teaching teens – Page 2

Teaching Children About Money

Posted on April 21, 2022 by Tim Connolly

Whether you’re teaching money management to children, or those of a loved one, it’s absolutely essential to teach children how to handle the money they have and invest for the future.

Spending

An understanding of spending, including the ability to budget for and track it, is perhaps the most essential money skill you can teach to a child. Children need to recognize that purchases cost money and that money is in limited supply—they can’t just buy everything they want.

They must plan ahead so that they can afford everything they need, and this is why a budget is a necessity. It’s important to acknowledge that budgeting always involves making adjustments. They shouldn’t expect to get it right the first time.

Spending Activities

Spending Simulation: For younger kids, you can simulate the experience of spending to teach them about tradeoffs. Give your child some money (maybe $5) and set up a small, at-home store. The store could include one item that will cost the whole $5, a few between $2 and $3, and multiple small things for $1 or less.

These items can be small toys, treats, or even “coupons” for extra time playing games or a movie night. The point isn’t what they’re buying, but that the child recognizes that they can’t get everything—they’ll have to prioritize what they want most. Repeat the store every so often, perhaps with money they earn instead, to see how their understanding grows.

Expense Tracking: For older kids, help them track all of their spending for a week or month. They can do it on a piece of paper, a spreadsheet, or even an app. At the end of the tracking period, have them evaluate all of their choices.

Did they spend more than they expected? Less? What would they like to change? Help them create a target for the next period and suggest ways they can improve. Repeat the process to see what changes. You may even offer a reward if your child is able to meet a goal you agree on.

Saving

It’s important for children to understand that saving is the secret to getting what they want. In order to do that, they need to recognize the difference between dumping money into an abstract savings fund and saving with a purpose. When it comes to the actual act of saving, teach that creating (and sticking to) goals is key.

They may choose to save a regular percentage of their income or a certain amount each month. As an incentive to focus on saving, consider making a matching contribution by adding 50 cents for every dollar your child saves.

Saving Activities

Create a Savings Goal: Help your child set a saving goal. Children’s goals vary a ton based on their age, but might include toys, sports equipment, electronic devices, special clothes, or other big-ticket items. Let them discover for themselves that not all goals are worth the time and effort it takes to reach them.

Once they’ve set a goal, create a clear way for them to track their progress. The more visible, the better. For example, a jar in the living room or a paper chain that you cut pieces off of for each milestone. This will remind them of their goal and give you both the chance to celebrate progress.

Open a Savings Account: Take a trip to your bank or credit union and help your child open their first savings account. You can even ask an expert at the financial institution to explain how interest works and why it’s wise to store your money in an account. Encourage your child to ask other questions about how financial institutions work.

You may even choose to contribute a little to help get their fund started. But remember, the child needs to learn how important it is to regularly add money to the account. Interest won’t be enough on its own to reach their goals.

Investing

Investing is a powerful financial tool that everyone should understand. The sooner you start teaching your kids the basics, the better! Help your children understand that the goal is to buy when things are inexpensive and sell when they’re worth more. Investing is often done by buying stocks (very small parts of a company).

The stocks are worth more when the company is doing well and less when the company is struggling. Since you own part of the company, you may also get payments when that company earns a lot of money. As the child gets older, you can touch on more complex aspects of investing.

Investing Activities

Track the Stock Market: Have your child pick a few brands that they like such as their favorite cereal, sports equipment, soft drink, or gaming company. Once they’ve picked two or three, go to the company websites or a general financial site and show them how to track the stocks.

You can also point out news articles about the company and have them predict how that will affect their stocks. For example, if a sports drink company decides to stop producing a popular flavor, you can discuss how that may lead to a drop in their stocks. Track how the stocks change to see if your child’s guesses were right or wrong.

Start Investing: Get your child actively involved in investing by “selling” some of your shares to them. For example, if you’re planning to buy 200 shares of a particular company and you have two children, buy 202.

Sell the extra shares to each child either at the price you paid or a discounted price if it’s too high. You can keep track of the children’s shares in a separate register so they can follow what happens and earn some money if the stocks do well. (Be willing to buy the shares back if they prove disappointing.)

Keep Teaching

These topics and activities are meant to help your child form a foundation of financial literacy. Once your child begins to master these topics, expand to others. You could teach about the 3 jar method, the 50/30/20 rule, and more! What’s most important is that you keep an open conversation with your child about money and the importance of managing it carefully.

teaching kids about money, teaching teens, Teaching Teens About Money

Teaching Your Kids About Money

Posted on April 21, 2022 by Tim Connolly

In a world bent on enticing kids with the trendiest fashions, newest gadgets, and tastiest treats, how can moms and dads work on teaching kids about money? How can they equip their children to survive financially? Those are good questions.

