Teens, Money And Peer Pressure
By Neale S. Godfrey for New York Life Insurance Company
Peer pressure starts the minute your child begins to have other influences besides you. The first time your little one comes home from pre-school with elaborate and fanciful stories about anything from where the butterflies go in the winter to where babies come from, you can figure that peer influence has begun. And after you carefully and reasonably explain how things really work and they stubbornly insist that the stories they’ve heard from their friends are the real truth, then you know that you’re starting to feel the power of peer pressure.
But the full power, of course, comes when they hit middle school. They begin the preteen and teenage years when the subculture emerges in full flower and your kids seem to disappear inside it, talking a language you don’t understand and blasting the house with music you can’t bear to listen to.
Peer pressure for teens and preteens is a powerful influence. But don’t forget that, as a parent, you are a powerful influence, too, although surely not in the same way that you were when they were three or six years old. Teens are smart. And they’re capable of understanding complex ideas. And they do listen…sometimes more than you think.
When your child comes to you with “Amy’s parents let her stay up till midnight and watch R-rated movies,” or “Benjy’s parents never make him clean out the garage,” it may sound familiar? Of course it does. Those are the same lines we used on our parents. Our parents told us, “Then go live with Amy’s parents,” or simply “Well, that’s not the way we do things here.” And do you remember what we did? There sure weren’t many magazine subscription address changes to “c/o Amy’s parent’s house!”
Kids feel very pressured to “keep up with the Jones’ kids.” The best way to deal with the “Jones’ kids” issue is transparency. The more your kids understand about budgeting, where the money really goes and their own roles in the family, the less likely they’ll be to make extravagant demands to keep up with the Jones’ kids.
And if you really listen to teens talking, you’ll discover they really don’t have very much respect for the mythical Amys and Benjys of the world whose parents spoil them and buy them everything they want.
Another issue facing kids is borrowing and lending. Just as some societies distinguish themselves from the rest of the world by setting up elaborate barter systems, an important element of preteen and teenage custom is borrowing and lending money. You’re not going to change that. But you can discuss it and channel it before it becomes a problem.
One step toward helping your children understand borrowing and lending is to incorporate loans into the Allowance Jar System you’re using. Occasionally, your child will want to buy something that’s “on sale” right now or that is some way a “limited-time opportunity,” like spending when on vacation. The purchase price may not be out of range of their budget—they could easily afford it with four weeks of Medium-Term Savings—but they don’t have the ready cash right now.
But if you loan them the money to buy it, are you caving in and abandoning your system? Certainly not. You can work out a repayment schedule, with just a small rate of interest. After all, you’re not trying to make money off your kids. The interest payment can go into a family vacation fund, for instance. The point is that you want your kids to understand how borrowing and lending work.
You can also use borrowing and lending situations to teach your children about establishing credit. If your child repays the loan on time they’ll be eligible for another, perhaps larger loan later. If not…they become a credit risk and won’t be eligible for another loan until they’ve proven their responsibility to your satisfaction.
When it comes to putting these lessons into practice outside the family, one rule changes right away. If your kids are loaning money to a friend, they shouldn’t charge interest. It’s a bad precedent to set between teenage friends.
The most important thing to teach your child is that money lending is an exchange that has rules. If they’re going to lend money to a friend there should be a clearly defined repayment schedule. Your teen should discuss with the borrowing friend: 1. How much money they want to borrow; 2. What the money is for; and 3. When the loan will be repaid. More importantly, your young lender should know that this transaction is about “money” not “friendship.” The friend may not repay the loan on schedule, for instance. Explain that someone can be your good friend yet still be irresponsible about money. With a contract (even a verbal contract,) clearly understood by both parties, if a borrower fails to keep up their end of the deal, it doesn’t have to spell the end of a friendship. Your teenage lender should make it clear to their friend that there surely won’t be anymore loans available to them. However, another important lesson every lender should know in advance is that they should never lend more than they can afford to lose.
Source: All text by Neale S. Godfrey. All text and characters are the sole property of Children’s Financial Network, Inc. All rights. 2007.
Teens & Saving
By Neale S. Godfrey for New York Life Insurance Company
Do your children like to spend money? Of course they do—who doesn’t? Fleishman-Hillard recently reported that there are 72.3 million children under the age of 18.1 This is a larger group than during the height of the post-WW II baby boom. Spending by teens is currently measured at $180 Billion a year and one in three consumer dollars in the U.S. is either spent or influenced by a teen. That breaks down to approximately $100 a week per teen.2
We need to help our teens be educated about the ways they can manage their own money. Where is the safest place to stash their cash? They can keep it in a piggy bank or they can hide it under their mattress. But if it just sits somewhere they are actually losing money!
