I'm not picking on boys here. I've got both flavors of teenagers, and nobody really gets it.
Public flogging time: I swear I thought I was teaching them to handle money. I swear I taught them about price comparisons, shopping for bargains, and how saving for things can be rewarding.
I did not teach him that a shirt wasn't a shirt unless it had that little guy on a pony stitched on the chest. I did not teach him that a vehicle must have a lift on it to run properly (I promise a future post for more about trucks, lifts, sound systems and other car-related must-haves.)
I've done some research, and I've put some of the links I've fund helpful at the bottom of this post. And now...the experiment begins. Each live-at-home teen will get a monthly allowance.
- For the driver: $80 for gas + $80 lunch money + $40 for mad money. That's $200, folks!
- For the one who can't drive: Same minus the gas money. Without a gas tank to fill, this teen gets $120.
The money is theirs to spend. If they go hungry so they can have more pony-guy shirts, fine. If they eat at Chic-fil-a at $7 a pop, it's their call. Lunch money is based on $4/day school lunch, which I've been assured in advance is very doable.
I can hear it coming from the one with the vehicle. "If I'm running your errands, I'm not using my gas." I'm good with that. I'll keep a tab of the requested trip miles. Then, at the end of the week, I'll pay up. I wonder if he'll keep track of his mileage? I'll bet he does if he disagrees with my total at the end of the first week.
There's a very good lesson there, too, isn't there? Never trust a grown up? Maybe, but I'm hoping the lesson will be "trust, then verify."
My theory? Someone's going to start taking their lunch.
How do you help your teens learn to budget?
The Motley Fool guys have a great page with links to tons of sites aimed at teens and their parents. One of my offspring totally gets the concept of compounding. He has money in the bank. The other ones? Well, there's the hide-your-money offspring and the spend-it-now offspring. But I digress. Check out this site.
(no, not this guy)
The National Endowment for Financial Education has some good resources, too. Check it out here.
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