How do you make your teens change their spending habits if you have given your teens the illusion that money falls from the sky? On the other hand, you might want to grab hold of this economic down turn to tell them that money is no longer falling from the sky where you are concerned and hence where they are concerned too.
In all fairness, assess your teens' spending habits with them. You may be surprised at the expenses that teens consider 'normal'. For example, boys are still growing into their late teens and have unsatiable appetites at times. It is unfair to compare the amount of money they spend on food with the amount that their sister might have spent at the same age.
In a more affluent society, an acceptable outing includes gatherings at a coffee house or dining at a restaurant. While some teens are able to afford such luxuries, others such as your own teens may not because you do not earn as the parents of your teens' friends do. In such circumstances, there are more issues your teens need to grapple with, apart from money issues. There is the issue of apparent injustice in society, the issue that your teens are the unlucky ones in society, the issue of the different earning powers of parents.
You might want to consider these alternatives:
~ Be a good example of a wise spender
~ Do your family financial planning with your teens
~ Get your teens to earn their keeps
~ Take those plastic money cards away
Be a good example of a wise spender.
Research on habits of children into adulthood has time and again proven that wise parents produce wise children. Chances are that those closest to your teens are careless spenders. Children learn from a young age by imitating the actions of adults they are close to. If you have been the errant spender, it is not too late to change for the better. As parents, you are the head of the household, and even if your teens do not accept your sudden saintly spending, the truths will soon hit them hard and their spending habits will become more realistic.
If your teens have, on the other hand, not been careless spenders but scrooges, lessons to learn can be financial planning and assurance that although money is not easy to come by, stinging on necessities such as good food and lasting goods may reap undesirable results as well. Teach them to think in a rational and logical manner. For example, teach them that it is wiser to spend a little more on a good pair of shoes that lasts years and gives good support than buy cheaper shoes that do not last even three months and because they are poorly designed result in strained muscles.
Spending and saving are lifelong actions and making wise decisions are virtues that every person can choose to learn to do, so do not give yourself or your teens any reason NOT to stop their undesirable spending habits. Help them change their spending habits for the better.
Do your family financial planning with your teens.
It is never too late to try anything. Perhaps it is the right time to teach your teens financial planning. Teach them to distinguish needs from wants, immediate and delayed spending. Help them to realise the virtue of patience, especially where deciding to spend a large amount on a single item. Help them realise that their huge amount of pocket money means less spending on other essentials and definitely less savings for a rainy day.
Ensure that in all the decisions, you have a logical explanation that will appeal to their senses. Teens want to appear mature and trustworthy. They respond better to calm and well-meaning conversations. If you feel that you are not the right person to knock sense into their heads, seek the help of an adult they hero worship to do the talking and reasoning.
Under all circumstances, do not compare their spending habits to another teen's, such as a cousin, a sibling or a friend. Remember that each teen is an individual and has his legitimate rights and pride. Talk within your teens' circumstances and needs. He will be better able to accept any suggestions to change their habits.
Get your teens to earn their keeps.
As parents, it is our responsibility to provide our teens with their basic needs. This would include their college fees, school supplies, transport to and from school and allowance for their meals away from home. You may want to work in a marginal amount for 'emergencies' such as they having to stay behind and miss the school bus due to a school project and needing to take the public bus home. Make it clear the kind of emergency the money is for and that the money will be replenished if the emergency it is last spent on is justified.
You might want to allow your teens to work at the fast food restaurants a few hours during the weekend, provided that they have completed their school work during the weekday. You and your friends may also have chores your teens can manage around the house or your workshop and earn their extras for a target .
It would have been easier to mold your teens' money habits from a younger age. Children do change, however, for the better or worse regardless of their earlier upbringing as they enter their teen years. This can be due to peer influence, changing needs and a host of other reasons. Teens who have been taught from young to earn their allowances, their toys and other goodies from young, face the same challenges in managing their money as teens go through growing pains such as peer pressure and keeping up with their peers. However, they will manage better than teens whose allowances fall from the lap of their parents.Teens who from young earn their extras learn to be more patient, expect less, are more independent financially and otherwise and are better savers than teens who have everything given to them unconditionally.
Take those plastic money cards away.
How do people get into bad debts with credit cards? The problem is that the amount of expendable and easy money is much more than what is available in reality and people are spending their future income away. Moreover, few bother to keep up with any accounting of their spending until the next credit card bill comes along. They then pay the minimal amount and let the balance snowball until they have an avalanche of payments to make.
If adults have such difficulty managing their finances with a credit card, imagine the challenges teens face especially when they ride on their parents' credit cards.
Your teens will soon grow into adults who will have to manage their finances on their own wisely. As their parents, helping them through their teenage monetary growing pains may be a good way to help them avoid major crises in their adult life. At the end of the day, a teen who manages his life decisions wisely by himself manages his own finances best.