If they keep money in a savings account, the bank will pay them interest. And of course the more interest they earn they’re making even more money.
By the time they are five years old, take them to the bank to open a savings account. Children under the age of majority cannot open an account without their parent or guardian. The bank will want identification such as a birth certificate and they will need your children’s Social Security Number. They will have your children fill out a signature card, as well.
Sometimes the bank requires a certain amount of money called a minimum deposit to open an account. The minimum deposit may be as little as $5 or as much as $100 or more. It all depends on the bank you choose.
There are different kinds of savings accounts; each with different features. You should review the different types of accounts with your children and help them choose the one that is best for them.
Statement Savings is the most common bank savings account today. With this type of account, the bank sends your children a statement every month. The statement shows how much money they deposited or withdrew and how much interest they earned in the account.
Some places also may offer Passbook Accounts. The account owner has a book that must be presented to the bank every time a deposit or withdrawal is made. The transaction is posted to the book. Earned interest is also printed in the passbook. Passbook accounts usually pay the same amount of interest as statement savings. Most banks don’t offer Passbook Accounts any longer but some still do.
If your children have some money they don’t plan to use for a while they can buy a Certificate of Deposit (CD). They would deposit money, called principal, in the bank for a specific length of time, such as six months or a year. During that time they are not allowed to withdraw the money. If they do, there is a stiff penalty. Because the bank knows how long it will have the money, it can lend it without worrying about when your kids will need it. Because of this, your young saver will earn more interest than they would in a regular savings accounts.
A Money Market Account is another kind of savings account that pays more interest than a regular savings account and it lets you withdraw money by writing checks. It’s a great deal, but there are some limitations. Your kids can usually write only a limited number of checks each month from this account. Also, money market accounts usually require a large minimum balance. Since you can withdraw your money at any time, banks pay a little less interest for this kind of account than for a CD.
As a parent you can start saving for your children in a special savings account called a Trust Account. Over the years, you can deposit money into it on a regular basis. When the children are old enough (often 21 years old), they take over the account. By then the account has earned a great deal of interest because no money has been withdrawn. The children can use the trust account for big expenses like tuition or a mortgage.
These types of accounts have different names, such as Universal Gift to Minors (UGMA) or Universal Trust To Minors Account (UTMA). The good news is that because the money is in their name the taxes they pay on the interest is lower. The bad news is that legally it’s theirs and if they decide, when they become the age of majority, to buy a car instead of using the money for college, they can.
These basics of banking are important for your child to learn. They are tools they will use throughout their lives.
Source: All text by Neale S. Godfrey; all text and characters are the sole property of Children’s Financial Network, Inc. All rights reserved. 2007.
1, 2 Website: http://www.fleishman.com/capabilities/practice_groups/youth_marketing.html, as of 1/2007.
Let’s Organize
By Neale S. Godfrey for New York Life Insurance Company
No, this is not a union organizing cry for your teen or young adult. Organizing is a very practical way for them to look at their financial matters.
Why? Because, as boring and mundane as it sounds, the more organized your young adults become with their financial affairs, the less likely they are to mess up with money matters now and to avoid money problems later in life.
That’s the point. Money matters.
If they misplace bills or don’t deal with them when the bills arrive, they can end up paying late and being charged late fees.
They can have the stress and problems that result from bounced checks because they haven’t kept track of their account balance.
If they don’t review their credit card statements regularly, they may exceed their credit limit or be charged for things they didn’t buy.
Young adults are very tempted by “free” offers. Because they aren’t paying attention, or they’re in a hurry, they may forget to cancel the inappropriate offers. This can leave them stuck owing money for something they don’t like or want.
The result of all this can be going into debt…maybe for a long time, or possibly letting fraud or identity theft go unnoticed.
Depressed? Where do you start your young adult on a system of organization? Start at the beginning.
After you’ve shown the “why” and “how” of the process, help your children to set-up a filing system. This is a safe haven for their paid and unpaid bills. The floor or the junk drawer or worse yet, the garbage can, are not acceptable filing systems.
