It is imperative that teenagers begin to develop financial literacy before they become fully independent. Financial responsibility is an important part of adulthood that can be taught to children and teenagers. Teaching your student about money management while he or she is still a dependent will make the student’s (and your) future more secure.
Adolescents should begin practicing skills such as earning, saving, and even investing money as early as possible.
Financial skills can be practiced, even if the student doesn’t have much money.
Examples of these skills include:
- Tracking and recording spending. Tracking and recording how much one spends, and in which categories the spending occurs, help develop responsible money management skills.
- Developing a savings strategy. Understanding how much one spends on daily items helps teens raise their awareness of the cost of items, and thus the fact that life is expensive. Common items teenagers save money for are phones, cars, and college tuitions.
- Setting limits. While students learn money management skills, it is important that they set financial boundaries in an effort to learn how to budget.
To learn more about how to teach teens financial skills, check out these sites:
- https://money.com/books-money-teen-young-adult/
- https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/teach-teenagers-about-money
- https://money.cnn.com/2018/01/26/pf/money-personal-finance-tips-for-teenagers/index.html