Archive for the ‘Teens and Money’ Category

3 Tips for Teen Investing

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Parents like to complain that their teenage children do not listen to them. However, when it comes to matters dealing with money, the opposite is actually often true. Teenagers often welcome the advice that their parents have to give regarding finances, money management and investments. In the past few years, teenagers have been earning billions of dollars through summer jobs and part time after-school work. Many of these teenagers have gone on to spend all of the money that they have made, while only a few have saved it up, only to end up spending on a larger purchase down along the line. Kids these days need to become more aware about their income and investment basics so that they can learn how to better manage their money as they get older. If you want your teenagers to manage their money more effectively in adulthood, then they absolutely have to learn the investment basics now.

Start training your teen about money.

Start training your teen about money.

It is your responsibility as a parent to begin training your teenage children to use their money more wisely now while they are listening. Here are some of the things that you can do to teach your children how to save and invest wisely so that they can have some money left over at the end of the weekend following payday.

1 – Lead by example!

This seems simple but it has an extraordinary impact. Your children are going to look at how you spend money and act accordingly. If you show them how you allot money to different purposes for household needs, bills and budgets, they will learn how to do the same over time.

2 – Help open a bank account for your teen.

Establishing a bank account for your teenager will allow him or her to have instant financial responsibility. Sit down with them and explain how they can manage their own account, and take a moment to talk about the rewards that can be received once they have saved enough money. These savings, for example, could go toward their college tuition or even to purchasing a car. The entire process of saving and earning will give them a significant sense of accomplishment, and they will have something concrete to show for their hard work and dedication to saving and investing wisely.

3 – Construct a spending plan for your teen.

Teens tend not to like the idea of budgeting, but you should not allow them to get by without a budget or a spending plan just because they don’t like the idea. Instead, you and your teenaged son or daughter should sit down and build a spending plan that will help them get excited about the idea of earning, saving and investing their money. Take the time to teach them the differences between what they need and what want, and what things are worth saving for. Once they know what they can do without, it becomes easier for them to save their money for investing.

Photo Credit: 1

Originally posted 2008-11-12 05:57:23. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Teens Saving Money

Monday, March 1st, 2010
Help your teen build strong money management skills.

Help your teen build strong money management skills.

One of the best ways to build a strong financial foundation in teens is by starting a savings plan early on. Over the past few years, there have been more teens saving money and the results are clear. When you take the time to teach good financial practices to your children, these skills will carry them through life, helping them to build up a nest egg that they can rely on in the future. If you want to start your kids down this financial path, here are a few tips on how to get your teens saving money now.

1. Set up a reward system.

At first, before the benefits start to kick in, your child may need some extra incentive to start saving money. Try setting up either a reward once they reach a certain dollar amount, or you may even want to offer to match their savings, dollar by dollar. This is a great way to get your teens saving money and offers them some real incentive, as well as hard evidence, that saving is very beneficial. Even if you only add a few dollars to their account at a time, this extra money will help them get motivated and stay focused.

2. Start discussing sound financial principles with your child.

Once you’ve got your teens saving money, it’s a great time to start talking about setting financial goals, and working on the follow through. For example, you can ask your child to set a goal as to what they would like to be able to buy, that they cannot afford right now. This helps them see the value of the hard work they are putting in towards saving for that item and once again, will keep them motivated. However, it is important that they understand that spending all that they have saved up isn’t the best solution and that they should have long term goals, as well as short term goals.

3. Take them to the next level.

Once you have your teens saving money and they are learning more about goal setting, you can take their lessons to the next level by incorporating information about setting up more than one stream of income. Help them to set up a portfolio, use a p2p lending service like Loanio to lend money, or open a high yield savings account for them so that they can start to watch their money grow. This is also a good time to start talking about investments with your teen, even if they can’t quite make their own just yet.

4. Get them interested in continuing education.

One of the best ways to get your teens saving money is by teaching them how the stock market works and how they can add to their savings account easily. There are numerous online sites that will provide users with free example “money” that can be used to invest in theoretical stocks. This is a great training method that has no risk, but can be incredibly useful in teaching lessons about stocks. You may even want to take part in these yourself and set up a competition to see who can make the best theoretical picks.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-10-31 04:55:15. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Teach your Teens to Save Money

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Teaching your children how to manage their finances is absolutely critical if you want them to be successful at managing their money in the future. More than 80 percent of all parents are led to believe that their children are learning enough about personal finance and money management in school, unfortunately more than 90 percent of all students in high school and approximately 87 percent of all students in college have stated that everything they know about money management and financial planning has been learned from their parents rather than in school. Only 26 percent of parents with children aged 5 and older feel well enough prepared to teach their children the important details about money management. A study by the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy found that among twelfth graders, only around 10 percent of high school graduates were prepared for their personal financial future.

