Page 80 - Book2E

Teach kids to manage money, so they don’t become debt-ridden adults.
—Oprah Winfrey
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Avoiding trends and brand-name labels . When children enter adolescence, they are concerned about what their friends are doing and buying. Consequently, they tend to adopt the spending patterns of their peers, which often means becoming caught up in trends and brand-name labels. This is a good time to demonstrate the importance of comparison shopping when you buy goods and services.
During this time, many teens find jobs such as baby-sitting, lawn mowing, or snow shoveling. They can save the money they earn or spend it for extras such as clothing, accessories, and CDs. It is impor- tant that they have control of their money because their financial
successes and failures will become valuable learning experiences.
If you establish what you as parents are responsible to pay for and what chil- dren will pay for, arguments and stress over brand name or higher priced items could be reduced. Let’s say a child wants a pair of $80 shoes and you can afford $40. You could put your $40 toward the
purchase, and they could come up with the rest. Another option that would discourage expensive purchases would be to set a limit on what you are willing to pay; say $20 towards a pair of shoes for example. The child would then need to make a responsible decision regarding how much he can put towards the purchase. Once “who pays what” is defined, be consistent. It’s amazing how quickly a “must-have” item diminishes in importance when kids know it’s their money they have to spend.
So what do you do if you don’t like the way your teenager manages money? According to the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, impressions about money are formed at an early age, so if you are concerned about your teenager’s money management habits, you need to consider that child’s history with money matters for clues.
Teaching Children About Money