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Cody Medina
Cody Medina
December 23, 2023 ·  4 min read

A Dad Bought His 13-Year-Old Daughter A House To Teach Her Fiscal Responsibility

Every parent has their own idea of how they should teach their kids about financial literacy. You want your children to understand how they can make wise investments by saving their allowances, teaching them how to save, and even opening their first bank account. Some parents will even create a savings account for their kids before college. However, this dad bought his daughter a house to teach her fiscal responsibility.

Read: People Want Home Economics Classes Brought Back To Teach Kids Basic Life Skills

Dad Bought His Daughter A House

Some of you may be thinking that this is a little excessive when teaching your kids about money and property. However, for Avee-Ashanti Shabazz, this was his greatest gift he could give to Ajala. It’s not just about teaching his daughter about saving but how to invest and build upon what you have. Allowing her to turn one property into multiple properties before she’s even a young adult. He believes that this is one of the best ways to keep his daughter out of debt before getting a job.

No more being trained to live paying rent or years of mortgages and your home not being secure regardless of what life throws at you. No more being a slave to the Banks and employers,” Shabazz explained in a post on Facebook. (1)

HAPPY B’EARTHDAY AJALA SHABAZZ Today I gifted my daughter with a house for her 13th B’earthday. This was not random, it…

Posted by Avee-Ashanti Shabazz on Saturday, July 4, 2020

For him, buying his daughter a completely debt-free house at a young age gives her a lot more options. Allowing Ajala to live life the way she wants to while she’s still young. Some parents might be thinking that this is too much responsibility. However, many others agree that this is an excellent idea, especially in the black community, where most families have had a much harder time investing in homes.

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Why This Is Important

What’s even more important about this is that many black people and people of color have been set-up for failure when it comes to buying property. The system has targeted them for years and has made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to invest or build on anything. This has been a problem for many years and continues to this day. From the 1930’s all the way to the 1960s, interracial families were trapped in predatory mortgage agreements. Something known as on contract” which is a predatory agreement that combined all the responsibilities of homeownership with all the disadvantages of renting while offering the benefits of neither.

This alone has made it seemingly impossible for other interracial families to afford and own any property. Not only not being able to accrue any equity but also having daunting consequences to missing any payments. The homes were already being sold at an incredibly inflated price. Additionally, since families were put in these financial chokeholds, these contracts made it legal to evict them when they couldn’t pay. Then they would target another black family and repeat the process. (2)

This puts a lot into perspective about this father wanting to buy his teenage daughter a house. After years of being essentially a slave to so many contracts that put you in debt, living a free life at a young age seems like a perfect way to teach your kids how to live happily. Everything that was put in place years before to keep segregation has caused an extreme amount of damage.

Not A Bad Idea After All

Every parent wants what’s best for their child. For Avee-Ashanti, this is more than about teaching his child how to own property and use her money wisely. This is about having the freedom and having options. Not being bound to anyone or anything because of a contract that says you owe an insane amount of debt. A dad buying his daughter a house in this situation is not a farfetched dream. It’s an opportunity to grow and learn.

Let’s put our children in a position to be free to live how they choose while they’re young and full of life,” further explaining on his Facebook post. “Free them as best we can to live out their dreams and desires. Free them to determine for themselves the relationships they may choose to have with banks and employers. Free them so they can be what they are inclined to be.” (1)

Many of the comments are in agreement with Avee-Ashanti. What’s even better is that Ajala won’t be alone in doing any of this. She is going to have the full support of her family with every decision she makes. Furthermore, Avee-Ashanti says that he’s going to make this a family tradition for every one of his children. When they turn 13, he will teach them the same things as he did with Ajala. Even as an adult, having to deal with debt is a very daunting thing. Especially when all the odds are against you at almost every turn.

Congratulations to Ajala as well as a very happy 13th birthday!

Keep Reading: The Salary You Need to Be Paid in Every State to Afford an Average Home

References

  1. Father Buys His 13-Year Old Daughter a House For Her Birthday.” Black Business. October 14, 2020.
  2. Facebook.
  3. The Case for Reparations.” The Atlantic. Ta-Nehisi Coates. June 2014.