Especially in view of the fact that most family calendars don’t leave room for detailed discussions of money management. “Ain’t nobody got time for that!” Right?

Not necessarily. As a matter of fact, if you take your role as a parent seriously, you’ve probably already sensed that raising money-smart kids is important.

More than that, you probably know that somehow or other, you’ve got to find or make the time to broach this subject with them before they’re old enough to launch out on their own.

We’re here to tell you that teaching kids about money can be easier – and a lot more fun – than you think.

Foundation: Biblical Perspectives and Principles

We have several activities to suggest that should make teaching kids about money a process as smooth and enjoyable as possible. We’ll provide fun things you and your kids can do together to help the whole family gain a firmer handle on the mechanics of money management.

Teaching Kids About Money: A Solid Conceptual Foundation

But before getting down to nuts and bolts, we need to begin by laying a solid conceptual foundation for the project. The Scripture says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” In no area is this quite so obvious as in the way we approach our finances.

Application: Putting Beliefs and Ideals to Work

The next seven things you’ll want to know regarding teaching kids about money are more “hands-on” in nature. These are habits to ingrain and cultivate in your child’s daily behavior rather than ideas to instill in his or her mind. Here they are, along with our suggestions for some fun and simple ways to put them into practice.

1. Tithing and Giving

The Importance of Tithing and Giving. Because God owns it all, His wishes, desires, and priorities are the first thing we need to take into account when figuring out what to do with our money. God is Love and expresses His love through free, unmerited grace. So, it stands to reason that generous giving – both to the ministry of the church and to individuals in need – should be central to teaching kids about money.

Activity. You can teach the importance of giving by organizing a family mission project. We don’t necessarily mean traipsing off to the jungle. Simply give your kids contact with people who have more physical and economic needs than your family does. This could mean delivering meals for a food ministry or “Meals on Wheels” project.

Or, how about volunteering to serve in a soup kitchen or homeless shelter? It could also mean getting involved with Habitat for Humanity. You could also sponsor a needy child in another country through an organization like World Vision or Compassion International.

2. The Rewards of Work

Activity. A good way to drive this point home is to hire your kids to do tasks around the house. Even if they get a regular allowance, you can still give them an opportunity to earn extra money by working for it. Post a list of chores on your refrigerator or family bulletin board. Call it your “For Hire” list.

Beside each job, include the amount to be paid for the work and how frequently it can be done. For example, pulling weeds (once a month in summer), scrubbing the tub or shower (once a week), cleaning out the garage (twice a year), or washing the car (as needed).

Let your child know that paid labor is evaluated by inspecting his or her work after it’s done. Also, explain that you will reduce the pay if the quality of the work doesn’t meet your expectations. (Note: the ideal “chores for hire” are the occasional ones requiring extra effort. These are not the routine ones like clearing the table or making the bed.)

3. The Wisdom of Saving

The third habit we want our kids to develop is putting aside a portion of their money in savings. As we’re teaching kids about money, they should be trained to see the value and importance of delayed gratification. Remember the story of the Grasshopper and the Ant. Help your kids understand that the definition of financial maturity is “giving up today’s desires for future benefits.” As Proverbs 21:20 puts it, “In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.”

Activity. There are several things you can do to help your children grow up to be savvy savers. The simplest is to buy them a piggy bank and encourage them to use it. You can also encourage them to open a “Home Savings Account.” With that you can pay them interest on cash deposits they entrust to your safekeeping. You can call the interest a “reward for savings” if it makes things simpler).

4. The Necessity of Budgeting

Let’s face it – most of us don’t have an endless supply of money. If kids are to succeed in this world, they’re going to have to know how to work with limited resources. That’s the guiding concept behind budgeting. Perhaps the simplest budgeting system ever devised by the human mind was Grandma’s cookie jar.

For Grandma, there was no such thing as an extended line of credit. When the money in the jar was gone, the spending was over. If your children can grasp that idea, they’ll learn to steward their cash with greater thought and care. As Proverbs says, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty” (Proverbs 21:5).

Activity. Ron and Judy Blue’s Envelope System is one of the best tools around for teaching kids how to budget. Here’s how it works. Beginning about age eight, give each child a recipe file box containing five letter-sized envelopes: a Tithe envelope, a Save envelope, a Spend envelope, a Gifts envelope, and a Clothes envelope. In each envelope put the cash amount that you as parents have budgeted for the item in question for the current month.

