Teens & Money Management

Your adolescent will benefit from your help in learning money-management skills. The earlier a adolescent is held accountable for staying within a reasonable budget, the better the chance of avoiding financial catastrophe when he or she leaves the nest.

Guiding your adolescent to good money-management practices is not difficult if you take it step by step. These steps include setting priorities, setting a budget and opening a checking account.

Prioritizing—

1. List your basic daily needs-all the things that your parents expect you to pay for out of allowance and/or income from a job.
2. List those needs in order of importance.
3. Review the list daily.
4. Meet the highest priority needs first.

Setting Up a Budget—

1. Determine a time span for your budget-weekly, biweekly, monthly.
2. List income from all sources-allowance, jobs, gifts.
3. List all expenses-car payments, snacks, entertainment, personal care items, clothes, savings account-and add the amounts. You might have to do some research into cost of various items if you are just beginning to pay for them.
4. List debts, if any, and add it to the expense total.
5. Subtract the expense total from the income total.
6. Consider your budget guidelines before spending any money so you can stay within your budget.

If your adolescent does not have a checking account, now might be a good time to have him or her set one up.

Opening a Checking Account—

1. Choose a bank, considering the fees and special programs of several institutions to make a decision.
2. Take official identification, credit information, current account information and money to deposit to the bank.
3. Ask to talk with an account officer.
4. Fill out an application, and answer any questions.
5. Choose the checking account that will best meet your needs.
6. Ask about charges for using the account and penalties for overdrafts.
7. Read and save all information about the account.

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