Finance 101 for Kids

I learned at a very early age that it was important to manage my money.  My mother instilled in me the virtues of saving, keeping a check register, reconciling a bank account, and timely paying my bills.  I obtained my own credit card at age 17 and began building my credit history from there.  I do not believe that I have ever bounced a check.  (The thought sends shivers down my spine!)  In college, I took a shine to accounting, and I continue to be meticulous in the handling of both my personal and business finances.

Over the past year, I began to realize that my children needed some vital education in this area.  Much to my dismay, they are basically financially illiterate.  I thought I would begin their education in small ways, via baby steps, whenever the opportunity arose.  Thus, while at the grocery store, I challenged them with such tasks as selecting the lowest priced version of an item.  Cringing when they selected the item having the lowest sales price, I explained how to determine the best price by looking at the sales tag for the price per ounce and comparing it to the price per ounce of the other sizes of the same product.  Similarly, at home, one teen needed a check for an activity at school.  Happy at the thought that this was a teachable moment, I told her to write the check for me, and I would sign it.  Well, that check had to be voided.  She did not know how to properly fill out the check.  Just last week, I was asked to cash some checks for one child who had earned babysitting money.  I told her to endorse the checks for me.  Observing her with the pen poised above the check’s front side, I quickly said, “Wait!  Where are you going to endorse this check?”  Her reply?  “For.” “For what?” I asked.  “On the line that says ‘For’,” she said.  After explaining that the “For” line is for the person writing the check to list the reason for writing the check, I flipped the check over and showed her the spot where “Endorse Here” is very handily noted, providing her with the spot for her endorsement. 

Obviously, a haphazard approach to furthering their financial literacy was not going to cut it.  I decided I would have to have them take some sort of course.  Thinking that I would have to devise my own educational program for them, I began my research.  Lo and behold, there is a wealth of information on the internet, most of it at no cost!  I believe I spent several days reviewing lessons, culling information, and ordering information.  One website led to another yet more exciting, and now I am deluged with a plethora of financial education plans to choose from.  Most lesson plans can be run from the relevant websites.  Other websites give one the capability to register as an instructor so that a course of lesson plans can be devised.  Then, one can input the student’s names and assign passwords so that they can log in and take the lessons.  The instructor can then check on the progress, view test scores, and even authorize retakes of certain sections. 

If you want your children to be able to move out someday and pay their own bills, you may want to insure that they understand basic finance.  Equipped with the tools to make sound financial decisions, your children can go far in this world.  Here are some of the resources I utilized in my ongoing quest for knowledge:

• Jump Start Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy – Resources
• This website was my starting point, and I keep coming back here for more.
• FDIC - Money Smart for Young Adults
• The Money Smart lesson curriculum is one of my favorites for those in middle school, high school, college, and beyond.  Its modules offer important information in an entertaining format.  The FDIC also offers Money Smart geared towards
• AFSA Education Foundation's Financial Literacy Course
• The AFSA Financial Literacy Course is my other favorite for those in middle school, high school, college, and beyond.  This is the website where one can register as an instructor, input students, and have them learn assigned modules online.
• Operation Hope - Banking on Our Future
• I am using the lessons on this website for my youngest (age 8).
• The Beehive - How to Write a Check
• Excellent!!!! 
• Other Wonderful Financial Literacy Websites:
• Council for Economic Education - Online Economic Lessons for Grades K-12
• Federal Reserve Bank of Boston - Banking Basics
• National Endowment for Financial Education - Financial Tools
• U.S. Currency-Know Your Money - Educational Games and Resources
• It All Adds Up - For Teens Who Want a Head Start on Their Financial Future
• Planet Orange - Financial Literacy Resources
• Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas - Building Wealth in the Classroom

I now have so much information at my disposal that I do believe I could teach financial literacy in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms as well community centers for adults.  ….if I was so inclined!

The bottom line is that my children are not happy I am making them learn all this stuff.  In fact, the two eldest even stated that they knew everything they needed to know about finances.  Now they know different.  They have all started taking their assigned modules (albeit slowly and with quite a bit of trepidation) and have not whined at all about the “boring stuff I am making them do.” I think I did a good job in choosing the curriculum to make sure that the lessons would be interesting as well as informative.  You can do it too!!  Set your children on the path to financial success – It’s one of the best things you can do for them.

Caveat:  Don’t get too smug with yourself about how well you are teaching your offspring.  Right before I wrote this post, one of my teens required my help in sending a letter to a friend.  This letter was going to be posted the old way (snail mail), and put in the mailbox for pickup, mind you.  I had to take a blank piece of paper, draw a rectangle on it, and then draw in where the return and mailing addresses were to be written.  Shaking my head in a dismayed manner, I handed the paper to my teen.  Can you guess the next question?  “Where does the stamp go?” Big sigh from me.  I suppose I will now have to pull out my etiquette book and prepare a short course on How to Communicate with Others When Not Using the Internet.  Sheesh……it never ends.

Until Next Time ---JoAnna

Keep checking back – You never know what I’ll be up to next!