An inexpensive filing cabinet can cost about $50. Help the kids set it up with labeled hanging folders. Each major account with recurring activity should have a file. For example, cell phone, student loan, car loan, gasoline, cable TV, bank account, credit card, pay stubs, taxes. In front of these, they should create a file for unpaid bills and for following up (for those free offers).
A word about credit cards and those “free offers.” Your children should have ONE credit card. Responsible use of that account will help them build a good credit record that is essential. Some of these offers are for credit cards with very low interest rates. It makes sense for your children to use one of these cards if they need to purchase something they plan to pay for over time.
They should decline all other credit card offers in writing and keep a written record of it. There could be a surprise on their credit report some day that shows they have credit available on a card they never got or used. A paper trail will help put an end to any questions.
The best habit for your kids to establish is to open their mail when it arrives, throw away the advertising inserts, staple the statement to the bill-payment envelop and place it in the unpaid bill file.
Some people like to utilize on-line bill payment. This helps track and organize their accounts. Take time to introduce this option to your children. Kids are usually comfortable using electronic systems. Once a system is set up with their bank, paying bills is simple and may even be scheduled regularly without intervention.
Bill paying should become a periodic habit. Coach your children to schedule a time for this task whether it is weekly, biweekly or monthly. If they are organized it won’t take a lot of time.
They should review every charge on any credit card statement and not just blindly make a payment. Mistakes can happen and fixing errors is best done when the error is first identified.
I know it sounds old fashioned but your kids need to learn to balance their checking accounts. Mistakes and bank fees charged in error can happen.
A word about bounced checks. They most often are caused by not knowing the correct balance in the account and they are costly. An excess number of bounced checks and your bank may close or freeze the account.
It is a good idea for your young adult to create a master list on which they record such things as account number, name address and phone number of the account holder, monthly date statements are created and/or payments are due. It is a good idea to include the average amount due on debts, too. Don’t forget to list a specific amount to be saved each time, as well. In addition to being part of the monthly bill payment process, this will help with budgeting.
If you can help your young adult follow this process each month it may rank as one of the greatest teachings you have given them—right up there with potty training!
Source: All text by Neale S. Godfrey; all text and characters are the sole property of Children’s Financial Network, Inc. All rights reserved. 2007.
College Costs: Financial Aid
By Neale S. Godfrey for New York Life Insurance Company
The costs for college are staggering. Most families can’t just write that after-tax check for education costs. With any luck, you started saving for college when your kids were born. But even if you did, you may still have to seek help from the government. You are not alone. According to Nellie Mae, approximately 70% of college graduates borrowed money to pay for college.*
Financial aid may be a good start. Take a deep breath because this process can be tedious and frustrating, not to mention hard to understand.
Let’s start with the question of whether you will qualify for financial aid. If you can figure out early on in the process that you won’t qualify, don’t bother applying. The lending concept is that parents are considered responsible for their children’s education costs. However, if you are separated or divorced, the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) will ask for information from either the parent with whom the child lives for most of the year for which you are applying or from the parent who has given the most financial support. Here’s the catch. If you are the responsible parent and you’ve remarried, you have to also supply your new spouse’s financial information.
Now, suppose Junior has waited to go to college? This may be good news. If your child is older than 24, they are considered to be independent and their parent’s income doesn’t count in figuring how much aid they can afford. Here’s the bad news—although your kids may already be out on their own before age 24, it doesn’t seem to matter for financial aid purposes. Most colleges don’t consider your children to be independent until that magic age of 24.
One big question about financial aid has always been “Will it hurt your chances of being admitted to the college if you level with them about needing financial aid?” Check with the individual college first. If they have what is called, “Aid Blind Admissions,” your need for aid won’t hinder the admissions process. There are also colleges that will guarantee enough aid to your student so they can attend, if admitted.
Most financial aid loans are made to the students, not the parents. Therefore, when it comes time to repay these loans, it’s the student’s financial and legal responsibility, not yours. It will also be a black mark on their credit report if the loans are not paid on time and in full. So, technically, your child is the one who should fill-out the FAFSA form. They can apply either in hard copy or online. Even though your child is the legal borrower, it’s your financial information including tax returns that must to be supplied.
The forms will have to be completed and submitted by January 1 of the year for which you want the aid.
After you complete the FAFSA form, the DOE (Department of Education) will send you a Student Aid Report or SAR that states your “Expected Family Contribution” or EFC. The college will use that data to decide if and how much aid you may be eligible for.