5. The Cost of Consumption

The Cost of Consumption. This is simply another aspect of the challenge of working with limited resources. When we talk about the cost of consumption, we’re acknowledging that everything is a trade-off. If you spend a certain amount of money today, you’ll have that much less to spend tomorrow.

And due to the principle of compounded interest, the cost or trade-off isn’t dollar for dollar. In actuality, one dollar spent today removes multiple dollars – dollars that might have been gained through savings or investments – from your future resources.

Activity. As we’re teaching kids about money, identify an item that your children tend to waste money on – for example, candy, ice cream, or video games. Ask them how much the item costs. When they answer, say, “That’s how much it costs today.

6. Shopping Smart

Shopping Smart. Kids (and adults) who understand the cost of consumption will weigh potential purchases more carefully – like the celebrated “Proverbs 31 woman.” “She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar … She sees that her trading is profitable” (Proverbs 31:13-14, 18). They’ll learn quickly that by being smart shoppers, they’ll have more money available to do other things.

Activity. Advertisers of cars, big-screen TVs, and boats rarely mention the actual purchase price of the items they’re selling. Instead, they say, “Only $399.00 per month.” Examine some of these ads with your children. Read the fine print to find out the total cost of the item and how many monthly payments would be required to complete the purchase.

Compute the total amount of these payments. Then, compare it with the price you’d be paying if you simply saved up your money and bought the car or TV for cash. Your kids will be amazed at the difference.

7. Goal Setting

Goal Setting. As kids get older, you can use the Envelope System to teach them the wisdom and value of setting long-term as well as short-term goals. Even an eleven-year-old boy can understand that if he doesn’t spend the money he earns during the summer, he can save enough to buy a car by the time he’s sixteen.

teaching kids about money, teaching teens

TEACH YOUR TEENAGER TO WORK WISELY WITH MONEY

Posted on April 21, 2022 by Tim Connolly

Children and teenagers have to be shown and taught how to deal with money. We are advised that ‘The love of money is the root of all evil’. The source of this wisdom is the Book of Timothy in the Bible.

This well-known adage is often misquoted as, ‘Money is the root of all evil’, which does not mean the same at all. It is greed and corruption and the misuse of money which can cause trouble for us, not the cold, hard cash or credit cards in your wallet

According to your family’s wishes and beliefs, it is a good idea for children to learn to manage small amounts of money and experience having to budget for items they want. We know that we are living in a world where many young people feel entitled to have everything they want or at least everything their friends have.

Not every family has the same financial means and children should be taught to understand that fact. Teach kids about money and not to show off with it.

Decide on a reasonable allowance

Decide as a parent, with your teenager, what would be a reasonable weekly allowance. Receiving a weekly amount, to begin with may be better than a monthly sum, which may seem large and be squandered initially.

Just like all adults, all children are different, so watch without interfering, how your teenager manages money in the early stages. The amount to give depends on the parent and also on what you expect your teen to buy with this allowance.

Do you give your teen a separate budget for cellphone use, or to buy family gifts? Those details need to be negotiated between you and your teenager. Teenagers are usually still at school and either living at home or in the boarding house at school. They should not have to pay for their daily lunches at the tuck shop at school from their allowance.

To avoid this expensive trap, pack an interesting and healthy lunchbox and provide a water bottle for school every day. If the teenager wants to buy something at the tuckshop sometimes, then that item should come from their allowance.

Doing chores to earn an allowance

Many parents believe that teenagers should do chores around the home in exchange for an allowance. These chores could include cleaning the house, taking care of the garden or swimming pool, or feeding the family’s pets. A lot of teens also do the cooking at home if a parent is busy at work, or with younger siblings.

Some parents are stricter than others and will deduct from an allowance for tasks not performed satisfactorily. Doing work in exchange for an allowance can teach responsibility and give your teen a taste of what the real world will be like. Everyone needs to learn to perform basic tasks like ironing a shirt or polishing school shoes.

Teaching your teenager to budget

It is reasonable to expect a teenager to budget for non-school clothing and entertainment, such as movies or treats with friends. If they want to buy more expensive items of clothing, they should learn to save their allowance and budget. This is good training for when they are adults and working and earning their own money for the first time.

Teach your teenager to work wisely with money and save a small amount every month. Allow them to learn the value of money while still in the safety of home. Encourage them not to be extravagant or to waste money unnecessarily. Enjoy and use your money carefully, but don’t LOVE it

teaching kids about money, teaching teens, Teaching Teens About Money

HOW TO RAISE FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE CHILDREN

Posted on April 13, 2022April 13, 2022 by Tim Connolly

Have you ever spent time thinking about your own financial decisions growing up as a teenager and young adult? Even more so, have you spent time thinking about your financial mistakes?

