What Your Teenagers Need To Know About Money Before They Graduate High School

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Your child’s high school years will be filled with difficult decisions, sometimes painful life lessons, and a constant feeling of being rushed.

Today the pressure to succeed and the anxiety of all the preparation for life after high school is more overwhelming than ever.

While schools try to lay the groundwork for your teens to handle the academic challenges of college, they don’t teach students how to manage money. That job falls on parents, who may have no idea how to help their teen understand how to handle a budget, how to understand taxes, and how to prioritize spending.

We have put together some tips to help you teach money management to high schoolers.

5 Tips For Teaching Teens About Money

1. Involve Your Teens in the Bill-Paying Process

   Whether you sit down and pay all of your monthly bills in one long session, or you handle individual bills as they come in, let your teens see how bill-paying works.

   Show them how to read the utility bill and calculate the minimum payment due on the credit card. Explain to them how interest and late fees work. Let them balance the checkbook.

   As they get more comfortable with the bills, encourage them to help set budgets for the coming months, or to plan how to save for a sizeable expense (such as that trip to Freshman Orientation or graduation expenses).
    

2. Let your Kids Plan All Meals and Groceries for the Week

   Often, our teenagers have no idea of the actual value of a dollar.

   They may feel resentful because their peers are getting to eat out more often than they are, or because their friend’s families get to indulge in expensive treats more often than they do.

   When this happens, it is essential to put your child in charge of the meal planning and grocery shopping for at least one week. They should be involved in every step of the process, from start to finish.

   Planning meals, putting together a grocery list, shopping for the best choices in food, and putting away the groceries. If time allows, let them help with the preparation, too. This way, they can understand the commitment that comes with cooking food from scratch.
    

3. Encourage Your Children to Work During High School

   Many parents of college-bound kids prefer that their children do not work during high school. They feel that their students’ time will be better spent studying, volunteering, and participating in extra-curricular events.

   While it is true that these types of activities will help influence the college that your child gets in to, working during high school is an important life experience.

   First, it teaches kids how to balance their time. They will have a better understanding of how to work-study time around other commitments. Next, it helps them to get some experience handling money, in an environment where you are still providing a safety net. It is better that they learn about over-spending at home, where they will not be evicted than when they have their first apartment in college. Finally, it gives them some experience, which will be helpful if they are trying to find a job once they get to campus.

   Employment can be very competitive in college towns and having prior experience can make a tremendous difference.
    

4. Ask Your Children Their Plans for Working During College, and Create a Budget to Match

   Many kids who have not worked in high school may think that they can pick up a few hours at the neighborhood Starbucks and pay for all of their college expenses. Even kids who have worked may not realize the depth of the costs that one can incur when they are on their own. Spend an afternoon (or several!) going over their current spending habits in relation to the types of jobs they will be able to hold down while going to school (in a busy college town, a friend’s daughter was asked for a resume when she applied for a job at Burger King).

   Working full-time while going to college is unrealistic for many people, especially during their Freshman year. However, every year, students try to do just that and end up being overwhelmed trying to juggle the responsibilities.
    

5. Be Firm About What You Will Be Paying For

   Let’s face it… some families can cover many more of the college expenses than others.

   However, for your child to better manage their money, they need to be aware of what you will be paying for, and what you will expect them to cover.

   If you can pay tuition but not textbooks, they need to know this, because it will impact how much they need to work and may even necessitate a change in enrollment from full-time to part-time.

   Draw up a budget of expected costs per year and tell your child what you can cover. This, paired with having a job in high school, will help your child be able to set aside money for a few years before college.

Financial responsibility and money management are skills that your children will benefit from learning from an early age.

As you prepare your high schoolers to go out in the world and make their mark, make sure that you include money management on the list of life skills that you need to pass on to them.

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Written by Susan Carraretto, co-founder of 5 Minutes for Mom
Talk with me: @5minutesformom and Facebook.com/5minutesformom
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