I told him, I would love to buy you a Bugatti. It's too expensive for daddy. Daddy can't afford a Bugatti.
Yeah.
Okay. So then it's an easier conversation to have, you know, just saying like, look, you need to save up money. I can't afford it. And then he ended up telling me I need to go travel more and work harder to buy him a Bugatti.
You're like, okay.
I said, okay. But what, That's an example of not understanding. Like, I worry about that future generation not understanding pain like you and I understand pain.
Can I give you a framework? I actually was listening. So, it's interesting because I don't have kids, right? But on X and even on YouTube, I have like a parenting bookmark. So, like for future me, right? But this one I got, I think you actually like this. So, whenever your kids want something, they have to pay for 50% of it, right? In the future, maybe like right now, like maybe—
No, no, we make them pay 100% of it.
How do they pay? How did they get the money for it?
No, they do chores.
They have to. Great, right? So like they have to basically like in their teens or whatever, they're going to have to work for it. Like whatever you want to buy, if you want the Bugatti, okay, you're going to have to pay for it. Get up to 50%. How much is Bugatti? A couple hundred grand?
No, like $2, $3 million.
Really? So we're going to end the episode here. See you guys later. Please don't forget to rate, review, subscribe.
