Elevating a Financially Literate Teenager
on Jul 31, 2024
It’s back-to-school month for our family, and my 14-year-old is off to highschool. The place has the time gone? As a monetary planner, I usually query if I’m doing sufficient to equip my daughter with the monetary life-skills she must grow to be a robust, unbiased, and savvy lady.
Monetary schooling has all the time been a cornerstone of my profession. Whereas I don’t declare to be an skilled on instructing youngsters about funds, I’d like to share among the strategies I’ve used with my daughter through the years.
She realized the fundamentals of credit score by borrowing from the “Financial institution of Mother” and repaying on time. She practiced counting her cash, retaining it protected, purchasing at a makeshift retailer we arrange in the lounge, and saving for issues she wished. She made a number of errors alongside the best way, however I used to be there to information her and assist her be taught from them.
As Joline Godfrey states in her e book, Elevating Financially Match Children, “Allowance shouldn’t be an entitlement or a wage. It’s a instrument for instructing youngsters the way to handle cash.” She additionally emphasizes that there isn’t a correct quantity to offer; the bottom line is to start out small and enhance the allowance because the youngster’s capability to handle accountability grows.
When my daughter turned 13, we opened checking and financial savings accounts at our native credit score union. Though I’m the joint proprietor, the account is in her identify, and he or she has full management over it. She has a Visa debit card and has been managing her accounts efficiently, incomes curiosity on her financial savings. She thoughtfully transfers cash from her financial savings to her checking account as wanted.
In keeping with my present analysis, typical allowance charges vary from $1 to $2 for every year of a kid’s age. My daughter receives $20 each two weeks, and I additionally cowl her share of the iCloud storage invoice. Seeing how effectively she manages this, I’m contemplating rising her allowance to assist her be taught to price range for college garments, provides, and different bills.
I’m extremely pleased with her understanding of saving and comparability purchasing. She saved over $400 in seven months from Christmas and birthday presents, babysitting, cat sitting, doing odd jobs, and her allowance. She even bought her Amazon reward playing cards to family and friends to transform the worth to money, which she deposited into her account. Along with her financial savings, she purchased a used mobile phone after thorough analysis and comparability purchasing.
My daughter is obsessed with horseback driving and goals of proudly owning a horse sometime. This summer time, she carried out a analysis venture on the prices related to proudly owning a horse, together with buy and upkeep bills. This train was eye-opening for her, and whereas she nonetheless aspires to personal a horse, she now understands the monetary dedication required.
Over the subsequent 4 years, I purpose to show her extra monetary abilities, resembling:
- Utilizing credit score properly
- Planning a trip
- Understanding salaries for various jobs and careers
- Exploring school prices and funding choices
- Investing and understanding dividends and curiosity
- Appreciating the time worth of cash
- Negotiating pay and the way to receives a commission what you’re value
- Dwelling on a price range
- Evaluating the prices of shopping for and proudly owning a automotive
And way more
I hope this weblog submit evokes you to consider methods to coach your teenager about private funds. Listed here are some useful assets I’ve discovered:
Monetary Literacy books
Monetary Literacy Applications
Discover Different MainStreet posts
As Joline Godfrey says, “Monetary literacy shouldn’t be concerning the cash however launching nice youngsters!”
