Teaching Teens About Finances

$109 Billion. That's how much American teens spend each year. "Parents can help their children learn how to save and more importantly, to live within their means," says Carole Prather, extension specialist in consumer and family economics at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Teach your children about money and you'll be teaching lessons that go beyond balancing a checkbook. Teenagers who learn good money management skills learn to delay gratification, set goals, make decisions and be independent. They learn that work has rewards and to get rewards you have to work.

So how do parents approach a subject as touchy as money? Openly. Lay it all out on the table. Talk about it. Discuss the interest garnered in a savings plan and the interest paid when buying on credit. Then give teens a heady dose of reality by showing them the family ledger.

Source: "Parents should teach teens about finances," Palmyra Spectator, April 26, 1995, p. 8; Carole Prather (Bozworth), state consumer & family economics specialist, University of Missouri - Outreach and Extension.

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