If you are not sure where, when or how to begin talking to your teens about saving money, you should rest assured that you are not alone. Teaching your kids about good money management, however, is a parental responsibility that is just as important as teaching them not to cross the street without looking both ways. As soon as kids become interested in money you can begin to lead by example, allowing them to pick up on good money management habits by following the direction that you give them. Here are some other simple and fun suggestions that will help your teens learn the value of money at an early age so that they can be prepared to take care of themselves as they get older.

Talk to your teen about money.

Talk to your teen about money.

1 – Explain to your children what money is all about.

As soon as your kids are old enough to count, they are old enough to understand the value of money. The earlier you can manage to teach them about money, including earning, saving and spending it responsibility, the better prepared they will end up being to manage their own finances in the future.

2 – Talk to your child about the family budget and allow them to learn by example as they grow up.

Let them ask questions about household finances so they understand early and receive consistent reinforcement of what it means to maintain a family budget and the financial matters surrounding it.

3 – Show your children how credit cards, debit cards and ATM machines work.

Show them that money does not grow on trees, and help them understand early what relationship exists between cash, credit, debit and other types of cards and accounts. Help your kids understand early that money has to be earned and saved before it can be spent.

When you discuss money with your children of any age, you will help them to develop a good sense of limits and positive, healthy financial planning in the process. You will teach them through examples exactly what it takes to spend money in a healthy way and make positive financial choices.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-12-16 05:30:53. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Teach Your Teen About Saving Money

Monday, December 7th, 2009

One of the biggest reasons why having a teenage child can be difficult is because teenagers tend to spend money easily and freely without any real regard for what goes into earning that money in the first place. Teenagers tend to spend a great deal of money on clothes, shoes, toys, video games, computer stuff, without ever really buying anything that they need. One of your biggest jobs as a parent is to teach them how to save their money.

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Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.

Another consideration that you need to make when it comes to teens saving money is a really valuable quote that applies to many situations including this one: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” What this quote means is that giving your teenager an allowance, or money for the movies, or for any other reason, they will use that money and then it will be gone. If on the other hand you teach your teens how to handle their money and save their money, it will prepare them for a lifetime of financial fitness, which is the most ideal situation. By teaching your teen how to earn and save money, how to invest, and so on, you are preparing them for a lifetime of intelligent financial decisions. This may not prevent them from making poor decisions in the future, but it will better prepare them for what life throws at them as they get older.

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Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-12-09 05:03:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Teach Teens to Save Money

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Teach your teen about money.

One of the biggest reasons why having a teenage child can be difficult is because teenagers tend to spend money easily and freely without any real regard for what goes into earning that money in the first place. Teenagers tend to spend a great deal of money on clothes, shoes, toys, video games, computer stuff, without ever really buying anything that they need. One of your biggest jobs as a parent is to teach them how to save their money.

First of all, you should teach your teenager how to save money by opening them up a bank account.

When they have their own bank account, they will have a paper transcription of how and where they spend their money. Deposit their allowance directly into the bank account, and explain to them that once the money is gone for the month, it’s gone. This will teach your teens to be savvier when saving money because they will have a better idea of how much goes in and how much comes out, and will learn to better track their expenditures accordingly if they know that the money will eventually run out if they are not careful.

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You absolutely must be able to teach your teenage children how to handle their money.

Once they understand what goes into making or earning the money, saving the money and investing the money, they will spend their money more wisely in the future. Teach your children how to invest, and how to get the most out of their money, and you will find them being excited about saving their money rather than spending it frivolously. If you want your teens to be savvy when it comes to budgeting, saving, and investing their hard earned money, you have to teach them the value of that money and what can be done with it besides buying designer jeans, ring tones and other toys. Not only will you benefit, but they will benefit significantly as well.

Photo Credit: 1

Originally posted 2008-11-25 05:01:04. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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