Columnist Cassandra Walker
The topic of money management was addressed recently on the teen show “What’s up” on City TV 10.
I was thankful to bring that topic up with our sons.
Sons number three and four are the youngest and are still learning the
concept of money.
“If I clean my room, can I have a dollar?” asked son number 4.
He thinks a dollar can go a long way.
On the teen show, the expert said that teens learn their habits about money from their parents.
Talk about pressure!
We give our children allowance and extra cash when they receive A’s and B’s.
No money for C’s.
It is their responsibility to manage that money and to save some of it for whatever they think is important.
We allow them to lend money to one another as long as they are truthful and pay it back when promised.
So I was very interested in seeing what the expert on this show had to say about teens and money.
He gave these few tips:
Encourage your teen to save a set portion of their income.
Talk about money with your children.
Be a good role model (I added: Don’t be ashamed to talk about past mistakes).
Don’t bail your teen out.
In our home we try to teach the boys how to develop a spending plan. If they just have to buy that video game, we warn them that next week they will be broke.
Of course, son number two has a sense of humor and tells us that he will never be broke because he has us.
Which brought up another topic, moving out.
I informed him that his comfortable room will be vacated by him when he is a grown man.
He won’t always have us to fall back on. He will have to get a job, save and
provide for himself.
At that very moment, son number four walked over to him, stretched out his
hand and said, “Here, you can have my dollar to get you started.”
At least one of them is getting the concept of finances.
Thanks for sharing