© Milles Studio – stock.adobe.com
Our ‘Rooster Heroes’ series brings you financial experts from all over the world, asking them 10 quick fire questions on all things pocket money and allowances – so you learn from the best. They’re all leaders in their field, and they’re all people we at RoosterMoney admire.
This month we spoke to Santa Claus 🎅! Santa is the CEO of Christmas Co. located in the North Pole. With the help of Mrs. Claus, the elves and their reindeer, they’re in the business of bringing cheer during the holiday season every year.
With a team of elves managing billions of customer requests, a production factory building toys and their hugely successful fulfilment arm ‘Sleigh’ delivery, we thought who best to give sage money advice than the company behind the multi billion dollar industry ‘Christmas’!
1. What’s your earliest money memory? 🍼
Grandma Claus used to put a silver six pence in the Christmas pudding every year and I remember once finding it on my plate – lucky I didn’t eat it, ho ho ho!
2. What did you want to be when you were a kid? 👶
I was always really impressed by the elves in the toy factory! I wanted to make fun and exciting toys for the other children around the world. Putting together and assembling all of those magical gifts seemed like fulfilling work.
“Grandma Claus used to put a silver six pence in the Christmas pudding every year!”
3. What's your favourite candy? 🍬
I’m not too fond of candy but I do like cookies with a drink of milk! The reindeer are more keen on carrots and oats though.
4. Describe your money personality 🤔
I’m big on budgeting! We have 11 months out of the year to get ready for the big holiday season and we need to ensure we can produce and deliver the required number of presents to execute our CHEER strategy. I wear the finance hat and am responsible for forecasting our annual budget for the year.
“When families leave out milk and cookies for me that doesn’t hurt either!”
5. What's the best bit about your job? 💼
Getting to deliver presents to children all around the world – it’s very rewarding! It’s fantastic to bring joy to people on Christmas day. Of course when families leave out milk and cookies for me that doesn’t hurt either!
6. Do you give your kids an allowance? And if so, what's the system? 💰
Myself and Mrs. Claus don’t have children, but if we did we’d definitely put an allowance routine in place. It’s really important that we all understand the value of things and although some presents may mysteriously appear under the tree, others are a result of someone’s earning!
So I’d definitely look to get them involved in helping around the house or cleaning after the reindeer so they can earn their allowance. This way they can learn that money doesn’t grow on fir trees.
7. Best piece of money advice you’ve ever been given? 🎓
I learnt that you can’t actually spend chocolate coins in the shops. When I was a child and my Dad told me that one, I couldn’t believe it!
“You can’t actually spend chocolate coins in the shops.”
8. What’s your top tip for parents on teaching kids the value of money? 💡
Get your kids involved in purchasing decisions! When they want to buy something in the store, have them check how much money they’ve saved to see if they have enough. And if they do, see if they were already planning on saving for something else, and what the impact would be of them buying this thing here and now? These little questions can help challenge your kids to think if its something they really want or if its worth saving a little longer to get something better.
The more reindeer reigns you give your child, the more experience they’ll gain in understanding the value of items and money in line!
9. How will we be paying for things in 2040? 🤖
If we could transact through kindness and helping each other, that would be really nice. If only I had a crystal ball! Unfortunately that’s wrapped up and ready to be delivered to Vanessa in Stockholm who’s been very good this year!
10. Bonus: Favourite app on your phone (apart from RoosterMoney of course!) 📲
Mrs. Claus downloaded the app ‘Christmas countdown’ on my phone last year ? It lets me know how many sleeps it is until Christmas! You’d think I’d be a bit more organised…
Happy Holidays from the RoosterMoney team! 🎄
Got any ideas or suggestions for what we cover next? Let us know at hello@roostermoney.com and it might get featured in a future blog!