Teaching teens to be debt free

bigliz

This may not be the right place but I was wondering what is the best way to keep my kids debt free?

They have £30 pm pocket money and seem to be coping ok with that at the moment as they have no real chance to run up debts but I do worry about the future as we all know how easy it is :mad:

Taloola78

I dont have any answers for you but I do think that schools should teach things like money management and basic living skills.
I for one can say that I left school with some good qualifications and went onto further education but I had no idea about how to manage financially and lived on takeaways for my early years as an adult.
Looking back I wish they had taught me these instead of things that I will never use again (French)

kevin_M

when my daughter is older i was thinking about giving her pocket money per month rarther than per week.. might teach her to keep money back for week 2 and week 3 rarther than blowing it all

nearlyrich

I have older teens and 20s both students we gave pocket money monthly from about 14, my idea was it was better to make mistakes whilst living here than at uni. Seems to be working OK so far....

bigliz

I agree Taloola, one of the most important lessons and I think they will have about 2 hours worth by the time they leave school!

Thats a good idea Kevin, my 2 know that once it's gone, it's gone. Strangely one is a saver and 1 a spender.

cheets99

Abit of common sense and telling them about CC loans etc.

My mum worked in a bank for a few years so I could always go to her about money questions, but if you aint got you cant afford it, we are in the buy now pay later generation.

Miss_Behaving

My son used to spend his pocket money as soon as he got it so I started paying it into a bank account for him. He had to use his cash card to get it out and this meant that he spent less on impulse as he had to make a special trip to town in order to take out any money.

Four months ago he had his 13th birthday and got himself a paper round - now I don't pay him pocket money, he earns it. He now appreciates the effort he has to put in each week to earn the money and hardly spends anything!

I also make a point of telling the children when I can't afford something - I must say this more than I realise as it has got to the point where my 8 year old offers to pay!:rotfl:

Headintheclouds_3

albertross wrote:

Teach them: Get em out of the mobile phone habit and keeping up with the jones's with the latest handsets/TV's/Cars/Holidays/Clothes..
Send em to the DFW board, to see what a rolling snowball of debt can do to your life.

Couldn't have said it better :T An hour on DFW is enough for anyone to see what overspending can do :eek:

It's easy to spend it but a nightmare to pay it back!

lotto-dreamer

I also make a point of telling the children when I can't afford something - I must say this more than I realise as it has got to the point where my 8 year old offers to pay!

This really made me laugh - I'm still chuckling on and off!:rotfl:


When my son was very young he used to be delighted when he was given change back when buying something - he thought he was getting more money. Not sure he's moved on from that yet -

Albertross' advice is very sound - making them understand 'why' is the difficult bit. Not bailing them out (however hard) is probably the best lesson -


I think a book based on some of the stories on these DFW threads might be a good idea to be able to hand to them when those shopping bags start coming through the door....

gem4

I'm a single parent with a part time job. My daughter is 17. We have a good relationship and she understands that cash does not flow easily around here.

I have only recently, in the last year and thanks to this website, finally understood about credit cards. I have explained to her all the things I have learnt about handling money and I have to say I'm very proud of her.

With her EMA and Saturday job she gets £60 a week. EMA is paid into cashcard account and wages paid cash.
That is about £50 per week more spending money than I myself have and I asked her to handle it wisely.

We have discussed how credit cards work, and how much they cost.
We have discussed high interest savings.
I've shown her how to handle her accounts online, the importance of security and how to avoid card fraud and identity theft.
I've encouraged her to save as much as she can each week for when she wants something special.

This is what she does with it.
She has a pay as you go phone not the latest model.
She buys her clothes and books etc from the local charity shops.
She only allows £10 a week for socialising and only keeps that much in her purse.
She only leaves £10 in her cardcash account for emergencies and transfers the rest to her high interest saver.

Of course she's no angel and will have an occasional splurge but on the whole I'm very proud of the way she manages and hope it continues.

I wish they would teach kids how to handle money at school.
I wish I'd been taught by someone and not wasted the last 30 years in debt.
I wish I'd had the know how to teach my 30yo son this when he was a teenager because he's the exact opposite to my daughter. Spend first, worry about bills later, then when he runs out of money he puts his gear into cashconverters (the pawn shop I call it) till the next pay day.
Thankfully he cant get credit and quite frankly if someone ever gave him a credit card he'd be a real danger to himself.

Brassic

Miss_Behaving wrote:

I also make a point of telling the children when I can't afford something - I must say this more than I realise as it has got to the point where my 8 year old offers to pay!:rotfl:

Lol! Mine too!