[USER]

My daughter just turned 13 (currentlytly in 7th grade). My wife and I had the “she’s going to be in high school & graduated before we know it” moment.

We want her to be ready for life on her own. Obviously one of the areas that’s important is finances and we want her to be prepared.

What ways have you prepared/are preparing your child and what steps did you take?

Books? Programs? Have them sit in with you doing your budget?

Opening a bank account? Just trying to figure out between 13-18 years of age kinda the steps to helping her.

She has a $20 allowance per month and it’s in our bank account and we track it through the budget app we use.

She’ll ask what’s in there when she would like things or we’ll make her pay for things occasionally like her having to pay for her pet snakes food and so forth.

She has chores (not great all the time being consistent ).

Anyhow, looking to get some other ideas what others have done/are doing that worked/didn’t work.

My parents never helped teach me with this so I very much so plan on having her be prepared.

Thank you all

[Randy]

My daughter isn’t quite 30 and she has saved $350-400,000 by working hard and living like a responsible college kid. She graduated college with her BS degree at 22.

She is a nurse and has been a travel nurse for a couple years which has helped, but it is more about living within her means.

My parents didnt talk much about money and I felt the need to start educating my kids early. I retired at 55 with 3.5 million on one mid-manager salary.

Financially she didn’t need to work, but she did while in high school and college for her benefit later in life.

She graduated with no debt and with a reliable hand me down car. She bought her first car after driving that one for 10 years to over 200,000 miles.

She wanted a “luxury” car and paid cash for a 2 year old low mileage Audi SUV 2 years ago.

She said that she wanted to indulge herself after working all that overtime during COVID. I educated my kids on money, investing, 401k and all before they graduated high school.

They didn’t get anything financially from me except no college debt and a reliable used car. I still talk to them about saving, investing and remind them of the importance of putting the money to work early in life.

My son is younger with a growing family, but is on a similar track to an early retirement if he chooses.

It feels good to never ever have a kid or adult child with their hand out for money. They spent less than they made in high school, college and still do as adults.

That is what it is all about. Live within your means and spend alot less than you make investing in low cost mutual funds.

They got the message and it feels good to see them suceed on their own!

[Mindi]

I learned a lot by sitting and watching my parents do their budget every month, realizing how expensive basic living expenses are and rarely anything left over for fun stuff.

Then when I was in college and had my first apartment and job I REALLY learned how to budget money and save.

Life experience is the best teacher.

[Bear]

I opened a separate savings account for each child with a debit card so that they could learn how to spend within budget and if they wanted something bigger/special in particular, they had to earn and save what was needed so they’d have enough money to pay.

When my son turned 16, he got a “real” job bussing tables. 20% of his paycheck is auto deposited to his brokerage account so he can save on a larger scale and he invests (we discuss what stocks/ETFs he buys.

Many are available in “slices”/partial shares). He invests weekly so he learns about dollar cost averaging.

I also update them on their accounts so they can see how they’re doing and can get used to stocks going up and down but up over time so they don’t panic sell on an off day.

I’ve also started showing them some of our monthly bills (I.e., electric, gas) so they can see what we have to pay each month.
Now that they drive, my daughter is in charge of most of our grocery shopping (she likes doing it).

I’ve taught them both about price comparison and staying within our weekly food budget.

They both wanted cars so they had to earn the down payment. (Some people have their kids earn all of the $ to pay for a car.

We are fortunate that I’m in a position where I could help more with that and I wanted them to have certain safety features and newer cars so as to have fewer maintenance costs.

That’s a choice others may disagree with but that worked for me).

We are now looking at colleges and have had many discussions regarding budget for cost of attendance, etc which were considered when deciding where to apply.

[Dena]

I have tried to be very open with our kids about our finance goals & spending habits.

I also am sending my 12 yo through a mentorship program that offers group webinars & individual sessions for all things related to money & investing.

They covered many different topics including general finance, budgeting, retirement & then investing education in stocks, real estate and business.

Kids don’t always think their parents are smart so I feel someone else instilling everything I’ve taught them & more is the best approach.

They do it in age based groups & my oldest kids 20-21 have done one on one sessions with her too and it’s been an invaluable asset for them!

My oldest son opened his own business & had a session covering all things taxes & how to save money that way as well!

[Tribbett]

We started regularly funding our children’s 529 college savings plans since they were babies. Thanks to this, they received their college degrees “free” with no debt.

Also, there is enough money left to maximally fund their Roth IRAs with the allotted $35,000.

Once we max out this money, we will continue to maximally fund their Roth IRAs (income permitting) and fund brokerage accounts for them.

Yes, they know how to manage money; and are motivated, hard-working, appreciative young adults.