How do we help our children not make these same mistakes? It starts with education. I’ve seen a lot of posts on Facebook over the past few years commenting on how parents wish high schools taught basic financial tasks such as check balancing, how to complete taxes, how to budget etc.

While that could be a helpful class, when it comes down to it – teaching our kids these tasks are our responsibility.

So when do you start? Right away. Kids are never too young. You can start with an allowance. Your child can be paid a small sum that increases annually likened to a raise, possibly on their birthday?

With that allowance, many lessons can be taught. For example, maybe one-third of the allowance is placed into a savings account that is going toward their first car, apartment or college when they reach that point.

Make sure you go to a brick-and-mortar bank or credit union with your child to open the account so they feel the ownership involved. Another third goes toward giving of some kind whether that be at your church if you attend one, or a charity the child feels called toward, such as Toys for Tots once the holiday season hits.

Deciding what causes to donate to can provide a valuable family conversation. The last third could go toward whatever they choose to spend it on – toys, video games, books, treats, activities etc.

There are increasingly fewer ways to model financial tasks or decisions in our ever more digital world, where writing out a check has become a rare occurrence. Taking advantage of opportunities to have your kiddo help plan your vacation, or tag along when in the market for a new car, or even when making a house purchase are great learning opportunities.

You can teach the need to shop around, negotiate, marketing tactics to avoid, and the importance of sometimes sitting on a decision before acting too brashly.

While it can be difficult to relinquish control, learning and mastery of a skill takes guidance, practice, and patience.

Give older kids a turn maintaining the family budget, reviewing what groceries you need to buy for meals, how much they cost, and then how much is left in the budget for eating out or extra activities after grocery shopping.

Or teach them to pump gas and see how much it costs to drive them to soccer practice each week or to school daily. When it’s tax season, sit them down with you and show them how it’s done!

Another easy time to include your children in basic financial decisions is back-to-school shopping. You can show them how if you have set aside exactly $100 for new clothes and shoes, it can buy varying amounts of items depending on what brands, which stores, if there are sales. They can get anywhere from 1 pair of shoes, 2 shirts, and 1 pair of pants up to double or triple that amount with savvy shopping.

Sometimes certain experiences and hands-on exercises will do more good than any lecture ever could. As a parent, modeling gratitude, giving and restraint with smart financial decisions will also provide a huge indicator of how your child will act as an adult.

Anyone with a toddler or young child shopping at a grocery store is familiar with the “please, please, please” of the requests for every snack, candy or sugary cereal that you pass in the aisles. These then turn into requests for video game systems or expensive clothes etc. Sometimes saying no can be what’s best for our children.

It hurts us as parents to see our children fail or make mistakes, however, sometimes those lessons are better teachers than we can be in certain situations. It’s better for a child to make a mistake and learn from it, than to not make a financial mistake until adulthood when it affects credit, living situations, job prospects and many other aspects of their life.

With those that have children with specific developmental delays or disabilities, it can be helpful to discuss with a therapist how these same principles can still be instilled in your children.

In all reality, we are all doing our best and mistakes will be made along the way by both parent and child. We can do our best to focus on how to teach kids about money, smart financial decisions including delayed gratification, savings techniques, and how to give back.

teaching kids about money, teaching teens, Teaching Teens About Money

THE FINANCIAL LITERACY CRISIS

Posted on April 13, 2022 by Tim Connolly

Money management for children is something that is very important. Many of the decisions we make strongly depend on our understanding of money.

Financial literacy is a bit lacking in the US, however. Many people enter adulthood without a firm grasp of it.

And yet, most of us deal with money every day. Whether it’s paying bills, applying for a credit card, or investing, we’re constantly exposed to money.

FINANCIAL LITERACY IN THE UNITED STATES

To understand the reality of financial literacy in the United States, it helps to consider how it’s taught in schools. More and more data is being gathered to help us understand the gaps.

Champlain is far from the only organization taking notice. During its 1A program, NPR cited a 2018 study from the University of Illinois. The study found that 36 percent of students were financially at risk.

And according to Next Gen Personal Finance, only 16 percent of high school students are required to take a personal finance course in order to graduate.

In 2012, FINRA found that as many as 56% of people did not have a rainy day fund.

There are endless statistics that could be used to gauge the overall picture, but most of them suggest there is much work to be done.

LEGISLATION CHANGES IN THE US

It’s not all bad news, however. We are slowly seeing legislation changes throughout the US. As a result, more high schools are requiring students to complete at least one personal finance course.