The amount your family is expected to contribute remains constant, regardless of the cost of the school. For example, let’s say your child was accepted at a state school that costs $10,000 a year and a private college that costs $25,000 a year. Let’s say that your EFC is $10,000. That $10,000 that you have to give will cover the whole state school cost, but there would be $15,000 left per year on the private college costs.
The formulas consider a number of factors, such as; family’s income during the calendar year before applying for aid, your family’s assets, your child’s earnings, investments and savings and also the number of children you may have and how many may be going to college at the same time.
This is a good time to mention custodial accounts like UGMA or UTMA accounts. Uniform Gift to Minor Act (UGMA) and Uniform Transfer to Minor Act (UTMA) may have seemed like a great way to begin savings plans when your kids were young. They may have been because any earnings they generate are taxed at your child’s tax rate when they reach a certain age. At that time, their rate will probably be lower than yours will.
Here’s the bad news. If your child has a custodial account and does apply for financial aid, they will be penalized “more” for having that asset than if the same amount was in a savings account held in your name alone. The moral of the story is -- if you think you may qualify for financial aid some day, keep the savings account in your name.
Another thing to consider when you are figuring the aid you’re eligible for is that a college won’t consider any gifts that your child has received from family or friends. Except if Grandma and Grandpa have created a trust for your child’s education, the IRS will consider the income from that trust as income to you because they consider education costs your responsibility. The way around this is to have your parents or friends make a gift directly to the college your child is attending. That is not considered income to you or a gift to your child.
Source: All text by Neale S. Godfrey; all text and characters are the sole property of Children’s Financial Network, Inc. All rights reserved. 2007.
* Website: http://www.nelliemae.com/library/nasls_2002.pdf, as of 2/6/03.
Reaching Your Goals
By Neale S. Godfrey for New York Life Insurance Company
The first step in helping your youngsters to reach their financial goals is to explain what a goal is. A child’s definition of a money goal is gathering enough money to buy something they want in the future. Ask your children to think about something they want that they don’t have now. They could want an iPod® or they could want to buy a car. It’s not important that one is a short-term financial goal and one is a longer-term goal. What’s really important is that they are thinking about the future.
The next step is for your kids to separate short and long-term goals. Ask them to make a list of some short-term goals. You’ll have to help them with this process. For a child, a short-term goal time period should be about six months. They should think about how much they could realistically save within that period.
Then help them figure out how much they earn in allowance, get from you or can expect as gifts. Let’s say, on average, they make $10.00 per week. And, in our example, they could save about 40% of this for something they want in the future. Let’s say that they set their goal to buy an iPod® that costs about $100.00. Help them with the math. In this case, if they make $10.00 per week, 40% of that is $4.00. Now they can calculate that they could reach their goal in about six months of saving.
This is also a great time to have them consider some variations. Let them see how long it would take to save for that iPod if they saved 10% of their income each week. Or how long it would take if they saved 50% of their allowance or earned extra money. This subtly starts to teach them the benefits of earning extra money.
Another interesting exercise is to let your children interview you about your own short-term and long-term goals. Why? This will open up a dialogue with your children about how you think about the future. Begin by telling them what it was like when you were young: Did you have a long-term goal you were saving for; like college or a car? Back then, my goal was saving for college.
Tell them how much your goal cost you at that time. When I went to college, tuition cost $1,500 per semester. Be sure to tell them how much you earned at that time, too. For me, the minimum wage had not yet hit one dollar an hour! Back then, I earned fifty cents an hour for babysitting.
The next thing to talk to your kids about is how you saved money. Did you open a bank savings account? I did. In fact, my elementary school had a representative from our local bank that came in once a week to collect our savings for deposit. At that time, I opened a Passbook Savings Account.
Tell your kids if you were able to save enough to reach your goal at that time. By keeping my eye on my goal and saving regularly, I managed to save enough for college. In fact, I graduated from high school with $7,000 in my Passbook Savings Account. By the way, a new Porsche sports car cost about the same amount at that time. It was very tempting to use my savings to buy one but, alas, I went to college and was able to pay my own way.
Talk to your children about how long it can take to save enough money to buy what they want. This is a good time to give advice about how and where to save money, too. The best place to start saving money is in a bank. The best way to save is to do it on a regular basis.