[Russell]

My kids are 5 and 7. They get an allowance ($5/mo) which doesn’t buy much in this economy. If they want something with it, we have a discussion about if it’s a good value and will give them enough fun for the cost.

It’s pretty funny watching a 5 year old assess a toy and declare the price unreasonable for the value.

They both have custodial Schwab accounts, though we’ve not discussed that with them yet.

It was mostly for gifts from a relative.

But I’ve mentioned to plant the seed the idea of compounding investments and having money grow on its own so that more detailed talk can come later.

[Elizabeth]

Talking and communicating about money is important. Besides basic chores like make your bed, keep your room tidy and clean etc, we will have a chore list with tasks and different payable amounts for each task they are free to pick and choose from.

Besides chore tasks- there will also be entrepreneurial opportunities like “tell a story, put on a play, start a business, etc” and these will have no payable amounts listed, as the pay will be negotiable.

Besides that, the importance of budgeting is probably #1 priority.

And then of course saving and investing, paying themselves first.

[Christine]

Because I had to learn the hard way, this is what I’ve been doing:
(1) start talking about what is a budget, showing them how to shop and save; not buying them stuff that they don’t need; when they are able to work, let them pay for their own stuff like Starbucks, skincare, clothes, etc

My 15 year old works part time hours
(2) teaching my kids to not be entitled by not giving them cars in high school (it’s not necessary for them since I work from home); not giving tech that they don’t need (my 16 yr old still doesn’t have a phone just a smartwatch)

We gave my then senior a choice between a new car with insurance or money for any college

My 18 year old chose to save money for college instead of getting a car and insurance

As a result he has money for his 4 yr selective university

(3) role modeling fugal and wise spending choices (we don’t go on vacations often to save money), showing them how to buy more for their bucks

They know we are savers because we want to cash flow their college and the only way to do that is not keep up with “the Jones”

(4) most important of all, taking about what kind of budget we have for college and the expectations that come with going to college (budgeted spending, no lavish lifestyle, affordable education)
My college freshman doesn’t order DoorDash or spend money on going out

[Kasey]

We increased allowance to $20 a week. Personal chores like room/her own laundry/her dishes/her bathroom area we made clear that that was personal responsibility and we were not paying allowances for that.

But tried to include chores that benefited everyone like taking garage and recycling out/ back to the house, checking the mail daily, Roating who clean the guess bathrooms.

Dog poo cleanup in yard. Maybe vacuuming the whole house once a week.

Then we we would go on vacation I’d tell them we would pay for all the things but shopping/souvenirs. Let them know the plan when they needed to save.

Or would take them to the movies but if they wanted candy they have to pay for it.

(we would always talk about those little things way prior so they knew) Little things that would make them think, do I want to spend that money now or save for something bigger?

[Michele]

Our kids paid for 1/2 of all expensive stuff (Nintendo DS) and anything that was a “want”. Made them think hard about buying another stuffed animal.

They had to wait a day if it wasn’t on sale.
Gave them a budget for clothes, anything beyond that was on their dime.

Jobs in hs (at least the summer) and that was for their fun friend stuff during the school year.

Let them know how much phone and insurance is even if we are paying.
I personally like spreadsheets for college prep.

You should definitely start one for college and track current costs of local

schools including community colleges and techs (on the web).
Put down how much you are contributing.

Fed Loans are minimal, put in $25k. Look up the yearly amounts online. Expect nothing more unless there is merit, which you likely won’t know until senior year.

Show your kid. Every school you look at you input the data for that school and then evaluate the gap.

Things get real very fast.

[Katy]

have her get a job… none of this is applicable until it’s the money earned by the kid

[Joe]

We talk to our kids about money. We talk about how much we make, what things cost, what it takes to live in a VHCOL area, what we did to make high income, don’t buy stuff you don’t need, buy used as much as possible, how to cook, investing 50% of your take home income.

We will pay for our kids’ colleges with the expectation they’ll earn a good living afterwards.

[Valerie]

We talked to our daughter about money. She knew our financial situation, our salary etc. she understood world events like what it meant if the government shutdown (because it affected us) She had a bank account at 5, a debit card as a teen.

She took a personal finance class in high school. She held a job starting at age 16.

At age 12 she wanted an iPhone and got a job babysitting all summer long, every day to buy that phone. She understood how much work it took to buy it, and to this day (she is in college now) she has never so much as cracked a screen on a phone.

She takes care of her stuff. She understands the value of money.

Her dad died and she knows every detail of the money I received. Our parents kept us in the dark about money, we didn’t want to do the same.

[Liz]

Start talking about life finances- how do credit cards work (always pay them off every month or don’t buy it), how car loans work, how compounding works, basic investing, Roth IRA….

What do you wish your parents had taught you?

[Author]

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