5 Things Teens Should Be Taught About Money

UKTigerlily · 2 May 2006 at 6:28AM

When I was a teenager I wanted a pair of reebok trainers costing about £100 I think. There was no way my Mum was paying that, so she let me have them on a neighbours club book & pay out of my pocket money. I was given the money & had to pay the neighbour myself & remember myself. Once I realised how long it was taking to pay for them I never wanted expensive ones again lol

woohoo_postingid · 9 May 2006 at 10:53PM

It's never 'only' when you are talking in pounds

eg. "It's only £3"

EagerLearner · 10 May 2006 at 9:08AM

There are some great points on here and I guess mine combine some - my top five would be:

1 - Never borrow money
2 - Save up for items you want
3 - Shop around for lowest price of the item you want
4 - Try to save money regularly in a good savings account
5 - Don't trust a company that says 'we're the best/cheapest' - do your research.

My grandparents instilled several of these values in me when I was younger, so it does work - I'll be 30 in July and their sayings like 'take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves' (?) are still in my mind. Also, the fact my grandad planted a money tree with me, and I checked it for weeks on end so see if money had started growing... BIG lesson learnt right there!

EagerLearner

claz · 10 May 2006 at 9:23AM

made me laugh when i read this thread about teenabgers in debt as i am 19 and moved into my first house with my partner in february!!1 it made me laugh coz i have got the biggest debt going a mortgage AHHHHHHHHHHHH - when i say it now it still scars me

luckily we had a great finiacinal advisor who got us the mortgage we needed helped us beat up the solicitor vendor etc when needed

i think the main reason i was able to do this was that i didn't go to uni, in my opinion the best money saving tip you can give your kids is if you don't need a degree for the job you wanna do you don't need to go to uni

i have lots of "older" friends who have degrees and are £20,000 + in debtthey will be paying that off forever, most employers value experience over a degree and if you decide you still want to do a degree it can cost a lot less with the open university for example, yes you have to be committed but you can work, earn and study if you want

pennies_from_heaven_2 · 10 May 2006 at 1:58PM

Five useful tips for kids in school.
1. dont buy what you cant afford
2. use cash only or chq if you have money in the bank
3. learn to add up if maths isnt your strong point use a calculator
4 pay any credit cards at the end of the month dont go into debt
5 save at 25% of your earnings each month into a tessa
good luck

lady_fuschia · 10 May 2006 at 3:02PM

At 25, 5 things I'd like to have been told 10 years ago:

1) Saving is highly desirable. But there's little point trying to build up a savings account whilst you're in any kind of debt as any interest you pay on the debt generally cancels out what you make on the savings. Plus no-one ever had baliffs at the door to take the TV away because they hadn't saved enough. I am still trying to convince people older than me of this. Save vigourously once you are in a position to do so, but level out the playing field first!

2) Don't see education in terms of a cash tranaction when asking "Is it worth it?". Some people come out of university and walk straight into high paid jobs. Many start in a job that is actually lower paid than what they would be on if they'd worked full time at a trade since 16, but will catch up and surpass slowly. Some will possibly never earn a particularly large salary. The point of higher education is just that- education- it's not a magic ticket that will guarantee high earnings. If you're going to do it, do it for its own sake not because you're banking on a return on the investment.

3) Don't use credit if you can possibly avoid it. In some situations, such as paying for education or a genuine emergency that your savings can't cover (after all it takes time to build that "safety net" everyone lectures you about!) it's a valuable lifeline- but borrow the minimum amount that you need and have a clear plan of how you're going to pay it back. Credit is not there for clothes shopping sprees, fancy holidays and nights out on the p**s. And it definetely isn't free money- I'm amazed at the number of people in their 20s and 30s who still haven't grasped this concept. (A girl I worked with once said to a credit-card free colleague "But its great! You can have all these things you want without having to pay for them!")

4) Learn to beat your own psychology. If you know having an overdraft will tempt you to spend it, don't have one. If you know you spend more at certain times of the year or month, leave your cards at home at that time. If you always get tempted in a particular shop- don't go in there! (My favourite tip to stop frivolous use of credit cards is to seal them in a little plastic tub in the freezer- by the time you've bothered to defrost them you've had time to think twice about the purchase!)

5)Don't imagine you can "beat the system" and constantly come out on top. I had a friend who was delighted to find out that a debt she owed a particular company was "written off" after a number of years- she went on to assume that she could get away with not paying any of her debts and the same would happen. Not long before the bailiffs arrived.

lady_fuschia · 10 May 2006 at 3:08PM

5 save at 25% of your earnings each month into a tessa
good luck[/QUOTE]

Nice idea, but considering your average teen on leaving school probably earns somewhere between £10,000- £14,000 per annum, its unlikely they'd be able to manage living off 75% of that unless they were still living at home rent free. 10% is probably more realistic as a starting point.

ASG_2 · 10 May 2006 at 3:15PM

Telling my 18 & 14 yr olds how much I've saved through using this site has worked wonders with 18yr old. DS (14) just likes the freebies I get him.

I work for a credit union, and we get involved with local schools, offering savings accounts and basic work with money. In some schools, the kids run the collections themselves which helps them meet several national curriculum targets.

1connect · 11 May 2006 at 10:15AM

These are some ideas in addition to the excellent posts of others.

1) Mend and make do
2) buy secondhand or use shopping comaprison web sites
3) Designer labels are waste of money , Buy a copy of FHM or Maxim, look at the "latest fashons shoots" then go to the local charitry shop and buy a new outfit, wear and compare = NO DISERNABLE DIFFERENCE, the saying fasion victim is there for a reason.
3) Marketing and almost all advertising are lies and at the TRUE root of ALL EVIL wether its the designer label myth or in poor quality pre-prepared bad foods loaded with bad fats and sugar, why does the name Shunny Delights (guess the product, ha ha) come to mind I wonder. Marketing creates a mythical world where happiness is determinded by possesions, and your problems are solved by consuming these items, understand that the same people want you to be totaly un-savvy with your finances asmany of them are aware that their product or service is bought by virtue of a credit card by people who are not savvy, therfore savvyness is BAD for their business.
4) Know and review your finacial arragents regularly
5) Have a finacial "plan" to do everything you want in life
6) Never become a loan slave by getting in too deep, and understand the misery it brings.
7) understand the impact of debt and worry and the effect it can have of your demina and even your mental health
8) The rental principle - in our world all things are rented, yes we own the stuff but its rented - what I mean by this is I buy an item second hand mint or new from a comparitor knowing I will sell it and upgrade for something else before the end of its life, the less you lose and the most use yopu had the better your doing i.e. car , I have bought cars run them for 12 months and sold them for what I bought them for , sometimes slightly more, this priciple can apply to other items, you could call this priciple selling your old to offset the cost of your new. or simpler still dont bung out the old assuming it has no value.

kym_3 · 11 May 2006 at 12:22PM

1 Basic understanding of financial Jargon ie APR , interest rates , base rate
2 Why you need to budget and how to do it
3 How to borrow money if necessary
4 How to save money
5 Understanding the importance of balance so that you can enjoy money

5 Things Teens Should Be Taught About Money

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free