Hey, I hope you’re having a great day! Last week we discussed how to talk to your toddlers about money, some of you asked, “how do we now talk to our teenagers about money”. That’s actually where we’re headed today, how do we talk to our teens or preteens. The first thing to remember is your kids are always watching you, you’re their example for everything in life. Think back in your own life, how your own money mindset was made up is in part based on how your parents and how they handled or didn’t handle the finances or talking about money.  Your kids are going to be watching you and they’re going to learn from you and your habits. A good resource is called ‘The Opposite of Spoiled’ by Ron Lieber, it’s a good book that goes back to what we talked about last week and expands on that for all older kids as well. Last night I talked with my 13-year-old nephew who just finished the Dave Ramsey kids course. I asked him what some of the most impactful pieces in that coursework was for him and he mentioned part of what we talked about last week, it was the save, spend, and give sections. For him it was helping him establish that budget and siphoning off those things. For older kids you can let them determine what they want to put in each of those three jars most people start out 10% to give 10% to save 80% to spend but for him, he said “Uncle Lance I don’t really care to spend a whole lot, so for me it was 80% to save 10% to spend 10% to give”. Since you know your kids and their habits it becomes based on their own preference.  If they have things, they want to save for like that new PlayStation then help them figure out what the budget amount is going to be. Ex. you know this is how much it’s (item they want) going to cost, based on what your allowances or what gifts you’re getting this is how long it’s going to take for you to get there; really help them figure out, OK if I want to do that this is where I need to kind of maneuver my money to get there. Another thing you can do as kids get to the later stages of high school, think about getting them a credit card. Hear me out, it’s not because they need free run of money. One, it’ll help them build a little bit of credit going into college age, but also while they’re under your roof and under your protection giving them access to a credit card and letting them learn how to figure it out under your watch and care is a lot better than having to make the mistakes of handling a credit card after they’ve graduated and are trying to figure out OK now, I’ve got this thing then just swipe some money appears. It’s better for them to make a mistake under your house when you have control of the statements and their credit limit and things like that, in a more controlled environment rather than their first taste of the credit card being off on their own. There are other things that you can talk with him about like investments how to build the budget and different things like that. If you want to talk in more detail about those other topics feel free to reach out to us here at Next Step Financial Transitions. I hope you all have a great rest of the week!