To Sir With Love - Michael's Girl Emma Is A Gem

The dad and daughter share the Midas touch

Outside the gate of Sir Michael Hill’s Queenstown property is a sign selling pony poo for $3 a bag. And if you play golf at The Hills, his nearby course, you can buy back the balls you lost on your last round for $2 each.

These are just two of the ways his 11-year-old twin grand kids Jacob and Chloe Jacques earn money and learn a strong work ethic – an important life lesson from the Kiwi business icon.

“There are a lot of people who give children a free rein with the things they never had,” tells Michael, sitting beside his daughter Emma on the couch. “But it’s actually bringing them up to never have any appreciation for the true worth of not only money but of achieving.

“It’s good for children to learn to fend for themselves. Christine and I made Emma save money and get a job to support herself, and she makes her children save too so they have a sense of values and purpose.”

Emma is grateful for the good financial habits her parents instilled.

“I have two gorgeous children and one of my primary goals is to ensure I give them the best start in life,” she enthuses. “I have always saved rather than spent and they earn their own pocket money – they like watching their bank account grow.”

They shovel poo, scour the golf course in all weather and have even busked as they are skilled violin players.

“I’ve set them up with three jars – a savings jar, a spend jar and a charity jar, and they allocate their money,” tells Emma.

Forty years after her parents opened the first Michael Hill Jeweller store in Whangarei when she was just seven, Emma still recalls polishing the glass cabinets so earnestly that she didn’t realise the shop had closed for the day. By the time she was the age her twins are now, she was working at the store after school and at weekends, and diligently saving money.