How to teach your teen to save and spend wisely

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If your child's pocket money evaporates faster than you earn, give him such a challenge.

1. Define a goal

This should be the most cherished desire of those that can be fulfilled for money. For the challenge to work, the goal must be more compelling than having fun with your friends. Have your child write down the goal in a prominent place. Sign next to it how much it costs.

If the item is expensive and it takes too long to save for it, agree that the child should collect part of the amount, and you will add the rest.

2. Break the goal into stages

Decide how much to save per week. To do this, the child must determine when he wants to receive the item and divide its cost by the number of weeks.

3. Find the money eaters

According to statistics, teenagers spend most of their pocket money on going to the movies, snacks and soda, and paying for mobile phones. Translate the value of the goal into something your child often buys, such as pizzas or soda bottles. This will help make the path to the goal visible and understandable: for example, to buy a gyro scooter, you have to give up 15 pizzas.

Invite your child to look into which "black holes" his money is flying. To do this, you need to write down what he spent on the last week, and identify the points that could be dispensed with. These are the money eaters. If you refuse them, you will be able to save more and save faster.

Show your child that he has a choice. He decides for himself what is important for him here and now. If, for example, it is more important for a teenager to go to the cinema with a girl he likes, then buying a bicycle can be postponed until later.

4. Tell me how to save more

Here are a few tricks that will help you not to spend money on small things (by the way, tricks work for adults as well).

• Notebook method. Ask your child to write down every waste, not for you, but for himself (do not demand to show the notes). This is important so that he himself can see the unnecessary expenses and calculate the money spent in vain.
• Unbought goods method. The next time your child wants to buy something badly, convince him to postpone the purchase for a couple of days. Emotions will subside, and he will be able to make an informed decision.
• Method 1/10. Suggest saving 10% of every amount that goes into your child's hands so that they don't turn into extra chocolates.
• Working time method. If the child has part-time work experience, let him transfer the purchase into working hours: he will calculate how long it will take to work in order to buy, for example, another sweatshirt. This thought makes the waste less enjoyable.

5. Find great deals

When the required amount is collected, ask the child to analyze the offers in different stores, look for discounts and promotions and choose the most profitable option.

6. Buy and Celebrate

When the item is purchased, consolidate pleasant memories: arrange a family holiday or a friendly party, take a photo and video as a souvenir. This will help create a chain in the brain: it is pleasant to accumulate and achieve goals. Then the next time the child himself wants to save up for a dream.