Are teens responsible with their money? what do you think?
It has been a while since I was a teen! But I do remember being responsible with money even then. I worked very hard on the weekends and during the holidays to afford a two week trip to Spain with my friends and I also saved hard to learn how to drive.
My finances went awry a little at university but straight after I got back on track pretty quickly. I think teens get a bad rap personally and in my experience we weren’t so daft when it came to money.
Does it worry you that teens may spend savings unwisely?
Foresters Friendly Society, a mutual financial services provider, carried out a survey about saving for children in November 2014. The results showed a huge number (73%) of parents/grandparents surveyed are either saving or intend to save for their children/grandchildren and sadly 32% are worried about how this money will get spent!
However, take a look at the findings from the survey in the infographic below.
Is there really much need to worry?
Are teens responsible with their money?
Clearly teens are actually pretty savvy when it comes to savings and it is fabulous that they are now being taught about finance as part of the national curriculum. Many of them wish they had been taught more.
I also found it encouraging to hear so many of them learn good money sense from their parents too. So I think, in tandem with saving for our children, we need to continuously teach as well as role model good money management to them. They obviously want to learn!
I think you can after all assume most teens will be money smart but I do think as parents we have a big and active role to play in this.
Have a look at Foresters Friendly Society’s blog. They have all sorts of great information on it. I particularly like the post showcasing apps and websites that make savings into fun games so kids learn about money and finance whilst playing. So useful and so important to start young.
Foresters Friendly Society offers a range of savings options depending on how much you want to save and how long you want to save for. To find out more about them visit www.forestersfriendlysociety.co.uk
You can also follow them across social media where they share loads of useful money saving tips
@ForestersFriend on Twitter and
Foresters Friendly on Facebook.
Roo at age 8 is pretty savvy when it comes to money as she never spends any of her own, she has learnt that Daddy or Granny will treat her to something that she wants whereas I expect her to pay at last half.
I was useless when it came to money. I would always splurge on something pointless and or spend everything in one go. My sister however was amazing with money. She still knows exactly how much money she has in which account or her purse whereas I still have no idea. I’ve become much better though 😉
This is one of those catch 22 things isn’t it? In my experience as a teen and as a mum of teens is that most of the time ‘no’ and yet at the same time they need the freedom and responsibility lessons that letting them get on with it financially gives.
A lot of it depends on the individual – I have 6 teens now and two of them are brilliant with money and the other four hopeless!
I’m trying to get Ruby into good habits already. She has a school bank account and is very excited about saving up. She’s just put in a request to withdraw some money for her summer holiday spending!
I was better with money when I was younger than I am now I think!
I also pleased by this and agree that teens get a raw deal for negative things usually. My teen is really good with her money.
I always had a job as a teenager and spent my own money. It was in my twenties that I managed to spend far too much and it wasn’t until my thirties that I paid it all off.
My 12 year old is really good with money although she does like a good splurge when she gets to a certain amount 😉
Very interesting 🙂 my girls are not teens yet but i am trying to make them responsible about money already. And hopefully they will be.