5 Things Teens Should Be Taught About Money

lynneinjapan · 28 October 2004 at 10:03PM

When you're in a hole stop digging…..

I liked this one!

I'd say that "Live within your means" is the biggest one, though. It's unbelievable how many of us don't! But most teenagers aren't going to be interested unless they've had it instilled into them from an early age; the only way to make the rest sit up and listen is shock tactics, showing them what can happen if you don't live within your means.

Re the Maths text books, the ones that I'm teaching from (I teach Adult Numeracy and GCSE Maths to 6th formers) do have the correct VAT rate of 17.5%. Any that don't must be pretty ancient now! The concept of compound interest does seem to come as a surprise to quite a few of the students, even though they've all sat the GCSE once already! A lot of them struggle to understand the basics of tax-free allowances and income tax too.

ashmit · 28 October 2004 at 10:06PM

I don't know whether things have changed since I was at school (I say it like it was hundreds of years ago! it's only ten since I left!), but we used to have PSE lessons that were supposed to prepare us for life after school. But they were normally 'what to do at uni' and 'preparing a CV' ad nauseum. We rebelled one lesson, encouraged by our form tutor, and came up with a list of some of the things we thought we should know and came up with stuff like basic cooking for when we left home, basic car maintenance, and how to really organise your money.

Our form tutor took them to the head, who totally ignored them.

I still think that this kind of stuff should be included in the timetable. The country would be a better place if it was

Oh, and seriously, those people on Bank of Mum and Dad? Scary!

MATH · 28 October 2004 at 11:29PM

Ashmit, these things used to be covered in the Secondary Modern timetable. Valuable skills to take with you in life, this is why it is so important for parents to teach their kidz about the value of money cos the schools dont.

One of the many good things my parents taught me was to consider saving as a necessary expense. Budget correctly and work out the most you can save per week/month. Take this out first and live on the rest. They instilled this from age 5/6 when we first got pocket money, before we could spend any, x amount had to go to the bank and x amount went on collection at church and the rest we could spend.

Spendless · 29 October 2004 at 1:51AM

hi
misssurfer - some years ago (about 15) i worked at a DIY store and we did have a saturday kid who was only 15. I seem to remember he could only work so many hours though - but this is some time ago and the rules might have changed.
I always found there were more jobs in summer due to the older ones leaving to go to uni/start work.

BikingBud · 29 October 2004 at 2:15AM

Set a saving target and stick with it!

Save 50% of any pay rise you get, it's habit forming! The long term bonus is much greater.

Linked with the first two; try and plan longer term, 5-10 years for cars, house deposit etc.

Do not smoke, besides the obvious health risks the waste of money must be tremendous. The same can be said about drinking but I enjoy a beer or four. ;D

Think about the value of going to Uni, is it worth it? Should I go out and start working, get some real life experience and be earning, whilst the Uni goers are building debt, often with poor job prospects afterwards.

BB

MissSurfer · 29 October 2004 at 1:27PM

I thought of another small tip...if you see something you want to buy (obviously works better with more expensive things like MP3 Players or whatever but could work with most things) wait at least 2 weeks before you buy it. Then you'll know you really want it and prevent impulse buys.

BTW Spendless, thanks for your advice, I appreciate it and remember it!

MissSurfer

randommarble · 29 October 2004 at 3:14PM

Hi,

I was 14 in September and have been looking around for a job since my 13th b'day. After no success (believed paper round was too low pay especially in Winter), back in the Easter holiday, I decided to start my own business. Only a small thing selling bracelets and easy to make things like aprons and pegbags to my friends and family but I have since opened an account entirely for the income and have made over £200! With this there has been expense and outlay but the friendship bracelets were quite popular and required to start only 4 balls of wool at 79p each. I now make my own clothes the majority of the time and can keep clothes shopping to under £100 a year, including material when I make my own.

My most recent idea was to make up my own gift bags, making the bags for just under 50p and putting stuff inside to the value of £1.50 then selling on at £3.50 each or 2 for £6!

I have been known to my family as a bargain hunter since i was about 8 or 9, i come home buying presents normally a fiver for under a pound. I also shop at warehouses where you can get designer clothes for about a fiver (trousers reduced from £110 (rip off price) to £5 because they had been put under an insurance claim or hair clips reduced to 1p a pair for no apprarant reason. My grandad always wants to come shopping with me because I often can get him what he wants for about half the price.

I am also sly when it comes to birthday presents. I spent 94p on my mum to get her two 125g bars of aero (mint and milk) from tesco, i am then going to give her a stamp as they were also try for free and we are going to send back the two wrappers and hopefully receive back £2.08 as we are removing the piece that says about bogof as also contains credit card details. (They were £1.04 each but £1.14 was taken off for second bar because some in the deal were dearer)

If you are interested about my small business visit https://www.paw.prints.dsl.pipex.com I hope to be able to put some more money saving ideas up on there soon.

ashmit · 29 October 2004 at 5:27PM

Wow - that's quite inspirational! Hope you're still getting all your homework done (only kidding :P )

Gabs27 · 29 October 2004 at 6:17PM

How nice to see some teenagers out there who are sensible when it comes to money (and who can also write well) I will look at your website randommarble and nice to read Miss Surfer's posts.

My two daughters got their pocket money when younger and if they wanted anything else, they have always had to earn it. They also got a clothing allowance and had to budget for themselves.

They are both working full-time, I am amazed to hear about parents who do not expect their offspring to contribute to the housekeeping. I'm sure it can't help them for later on.

margaretclare · 30 October 2004 at 1:16AM

Hi Miss Surfer

My 16-yr old granddaughter recently got herself a job working approx 8 hours a week in a Disney store in a big shopping centre. Is there anything like this near you?

Best wishes

M

5 Things Teens Should Be Taught About Money

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