Teaching Teens Money Management

I recently shared A Year of Teaching Teens Life Skills and February is all about money. From budgeting to monthly bills to credit cards we will be talking with our oldest two about all these things over the next few weeks.

If you are interested in teaching teens money management in your home, here’s my plan and some resources that will help.

Teaching Teens Money Management

Week One: Budgeting for Teens

• Talk about budgeting money for wants and needs. Here’s a great article on Teaching Kids How to Budget that I will be using as a resource.
• Discuss monthly bills you have as an adult and how they come first when budgeting money because cars can be repossessed, utilities shut off, and homes foreclosed on.

Week Two: Banking for Teens

• How to write a check and balance a checkbook.
• Visit the bank and show them how to use the ATM.
• Set-up a savings account.

Week Three: Credit Cards and Student Loans

• Talk about credit cards. How they work, paying attention to interest rates, and how to use credit cards smartly.
•  Talk about credit scores and how they are determined and what they affect. Here’s a great resource for talking to teens about credit scores.
• Discuss different types of student loans and how repayment works. With my daughter starting to look at colleges this is something we are going to be knee deep in soon. I had student loans and wasn’t as smart about them as I should have been. Talking about my experience with her will help her avoid the same mistakes. Here is a great resource for talking to teens about student loans that starts before college visits begin.

Week Four: Paychecks

• Talk about paychecks. How often you get paid, how to cash payroll checks, and what comes out of them.
• Discuss wages and how they can vary with positions and increase with time worked.