Just for Teens
As a teenager, you might not feel like you have much power in your house. But in the consumer world, teenagers are a force to be reckoned with. Teens have significant discretionary spending power, influence the purchases their parents make, and spend a great deal of time shopping.
In time, you will be responsible for buying more and more essentials (food, housing, education, transportation) so learning good money management skills now is critical. Fortunately, good money management skills are not difficult to learn or hard to follow:
- Establish financial goals. We’re not necessarily talking about your retirement here! Just things like future schooling, or even a car or backpacking around Europe. It’s always good to include a fund for emergencies too;
- Follow a budget. Buy keeping receipts or writing down what you spend each day for a week, you can establish what your current spending habits are and what areas need to be scaled back in order to reach your financial goals;
- Pay yourself first. Consistent, frequent, small deposits of just 10% of your earnings in a long-term savings account over an extended period of time will ensure significant growth of your money. Have this money automatically transferred into a savings account on each payday and you’ll never even notice the difference.
Many teens are interested in buying a bike, purchasing a cell phone, and returning items if you change your mind. We encourage you to explore this site to learn more about buying retail and the various store policies that you will encounter, and other top consumer issues.
