Read this introduction and then turn the mouse over to a teen you know. If you take these two clichés--money doesn't grow on trees, and the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree--and shake them up, you have the reason we've got a topic called "Teens and Money." Your teen is probably asking you for money even as you try to read this paragraph. Maybe you don't have your own kids, but you've been known to give money to a niece or a nephew, or a friend's kid. Raise your hand if you have never told a kid that money doesn't grow on trees. Because you hate financial planning and everything associated with it, chances are that kid you're thinking about right now doesn't care for it much either. Kids learn by example, after all.
Most high school students would flunk a test on money management. That‘s right! According to a 2002 JumpStart Coalition study of 4,024 seniors in 183 high schools across the country, only 4 percent of the students passed a test about basic money management. The average score on the test was 50.2 percent, down from 57.3 percent in 1997. Yet today‘s teenagers are part of the wealthiest generation ever.
"Teens & Money" is written from a teenager's point of view with lots of quick tips on how to take action in several areas, from budgeting and first jobs to saving for college, using a bank and the importance of saving. Show it to your kid (or other teens you think could benefit from some basic money talk) and they'll see that the information is friendly and makes sense. What's more, it doesn't sound like some 50-year-old accountant wrote it.