Money Management for Teens
When I was a teenager I was thrilled by the independence my first part-time job gave me but I thought money management was spending until my bank account was empty. So many financial advisors recommend that parents get into the habit of using cash to help teach kids about money management but in today’s high tech society, many times it just isn’t realistic. Debit cards and credit cards provide a digital record of where our money goes and are much faster and more secure than using cash.
Current by Discover Card has come up with an innovative new way to teach teens to be financially responsible. Current by Discover card is a new type of card, not quite credit card, not quite debit card, that allows parents to monitor their teen’s spending and set limitations on spending amount and where their teen can spend money by blocking certain businesses. Teens can receive their paycheck from a part-time job as a direct deposit on their Current card or parents can set up a weekly or monthly direct deposit from their bank account as an allowance.
Discover Card offers great educational resources to help teach teens about the importance of solid financial choices. Learning to budget is an important life skill that will influence so many aspects of your teen’s life. Starting the financial education process early can help give your teen a jump start, and give you the security of knowing where your teen is spending his money.
If you aren’t comfortable with credit/debit/prepaid card for your teen, or your kids are younger, or you just want more payment flexibility, but you want the benefits of an electronic record to help impose spending visibility and fiscal discipline, you might consider using one of the emerging online allowance management applications. They typically have a number of other helpful tools built-in – chore management, splitting between spending/saving/giving accounts, savings goal tracking, budgeting, loans, etc. Try Googling on Virtual Family Bank to see what’s out there.