Audrey's Lesson On Finance

Like many other 6 year olds, Audrey loves to collect things and loves to make signs. The other day, she combined the two passions. After scavenging around for rocks, she put them on display with a hand-crafted sign.



In case you don't read 1st grade English, it says, "rocks for sale" and "no money money money".  In other words, FREE. Once she opened up shop, she stuck around on the big rock and as each neighbor strolled by, she gave them a good stare, wondering if they'd take her up on the offer. I think I remember her even laying on the rock, Cleopatra style, modeling next to her goods. But still, no one was interested.



We went for a walk and on our way back, she was excited to see how many rocks were left, but was disappointed that they were all still there. And to make matters worse, she heard some "big kids" walk by, read her sign, and giggle. This just tore her up. How could NOBODY want her free rocks?!

Christmas morning, on our way out to church, Audrey was the first one out the door. After inspecting her display, she ran to tell me that someone actually took a rock and not only that, left her 3 coins. Twenty cents! It must have been a neighborhood Santa who put Audrey on the "nice" list for so generously offering her rocks free of charge. To Audrey, it was a veritable Christmas miracle.

Walking back home after church, she was still talking about the wonderment of it all and how she made 20 cents overnight. I saw dollar signs in her eyes. I guess right after that, she went outside to amend her sign, because today, I found it like this:



Translation: "Ain't nobody be taking my rocks for free if I can make a profit!"

Notice also that the rocks are now nicely organized by size. Pretty soon, she'll be selling ad space on the big rock. Little Miss Audrey is now in it to make some dough, people.

We were out for the better part of the day today and on the way back, she was looking forward to seeing a mountain of cash on the big rock. But uh....not so much.

So she made more changes to her sign yet again:



Translation: "The rocks are still 20 cents, but if I'm not here to receive your payment, go ahead and take one for no money money money."