The first step to making sure your children start to set goals and save for what they want is to help them create a simple budget. A budget is simply a written plan for how to earn, save, spend and share money. A basic budget shows “Money In” (from allowances, gifts or extra earnings) and “Money Out,” (spending and expenses). Money that will be saved for your child’s short- and long-term goals will be built into expenses.
Remember the great feeling you had when you saved for and got something you really wanted? Help your child set a goal, save for it and celebrate their achievement. Those feelings of empowerment can last a lifetime.
Source: All text by Neale S. Godfrey; all text and characters are the sole property of Children’s Financial Network, Inc. All rights reserved. 2007.
Is An Allowance Right For Your Child?
By Neale S. Godfrey for New York Life Insurance Company
As a parent, you’ve got to make some decisions before starting an allowance for your kids. Certainly there are ways of teaching money management other than the “earn-and-learn” structure. But none, I believe, is as meaningful to the child as the hands-on system of managing an allowance. Before you start handing out money, you should ask yourself a couple of questions. Are you comfortable paying kids an allowance? Do they really need that much money? And are they old enough to start to learn how to manage an allowance? And finally, what household chores should I tie the allowance to?
Here’s a good way to determine the answers. Once you’ve decided that an allowance is a useful teaching tool and your child is old enough (sometimes as young as three) to begin learning how to manage one, you should figure out a starting “salary.”
For my own two children, I started them on an allowance when they were three and six years old. I used an easy rule of thumb: their allowance amount is the same number of dollars as their age. I continued to use this rule as they’ve grown.
Many people’s reaction is that three dollars is a lot of money for a three-year-old. Let me explain what you and your youngster will be doing with this money.
There are three basic areas of money management I use. I call it my SOS system. Briefly, they are:
Savings:
Some portion of each allowance should be allotted for both long- and medium-term savings. For instance, saving for a bike (medium term goal) or for college (long term goal).
Next is Offerings:
This is a small amount of each allowance set aside for donations to charity. However small the sum, it’s a valuable way to teach personal values through money by showing the child how to share their good fortune.
The third area of my SOS system is Spending.
Depending on how you’ve set up their budget, part of the money should go to cover specific expenses. It can range from lunch money or bus fare for the younger ones to total management of a year’s clothing budget for the more savvy teenagers. At any age, there has to be some money that is the child’s discretionary fund—to spend as they wish. With some limitations, of course.
Share your own financial responsibilities with your children. Tell them how you allocate your own savings, offerings and spending. Show them all the ways money can work positively. They’ll see how it can cover immediate expenses like lunch money, how it works to build for the future like saving for college and it can be shared with others to help those truly in need.
Charitable giving has always been close to my heart. I’ve always emphasized that to my kids since they were little. It’s a lesson with great impact for a young child (or young adult) and it’s an opportunity for you to impart your personal values to your youngsters.
Charitable donations can be made in many ways. From giving change to a homeless person on the street (a powerful visual image for a child to see that there are people truly less fortunate than they are) to giving to a specific charity that you’ve picked out together.
Remember that charity can also mean giving of yourself and your time as well as giving money. For instance, some people volunteer their time to help out at a homeless shelter’s kitchen or by reading to the blind. Your youngster might want to consider recycling some of their clothes or toys that are still in good condition to a local children’s hospital.
This is good dinnertime conversation around the table. Find out your children’s interests. You might be very surprised at what you hear.
I’ve also got a very effect system to make budgeting your child’s allowance a real life experience. This one’s called the Four-Jar Budget System. I devised it when I first began working with parents and financial counselors and it’s caught on across the country. And with good reason—it really works! Routines, if they’re started early enough, stay with kids all their lives. You don’t have to explain to little kids why they have to brush their teeth, they just have to do it. Likewise, you won’t have to explain why their first (and forever) allowance money is separated into four jars. (You can use envelopes, pouches or boxes. You can even use bank accounts but seeing the actual containers is an excellent visual aid, especially at first.)
The Four-Jar System goes like this. First, an allowance is “work-for-pay.” You’ll set up a series of chores (very simple ones for the youngest, more responsible duties for the older kids.) Next, the allowance is paid once a week at a specific time (ritual is important.) Make sure that you have the money on hand in small denominations. Then the money is divided among the four labeled jars. The first jar is labeled Charity and ten percent of the allowance goes in there. The second is Quick Cash; to be spent any way the child wants (subject to family rules.) Jar number three is labeled Medium-term Savings, which means anything that costs more than one-weeks worth of Quick Cash. The final jar is labeled Long-term Savings. For most kids, this means saving for college. Distribute the remaining ninety percent of the allowance among the remaining three jars. The visual impact of the distribution process and the accumulation of money in each jar over time are a strong reinforcement to this simple life skill of learning to budget.
