A whopping 88% of adults said high school did not fully prepare them for handling money in the real world. Many teens enter adulthood unprepared to make real-world money decisions. Learning through trial and error can be costly. As a parent, you can change that by teaching your teen smart money habits before they’re on their own.
It’s never too early to talk to your teen about responsible money management and empower them to build a strong financial foundation. Let’s explore steps you can take now to help your teen learn budgeting, saving, and using a debit card.
Smart spending and budgeting
Understanding income versus expenses is the foundation of responsible money management. Showing your teen how to create and manage a budget gives them the chance to practice a skill they’ll need to be comfortable with in the coming years.
Try these hands-on strategies to introduce smart spending habits in a low-stakes environment.
- Build out a budget: Use your teen’s allowance, part-time job earnings, or gift money, and help them set up a spreadsheet that shows their income and tracks their spending. There are many free templates online to get you started.
- Talk about smart spending: Let’s say your teen wants a new video game that costs $70. Instead of buying it right away, encourage them to wait a week and compare prices online. This simple exercise teaches patience and price awareness, two valuable skills for adulthood.
- Review their budget each month: Set aside 15 minutes to sit down with your teen and go over their budget. Remember, your teen will make mistakes. Keep your coaching hat on by asking questions that prompt your teen to think critically, instead of lecturing them.
Encourage savings habits
The best way to teach your teen how to save money is to empower them to practice now. Getting comfortable with setting aside part of their allowance, income, or gifts for larger purchases sets your teen up to achieve their long-term dreams.
Here’s how to help your teen get in the habit of saving.
- Teach wants versus needs: The 50/30/20 rule–50% needs, 30% wants, and 20% savings–is a good formula to help teens understand how to allocate funds.
- Set a savings goal together: This can be for a bigger purchase, like a new phone, a car, or a pair of high-tech headphones.
- Add the goal to your teen’s Greenlight app: This way, they can track their progress and watch their savings grow.
- Calculate potential savings: If your teen has a part-time job, sit down and figure out how much they could save over the summer. Seeing their potential savings grow over time can be a great motivator!
Greenlight teaches money management for teens
SECU has partnered with Greenlight to help our members raise financially smart kids. As a free member benefit, you can enroll in Greenlight and give your teens the Greenlight debit card. This card teaches them risk-free financial responsibility in a real-world setting. Instead of just talking about money, they get to practice budgeting, tracking expenses, and saving, all with your guidance.
- Parents can set flexible controls, monitor real-time spending with notifications, and instantly send money to their kid’s Greenlight debit card.
- SECU members with a checking or savings account get a Greenlight subscription for free with up to five kid debit cards.
- Teens can use the app to track their spending history, link direct deposits from jobs, play the fun game Level Up™ to easily learn money concepts, and set saving goals.
Help your teen build a strong financial foundation
Teaching financial basics now–smart spending, budgeting, and saving–sets your teen up for a lifetime of success. Giving your teen experience managing money with SECU’s Greenlight debit card is a great start. Sharing a parental-controlled debit card with your teen is a low-risk way to help teens learn important monetary skills.
Start your teen’s financial journey today! Sign up for SECU’s Greenlight debit card and help them build smart money habits before they leave home.
