Comments

• Chen Teo, WI 10/07/08

  Chen 08/10/08
  Help! My 15 year old son wants money in return for taking school final exam. He seem to turn deaf ears to all good advices that education is for his own good from teachers , parents and aunts . Also he has already skipped 2 papers and seem to want to continue this way. Also , he has "rich working friends" who are school drop outs who seem to meet his daily needs and he hates his parents for giving him very "meagre" allowances which was shrunk as he started wasting allowances on gaming habits and neglecting his studies.

• Mary 05/07/08

  Help! I am in the midst of having 2 tweens and feel like I’m failing parenting. The problem is they are so inconsistent – one day, just fine and doing okay in school, the next crying and yelling and bringing home D’s and F’s. My daughter just got her period and claims she can’t get out of bed on her first day. I guess I just need patience to get through this.

• Allie F. 05/07/08

  This article was very helpful and made me rethink the way that I’ve talked to my kids about money. Whenever I tell them that we “can’t afford something,” or something costs too much, they ask, “are we poor?” Although we don’t have as much as some of their classmates’ parents, we are certainly middle class. I think kids have a misconception—that people are either rich or poor-- whereas the real issue is how you look at money and spend money. (You can have very little and spend big, unfortunately, with the help of credit cards.) I am going back to the drawing board and start their money education over again.

• Gene 05/06/08

  Bravo on getting into the thick of it about money! As an accountant, I think I’ve done okay starting bank accounts for my kids, teaching them how to use their allowances, etc. But I wish the schools would get involved and give a course for juniors or seniors in “Living 101.” Since that’s probably not going to happen, parents have to step in. They should teach their kids how to budget on a short-term and long-term basis, and even how to invest when they have extra.

• Molly 05/05/08

  I’m a single mother and I’ve been in debt most of my life. It’s really hard to keep it together when you have kids who need stuff. After I read this, though, I sat down with my daughter and son and told them that they’ve got to start using the money they earn at their jobs differently than I ever did. And that I’m going to try to keep to a budget and even save something at the end of the month.

• Karen Vogel 05/01/08

  I'm confused. If my 16-year-old was working (which he is), but not following our 10 percent savings rule, he would be told to quit his job. There wouldn't be a choice. Saving is a habit, and it needs to be taught and reinforced. None of us like to save what we could spend; we do it anyway.
  
  And if I gave my kid a car and he complained about it? I'd take away the car and give him a nice bicycle instead. Sometimes (most times) kids need to earn things to appreciate them.