Here is a list of 7 steps that you can use to help prepare your teens to be financially successful and responsible adults. Feel free to adapt these suggestions to your individual family dynamics.
To truly value money, teens need to
earn their own income
1. Start Bank on Yourself policies for your teens (if you have not already) and/or help them purchase their own policy. You can get a referral to a specially trained Bank On Yourself Authorized Advisor who will work closely with you to customize a plan that’s designed specifically for your family.
2. Share details of your own Bank on Yourself policies with your children and review both your and their policies every six-months. Show them how you are utilizing your policies to predictably retain and grow more of your own money without paying interest or exorbitant fees to banks, brokerage firms and others.
3. Expose your teens to your full family financial picture – including what you earn, what you spend, what you borrow, and how you invest and save. You may wish to have your children participate by writing checks, reconciling accounts and helping to set and monitor your family budget.
4. Put your kids to work. To truly value money, teens need to earn their own income, whether through outside jobs, entrepreneurial ventures or by getting paid for family chores.
5. Don’t forget charity. Encourage your kids to set aside a regular portion of their earnings and income for a good cause, be it church or other worthy nonprofits. Such gifting will be returned to them many times over in terms of the character it builds.
6. Paint a vibrant picture of your adolescent’s fiscal future – one free from the money worries that envelop so many young adults and their parents. Help teens formulate their own vision of what a life of financial self-reliance and freedom will mean for them.
7. Allow kids to make mistakes and even fail when it comes to managing their own finances. Few adults get it right the very first time, either. Remember, we all learn a great deal from our mistakes.
© 2011 – Hayward-Yellen 100 Ltd Partnership
We have a 529 College fund for our daughter and didn’t know that we could open a BOY policy for her. This may be the perfect tool to place the 529 funds into.
Since November 2007, I have been investing in a 529 plan for my 5 kids. I would have done better if I simply put the money in CD’s at 0% interest! That’s right, I have nothing to show for it. Would I be able to transfer that money (without paying a penalty) to a BOY policy?
I’m not a licensed advisor, so I don’t know the answer – but I’d urge you to request a FREE Analysis, which will get you a referral to a Bank On Yourself Authorized Advisor who can review your situation and go over your options.