THE INCREASING STUDENT LOAN BURDEN

Recently, we are seeing more headlines around the total student loan debt. Currently, the total stands around $1.6 trillion.

There are many reasons the student loan burden is growing. One reason is that the cost of college is rising much faster than inflation. Another could be that wages of new college graduates have stagnated relative to inflation.

While we cannot point to anyone cause of this growing problem, lack of financial literacy could play a role. Because the cost of college is rising, students are taking on an increasing amount of debt to help pay for it.

Students continue to take on debt because they expect it to pay off in the long run. This is generally still true, but the rising cost of college means growing student loan amounts.

And new high school graduates may not understand the implications of so much debt. They may be able to see the numbers on paper, but that is just one small piece of the picture.

What they may not be considering is how their student loans will fit in with all their other expenses. They may also have rent/mortgage, a car payment, insurance, food, and a slew of other costs.

CREDIT CARD USE

Another form of consumer debt that is on the rise is credit card debt. More and more people are turning to credit cards, even just for basic expenses.

In many ways, credit cards can be more harmful than student loans. One of the main ways they can cause problems is their high-interest rates. It’s well-known that credit cards have high-interest rates, yet people are relying on them more than ever.

One point worth noting from the article above is that Baby Boomers and Generation X have the most credit card debt. That means Millennials – the younger generation – have less.

Nevertheless, the rise of credit card debt is concerning. Interest rates can make them increasingly difficult to repay. This can cause the problem to spiral in some cases.

This is something to keep an eye on – particularly if we see an economic downturn in the near future.

LEARNING FINANCIAL LITERACY RETROACTIVELY

Because many young adults don’t learn a lot about money in life, they end up learning about it only after a significant misstep. This could come in the form of a lot of student loan debt or a mortgage. Or it could come from being a bit too reliant on credit cards.

Whatever the case may be, most of us eventually end up understanding the importance of financial literacy. Given that we deal with it just about everyday, it makes sense understanding money is important.

WHEN SHOULD WE START EDUCATING STUDENTS?

A question that is often asked when considering earlier financial education is when students should start learning about money. But there is not one straightforward answer to this question.

There are many ways students could start learning these concepts earlier. When teaching younger students basic math, we could have them do so using pennies.

Healthy Money Habits, teaching kids about money, teaching teens

Financial Literacy and The Importance of Teaching Children and Young Adults About Money

Posted on April 13, 2022 by Tim Connolly

Due to the pandemic, many of us are facing the reality that our children are not going to be headed back to school in the Fall and instead will most likely continue with virtual learning.

There are many creative and engaging ways to teach life lessons outside of the classroom, even if you are not a certified teacher! One area that is important to talk about with children at any age is finances.

The sad truth is that most children are growing up without any financial education whatsoever, whether at home or at school. Since 2016, not one U.S. state has added personal finance to the K-12 standards.

This lack of financial basics is creating long-term negative effects. For example, nearly one-fourth of millennials are spending more money than they earn and 67% of Gen Yers have less than 3 months’ worth of savings in emergency funds.

Studies show that children benefit from learning how money works, beginning at a very young age. These are just a few of the benefits that come from financial literacy:

A better understanding of the United States and the world economy
Young adults who open a savings account as a child tend to have more assets as adults
Kids who spend and handle money on their own (with their parents’ supervision) tend to be more self-confident about money once they are on their own and less anxious about their finances
Greater chance your child will save for retirement
Shown to have a reduced amount of personal debt as an adult and a lower likelihood of using high-cost methods of borrowing

While many parents understand that there is value in teaching their kids about money, they often are not sure where or how to start. These are three ways to think about teaching your children about money:

Demonstrate and demystify the relationship between work and money: You can do this by including kids in family budget discussions. Meal times are a great time to talk to kids about money.

If you are planning a family vacation, for example, have them research how much items cost. They can look up airline flights, car rental rates, hotel options, local activities, etc.

Open a savings account with your child: A perfect opportunity to teach children about budgeting and saving is when they receive money from special events or birthdays.

Consider taking your child with you to the bank to open the account or having them help make online deposits. You can have them split the received money into thirds: a third can be used on themselves, a third given to a charity, and a third put into a bank account.

Also consider letting your child invest their money in the stock market. You can let them pick the stock the money is invested in. I remember investing in McDonald’s when I was in third grade! I was so excited as my mom explained that I would have a VERY small ownership in the company.

Then, each quarter, she would show me my account statement and I could see how the value would go up and down. These examples are powerful ways you can show children the power of compounding as well as build their confidence in saving for the future.

Play games involving money: Money-themed board games like Monopoly or Life are engaging, memorable introductions into understanding how money works. Play store or restaurant and include your children when you make trips to the bank or ATM machine.

