NEW YORK – When it comes to teaching kids about money, sooner is often a better time to start than later.
That’s because decisions about spending and saving made by teens, college students and 20-somethings can reverberate through their lives in good or bad ways.
Don Silver, author of the newly published “High School Money Book,” believes teens should get early lessons on how to open a bank account, get a job, make good buying decisions, save for college and avoid debt.
“I want them to start thinking about money – to make conscious decisions for spending, saving and investing – so they can have financial and personal freedom throughout their lives,” Silver said.
Silver writes, for example, about making a budget not just because it’s a good financial exercise but because it can help people decide what they can afford to buy now, what they may be able to afford to buy in the future, and how much they can save.
“It’s a way of making sure you have enough money on hand for what’s really important to you,” he said.
And while he believes there is a role for parents in teaching kids, he also believes teens can learn a lot on their own.
“For some parents, it’s more difficult to talk to their kids about money than about sex,” Silver said. At the same time, “I hope to give teens some other-side-of-the-table information on where their parents are coming from.”
Linda Leitz, a certified financial planner in Colorado Springs, Colo., said “the kids often give parents the clue” when they’re ready to start learning about finance. She points out that real life situations often present good teaching opportunities.
Leitz, the author of “The Ultimate Parenting Map to Money Smart Kids,” said that as teens get closer to applying for college, it’s a good idea to have candid discussions about how their education will be paid for with savings, loans, jobs and scholarships.
“Parents can share things like when they started saving (for the child’s education), how much they put aside, how it was invested, how it grew,” Leitz said.
She believes the “five fundamentals of financial fitness” can lead to a financially sound lifetime. They are saving 10 percent of what you earn, taking advantage of any kind of retirement plan through your job, working toward owning a house, having enough liquidity to deal with an emergency, and avoiding debt.
Brian Jones, a Fairfax, Va., certified financial planner, wrote “Getting Started – The Financial Guide for a Younger Generation” because he felt that many of the books aimed at 20- and 30-year-olds were dated. “The typical advice was, ‘buy a house, put 20 percent down and get 30 year, fixed-rate mortgage,’” he said. “That may be what my folks did 20 years ago, but those rules don’t apply if you’re going to try to live on the East or West coasts.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
