Delving into investing with his dad at a young age, Adam Cox quickly found a lifelong passion in money.

Today, he serves as the head of First National Wealth Management in downtown Sioux Falls and hosts our financial education podcast, Common Cents on the Prairie™.

What he loves infinitely more than money, though, are his teenage daughters, Adeline (16) and Nora (13).

In the spirit of Adam’s continuing efforts to normalize money conversations, he asked his daughters to join him for a special episode of the podcast.

The girls each brought a list of deeply personal money questions to ask him, and you can read the highlights from his answers below!

How did you learn about money?

I’ve always been fascinated with money from a very early age. When I was growing up a long, long time ago, I got a dollar a week for doing chores.

As I got older, I started to learn more about personal finance and investing and got really into it. I’d say it was mostly self-taught.

Then, my dad and I got into investing and learning about that together. We took classes and talked about that a lot — like a couple of old, retired people, I guess.

Did you ever get the money you earned from doing chores?

I did if I needed it, but my mom could put the guilt trip on pretty good.

Like if I said, “Hey, I want some money to go buy something,” she would say something like, “Well, I guess if that’s what you really think you should spend your money on.”

Which, of course, would make me go, “Oh, I guess I maybe won’t spend it then.” But if I did spend it, it was on baseball cards.

What was your first job, and what did you do with the money you earned?

Outside of doing chores at the house, I picked grass and weeds out of rocks.

I had two neighbors who didn’t have landscaping fabric underneath their rocks, so grass and weeds just grew up. I got paid a dollar every 15 minutes to pick that stuff out, and I thought it was the best thing ever.

But my first real job was as a janitor at Christ the King Church and schools. I did a lot of painting, cleaned the floors, waxed, cleaned toilets, etc. I did that, and I taught tennis lessons for like five summers growing up.

As for what I did with the money: again, not much. I saved it, and I’d buy things once in a while.

Are you and Mom spenders, savers, or investors?

Diane spends money on you two but not much else. I mostly spend on myself.

But we’re both really good savers and investors, so all of the above.

Adam and his wife, Diane.

Have you and Mom always been that way?

When we first met each other, we hardly had any money. Actually, we had less than money, because I was in school and had a ton of debt.

Because of that, we had to be good savers. There were months where I’d want to go grab some groceries, and Diane would say to me, “You’re maybe going to have to wait a week until we get paid,” because there wasn’t room in the budget.

We also knew we didn’t want to live like that forever, so we saved and invested.

What’s a money lesson you learned the hard way?

When I saved that money from pulling weeds and cleaning toilets, I started to invest it in companies. This was a time when the markets were crazy, and it seemed like it was easy to invest in companies that would just go up.

So, I made a bunch of money doing that and then put it all in one stock, and it was called AOL. I had about $18,000 in the stock when I was around 16.

Two days later, there was a big announcement where the stock went almost to zero, so I lost most of the money that I made investing.

The lesson here is: don’t put all your money into one thing. I’m happy I learned it when I was really young, although it basically meant that all of the work I did as a kid was for nothing.

What was the first big purchase you and Mom saved up for?

A wedding. That was probably the first thing we had to save up quite a bit for.

I bought Diane an engagement ring, so I saved up for that. She bought me a couch, kind of like a swap for the engagement ring.

So I was like, “Hey, want to get married?” And she was like, “Hey, you want this couch?”

It was a beautiful thing, right? We still have that couch.

Do you have any advice for young savers?

For people who are just starting off, the biggest lesson to learn is to live on less than you make. It’s always good to have margin in your life.

Then, start saving early and investing early so your money has more time to compound and grow. And avoid debt as much as possible.

If you could have one wish in this life for us, what would it be?

I think that’s pretty easy. I just want you two to be happy.

As a parent, you always worry about your kids all the time. So, probably the best thing we could ask for is that you would be happy.

You can watch the full podcast episode featuring Adam and his daughters at the player below, or listen on Apple Podcasts!

And if you’d like to discuss your own financial situation with an expert, send a note to our team at First National Wealth Management; we’d love to have a conversation.

Any comments, insights, or strategies discussed in this article are intended to be general in nature and, therefore, may not be suitable for you and your situation, whatever that may be. Before acting on anything written here, please consult with your attorney, CPA, and/or your financial advisor.