As women business owners, teaching financial education to kids, especially to daughters, is very important.

Studies consistently find that women have lower financial literacy levels than men, even after accounting for marital status, education and income. This gender gap in financial literacy is observed throughout women’s lives. However, as parents we can stop this trend.

Parents are likely to pass down good and bad financial habits to their kids. Parents who discuss financial topics with their kids at least once a week are significantly more likely to have kids who say they are smart about money

teaching kids about money, teaching teens, Teaching Teens About Money

Teaching Finance to Teens

Posted on April 13, 2022 by Tim Connolly

Let’s start with the WHY:

Why We Need to Teach Teens Personal Finance

Here’s a scary fact for you: In the U.S., 40% of people have not set themselves up financially to afford even a $400 unexpected expense in case of an emergency.

Even more startling, nearly HALF of American families have a total retirement savings of $0. Wow.

Our young adults (and some older families as well) are DEEP in debt. We’re a financial mess!

Some experts argue that when teens are not taught beneficial money management, they are more impressionable and might develop their parents’ habits and relationships with money, good or bad. If we teach money management to children, they’re more likely to adopt a better relationship with money and develop better habits that will stick for life.

And sadly, what happens in a young adult’s financial life reaches into their personal life and health as well. Those who start to struggle with debt or have managed their money poorly end up more likely to battle stress and depression, have a higher risk of suicide, and even begin to see a negative impact on physical health.

Even our smartest teens and young adults are not equipped to start out their adult financial life on the right foot. Then dive into the

How to Teach Personal Finance to Teens

After learning more and more about what a massive problem this is becoming for our young Americans, I gathered a lot of input from students, parents, and teachers all across the U.S.

I’ve been getting really passionate about teaching this topic properly. Most of our middle schools and high schools are not integrating a complete personal finance class.

And those that are teaching a financial literacy course are having some challenges with getting it started.

Either they have to develop their own curriculum, or they’re given a standard financial “coursework” collection that is incredibly dry and hard to plow through. Not much is out there that is engaging for kids, collected in one complete sequential course, and actually designed with the learner in mind.

So I got down to business. I connected with teens, parents, and educators to collect all the info I needed on what would be a good fit. Then I started dreaming up the right blend of content and creativity, while incorporating all the brain research on how teen minds learn and remember!

Here are the tips and resources that I came up with to address these challenges and teach our teens the financial topics they need to know as they transition into adulthood.

TIPS:

1. Make it relevant. Teens are not going to feel connected to content that comes from a bank website, or is fed to them by an investment company’s “curriculum for personal finance.” Instead, print out some pictures of real cars that are for sale.

Allow them to choose the vehicle they’d want to purchase or lease in real life, according to their own preferences. Let them pick which home they’d like to rent or buy, and then use those real prices to set up the example.

Compare the lease prices and purchase prices over the long term and let them see how it actually works out. This will feel like a much more relevant practice example because it offers a “sneak peek” that feels closer to their present situation.

Teen brains are still developing, and lack the long-term perspective that allows them to really “see” their future selves. Buying a car feels more realistic than trying to imagine a future self as an investor or participant in a retirement account.

Along the same lines, when you show the time-value of money, focus in on the younger self and the feelings or imaginary statements that each investor would make. It’s hard for a young brain to relate to the “retired” person’s situation. They’ll internalize the lesson better by seeing what that person wishes they did as a 20 year old.

2. Show the possibilities and potential that can be within their reach. Draw in the teens who may feel like this is not for them. Instead of plowing through dry online content from financial experts, address your teens specifically.

Show them the stats to let them see how attainable “wealth” really is. For example, the page below has students representing certain stats from a survey of people with “high net worth” ($3 million +). Students discover that these millionaires for the most part grew up poor or middle class!

Then they see that the majority of them don’t have what you would imagine a millionaire’s yearly income would be. In fact, a quarter of them made LESS than $200k a year and still achieved a net worth of 3 million dollars or more! Suddenly, the students start to see that true wealth is not outside their reach, even if they are currently in a poor family.

They realize that wealth is about what you KEEP, not what you spend (and not even what you earn each year!) These stats make this content feel much more relevant to teens and worth learning.

This gets them really excited! Maybe your students never thought of themselves as the type of people who could become financially stable! It may have felt so far out of reach that they just tuned this type of content out before.

But now they may see that their choices over the next few years will be what sets them up for their financial future. This can make a world of difference for some students. They move on to set goals and see how to make this happen for themselves. Making these lessons relevant and actually ATTAINABLE goes a long way toward engaging students in learning personal finance.