Source: All text by Neale S. Godfrey. All text and characters are the sole property of Children’s Financial Network, Inc. All rights reserved. 2007.
Teach Money Lessons In The Real World
By Neale S. Godfrey for New York Life Insurance Company
Your world can be your classroom when you are teaching both your younger and older children about money.
As you are going along through your day-to-day chores, running to get gas or dropping clothes off at the dry cleaners, discuss the process with your children.
Let’s start with a trip to the gas station. Since the price of gas is so high now, these money lessons may take your mind off the price on the pump and lower your blood pressure!
Show your children, both young and old, that there may be ways you can lower the cost. Many people fluctuate between using the full-service and self-serve lanes at the gas station. You may choose full service so that you can get the oil or tires checked. Or, if you’re like me, because you’re wearing white slacks and don’t want to spill gasoline on them!
Take a minute to explain the difference in price versus service at the gas station and why you use each for different reasons.
Another point at the pumps: sometimes one station will sell gas several cents below the cost at a station across the street. Show your youngster where the prices are posted and how to shop for the best price.
Also, your regular gas station may charge less if you pay with cash rather than with a credit card. Discuss with your children why it costs a business more when customers use credit cards.
With your older children, the topic of “who pays for the gas” is a valuable discussion. My suggestion is to sit down with your teen and have them figure out how many trips a week they’ll take, where they’ll go and how much gas they’ll need. If you ask them to run an errand or drop off the youngsters somewhere, let them know that you’ll pay the cost of that trip.
Decide on an amount of gas that you are willing to pay for each week. For instance, a half tank or perhaps a fill-up. Then set the rule that they must pay for any additional gas they’ll need. Help them set up “gas saving” strategies. They could carpool rides with their friends or rotate whose car they’ll use. Or, if your child is the only one with access to a car, it’s perfectly fair for them to ask their friends to chip-in and split the fuel costs.
Like the gas station, a dry cleaner offers a service that you may choose to use or not.
I personally have adopted my good friend, Bonnie’s system of deciding which services are worth utilizing and which aren’t. Bonnie is a retail consultant and her clients pay $100 an hour for her professional services. So she calculates the worth of her personal time at the same rate. When she has to decide whether to wash and iron five blouses for her workweek, she figures it on the basis of the time it would take her to finish them herself versus the cost of a dry cleaner. At $4.50 per blouse, the dry cleaner wins out.
Explain to your youngster that you might choose to send a silk blouse to the cleaners rather than wash it yourself…especially if you were pressed (no pun intended) for time. The same might be true for things like a shoeshine, a manicure or a shampoo and cut at the beauty parlor.
You can instill your personal values in your children by using the marketplace as your chalkboard. There are a few buying decisions that you make that may supersede conventional wisdom and, believe it or not, this is allowed.
Usually these decisions are based on your personal convictions. For instance, do you refuse to drive anything but an American car? Or do you buy only General Foods products because you or someone in your family works for the company?
Whatever the reasons, if it strongly influences your buying decisions over all other considerations, you may want to explain your position to your children.
A good example of teaching values through buying decisions is the issue of “Made in America.” This is a subject that is growing in importance and, as trade barriers fall worldwide, will continue to be significant for many people.
If buying products made in America is important to you, discuss why with your child. The most-often cited reason is that buying foreign-made products over US-made goods—even when they are less expensive—hurts us in other ways down the road. Even for something as insignificant as a seven-dollar T-shirt, buying an import can hurt or even eliminate an American manufacturer. And that means fewer American jobs.
Try not to scare young children with too much job-loss talk. Older kids and teenagers can handle real-life economics and understand how these small decisions affect the larger community.
There are other personal-choice buying decisions that may be important to you. One that’s frequently mentioned is quality. Everyone wants to buy the highest quality product they can afford. Sometimes, though, quality isn’t the overriding factor. Brand loyalty can count greatly for some people and so can price. Whatever your buying values are, share these consumer lessons with your children.
Source: All text by Neale S. Godfrey. All text and characters are the sole property of Children’s Financial Network, Inc. All rights reserved. 2007.
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