3. Get hands-on. You can do this in so many ways with teens! Engage those brains by incorporating real practice. Get them invested! In the coursebook I developed, for example, it gets really interactive. Kids have to select one of two common budget proportions and make a chart of their own personal needs, wants, and savings goals.

Then, they break it down even further and have to get creative with representing their own budget! They end up with a color-coded pie chart with their own patterns to represent each sub-category and what percent it takes up.

They also have to make an entire flowchart of the payroll process to understand withholdings, W2s and W4s, and even take a look at filing taxes with a sample tax table as they learn about the 1040. Each step of learning finance needs to be interactive and allow for creative student OUTPUT, so they’re not just absorbing information, they’re actually synthesizing!

4. Include guided goal setting. I like to have kids pick a passion other than their own personal wishes to work toward. They pick a role model who supports a charity or cause, and they select their own “wealth-building” goals that go beyond their own personal bubble. Although teens can have a tendency to be self-absorbed in some ways, they also often have a real desire to make the world a better place. Focus their dreams on making an impact.

Our teens are amazing change-makers, and they will get just as excited about being a good steward for their money as they will about having personal wealth to spend! Take advantage of this and use a more selfless approach toward building wealth. Turn it around to show what they can do with it for the greater good.

Each student selects personal causes that they are passionate about, and dreams up goals of what they can do with their time and money. It’s a great way to show that good financial habits can impact the world, not just become a selfish pursuit.

Teach Kids About Money, Teach Teens, teaching kids about money, teaching teens

7 Tips to Teach Your Child to Save Money

Posted on March 23, 2022 by Tim Connolly

Focusing on how to teach kids about money has always been important to me. I have always been a saver. Thanks to my parents, they taught me the basics at a young age. That’s why I strongly believe in the importance of teaching kids about money at an early age. I still remember the day my dad sat me down and showed me their bank account statement.

He taught me the importance of saving money by showing me how it actually works. And if it weren’t for my parents doing that, I wouldn’t be the person I am today when it comes to personal finance. That lesson always stuck with me and I have only become a better saver because of it. Here are tips on how to teach your child to save money.

1. Discuss Wants vs. Needs

It’s important to teach your kids that the hot new video game they want is a luxury and that the food they eat every day is a need. They shouldn’t be spoiled and not realize the importance of a dollar so they don’t waste money.

Needs are a roof over their head, a warm bed at night, food, water, and a loving family. Wants are that shiny new bike, video games, or the latest tablet or smartphone

2. Let Them Earn Their Own Money

Chores will play a big role in letting your kids earn their own money. In case you forgot, there usually is no free lunch. So if they want a new toy or electronic, have them clean up around the house, take out the trash, or even help with dinner.

This will instill the value of money and let them know how important it is to work in order to attain money. So next time Christmas rolls around and they get their Christmas gifts they will realize how much hard work it took to get those.

3. Set Savings Goals

Learning to save money at a young age is such an important thing to learn for them. Letting your children store their money in a savings account would ideally be the best route to take.

You can set a savings goal of $100 for a brand new bike they want, and if they have an allowance of $10 a week, teach them how long it would take to reach that goal.

4. Provide a Place to Save

Your kid needs a place to save their money — and it can be better than a piggy bank (unless they are younger). There are savings accounts or checking accounts for children that can really help them learn more about saving money.

If they have a tablet or smartphone they can see how much money is adding up each time they save. You can even teach them about money-saving apps to help them learn more ways to save.

5. Leave Room for Mistakes

Just remember that kids aren’t perfect, they are learning things for the first time so they won’t always make smart financial moves as a child. And they won’t really understand the value of money and the value of saving from the beginning. However, with patience and the right teaching style, the insights will trickle down to your little one.

6. Talk About Money

Simply talk about money. Teach them about banks, how to save, ways to earn extra money as a child, how to budget, the stock market, saving for college, and how the economy works. Sure, you may not be a personal finance expert, but you probably know enough to teach them the basics to start.

7. Teach Them About Investing

If you really wanted them to learn about personal finance then investing would be a smart route to take. You could open a brokerage account in your own name and place the money they saved in the account and work with them and teach them about trading stocks.

While this may take more time to learn, it will have a lasting effect on your child’s future. What kid in middle school knows how to invest (I sure didn’t).

Financial Advice, financial education, teaching teens, Teaching Teens About Money

Teaching Kids About Money in a Creative Way

Posted on March 23, 2022 by Tim Connolly

Only 23% of kids say they talk to their parents regularly about money, according to survey results shared by Money Confident Kids.

In a 2014 survey of 15-year-olds in the United States, the Organization for Economic Co‑operation and Development found that 18% did not learn fundamental financial skills that are often applied in everyday situations, such as building a simple budget, comparison shopping, and understanding an invoice.

That’s quite a sizable knowledge gap for an age set poised to start driving a car and applying for college and student loans.

Military families often have an abundance of opportunities for teaching teens about money. Each time you move to a new location or buy a new home, for example, you usually need to create a new budget surrounding the current cost of living and any changes in parental employment and housing expenses. Situations like these are excellent opportunities to involve kids in real-world money talks.

If talking to your kids about money is a goal you have been thinking about, here are a few simple steps and resources to help you get started.

Start bringing kids into the conversation, rather than saving financial talks for when they’re out of the room. It’s okay to have budget conversations with your spouse in front of your children, including talking about paying the monthly bills or saving money for your upcoming PCS move.

You’ll be a healthy role model for your kids. A good friend who runs her own company from home often lets her 8-year-old son help “run the business” by involving him and talking to him about the finances, including reviewing income and expenses.

It’s all great exposure to terminology and critical thinking, plus it adds so much more meaning to the work our kids see us do on a daily basis.

Make money more visible. For most of us, paper money is seldom used as much as it used to be. With so many of our financial tasks handled online or automatically, kids can miss out on the exchange altogether, if we don’t point out what’s happening.

Whether you decide to take out cash from the ATM and let your child count it or manage it for a few days, or you have them sit with you while you pay a few bills or look at your bank account online, you’re helping them to learn valuable lessons in money management.

Add a fun spin by pulling out the foreign coins and bills you’ve collected on your military travels to show how money looks different around the world.

Involve them in making a purchase. For little kids, a great first experience could be to pick out a small something together at the coffee shop or grocery store. You can point out the price tag (or show that there are several options and discuss how you might choose between them).

Then, you can help them count the cash or change to buy a piece of candy or a drink, let them present it to the cashier, and allow them to make the change. Involving them in an everyday purchase like this can help them tune into the exchange of money for a good or service.

For an older child, focus on the research and decision-making involved in making a bigger purchase, such as a new lawnmower, annual vacation, or family car.

Start with one small goal or improvement. Maybe you’ve wanted to talk about money with your kids and are ready to get started, but the teaching points seem overwhelming.

Don’t worry about stock trading on the first day. You can accomplish a lot just by making one small, intentional change—such as bringing money into your daily conversation. Pick a natural time each day to share with your kids about money:

While…

making a grocery list, chat about including seasonal produce rather than items priced at a premium.
sorting sales flyers from the mail, discuss temptations to buy or the concept of a bargain.
paying an invoice, show how you pay some bills by check and others online.
depositing a paycheck and checking your account balance, talk about reasons you move some of the funds to your savings.
updating your budget to reflect new expenses after a recent PCS move, discuss cost of living in different areas and/or typical household expenses.
researching options for a larger purchase, discuss ways to pay or finance and how these options impact your monthly budget over time.

These are all good opportunities to a practice involving kids in the process by asking questions and soliciting their ideas and input.

At any age, there are valuable lessons you can teach your children about money. Even as adults, often the first place we direct a financial question is to our parents.

You are unquestionably qualified to prepare your kids with the important foundations of money management.

teaching kids about money, teaching teens, Teaching Teens About Money

Guidelines for Teaching Kids About Money

Posted on March 23, 2022 by Tim Connolly

If you’ve followed along for the last little bit, I’ve shared lots of guidelines on 30days. As I’ve mentioned in each post, these ideas come from research and curiosity as my kids grow older. I want them to be self-sufficient, successful adults and hope to teach them the important stuff before they leave my home. Today’s edition is about money.

Teaching Kids About Money

It’s not the first time I’ve talked about money. I want to get a little more into the Knitty gritty of what is appropriate for kids to know and at what age. As always, these are guidelines. There are some kids that are extremely responsible and there are some that need more guidance.

Take what works for you and apply it to your circumstances. I read that basic money habits are set by 7 years old and even as small as 3-year-olds can grasp financial concepts. So it’s never too early to start.

And if your kids are older, it’s never too late to learn. As an adult, I still struggle with some of these concepts. That’s why my goal is to help provide financial education for kids and let them understand the importance of being financially savvy.

The main things I want my kids to know are:

Wants vs. needs
Money basics- denominations and value
Learning how to account for money
How to save money
How to budget
Credit cards and credit reports

In future posts, I’ll tackle each of these and how I intend on making sure my kids know about them. For now, I want to put it out there as my plan so that I have some accountability in the parenting department.