What Your Teen Doesn’t Know About Money Could Hurt Them: 8 Ways To Educate Them

Teens today may be savvier than prior generations due to the sheer amount of information at their fingertips via the internet, but that doesn’t mean they are up to speed on financial literacy.

In fact, a lot of misinformation abounds online, and the basics of money management that teens don’t know could hurt them in the future. 

“Basic financial literacy is incredibly important because financial mistakes made early in life can change the entire trajectory of one’s economic life circumstances,” pointed out Robert R. Johnson, professor of finance in the Heider College of Business at Creighton University and co-author of “The Tools and Techniques of Investment Planning” and others.

To avoid these financial fates for their kids, experts explained the importance of financial literacy and offered some resources.

Lack of Financial Literacy Has Serious Consequences

Two of the biggest financial crises confronted by Americans in the past dozen years have been caused by a lack of financial literacy, Johnson suggested. “Both the financial crisis of 2008-09 and the burgeoning student loan crisis were the result of a lack of financial literacy.”

Teaching financial literacy in college is simply too late, Johnson said. “By that time, many students have sealed their long-term fate by incurring burdensome student loans.”

He advocates for preparing students for the real world by teaching financial literacy in middle and high schools. Everything from budgeting to taxes to debt. 

Teaching Budgeting Is Most Important

Nancy Goodman, executive director and founder of CollegeMoneyMatters.org, agreed with the necessity of teaching students financial literacy as early as possible. She recommended starting with budgeting.

“I really think the most important thing for teens and even older to understand is … figuring out what you have coming in, figuring out whether what you want is a want or a need, which is something children have trouble distinguishing. And then creating a plan where you live within the income that you have coming in,” she said.

One of the Best Teachers Is Experience

Many young people get their financial education on social media, which Goodman said can be problematic. “There are some financial people on TikTok who are good enough but the devil is always in the details. And so you find that people [on social media] sort of understand the basics, but then they don’t really know where the potholes are.”

Instead, she said, kids may learn better from someone they know and trust who has good financial literacy. Whether that’s parents, older siblings or other friends and family who are willing to share what they know and have learned, in addition to other resources, that can be a good starting point. 

Be Wary of Financial Education With an Agenda

A lack of financial education can also hurt teens by not preparing them to know the differences between an institution or organization that wants to educate them for their own sake and one that has an agenda. 

“A lot of financial education online is put out by say credit card companies or in the world of student debt where I am, Sallie Mae, one of the for-profit student lenders, has a whole education section,” Goodman said. “They have a vested interest and they want you to take out college loans.”

She urged parents to talk to kids about where they get their information.

Help Teens Understand the Burdens of Student Loans

Additionally, since student loans might be the first loans that teens and young adults ever take out, she said it’s crucial that parents help them understand the real numbers of how much they’re borrowing and how much they’ll actually be paying back in terms of a monthly payment. 

“If you borrow $100,000 dollars to go to college, unless you are in one of the higher paid fields, you are basically doomed,” Goodman said.

Teach the Dangers of Credit Cards

Teens especially need to know about the predatory nature of credit cards, the high interest they charge and how easy it is to rack up debt that can become difficult to pay off, Goodman said. She pointed out that credit card companies know that parents often bail their children out of their debts, too and they take advantage of that in their sales tactics, as well as telling teens they only need to pay the minimum required.

“There’s no tutorial on credit card sites about how they work or the fact that interest starts getting charged immediately if you don’t pay it off in full,” Goodman said.

She added, “The forces of profitability are arrayed up against people who don’t know what they don’t know.”

Teach the Power of Compounding Interest

Another important lesson teens need to know is, just as they can build up interest owed by carrying balances on credit cards, they can also take advantage of compound interest through saving and investing.

She shared a story of a young couple who sought her help in figuring out how to pay down $8,000 in credit card debt, which translated to about $6,000 in actual purchase and $2,000 in interest paid to the credit card company.

“Essentially everything they bought in the last year, it’s as if you looked at the price tag and you paid 24% more. And they were sort of shocked,” she said.

Instead, she said, if they had saved $2,000 in some type of interest-earning savings account, they could draw on those funds instead of paying interest to a credit card. “[Teens] need to understand the negative side of not paying in full,” she added.

Teach Them To Use Cash Instead of Digital

Another problem that is unique to generations who have grown up using digital payment methods like Venmo, CashApp and PayPal is that “spending money is so seamless and so frictionless for this generation that it has no reality to them.”

She urged parents to teach kids to save and use cash whenever possible.

Utilize One of These Education Resources

Finally, Goodman recommended the following resources to teach your teens a wide variety of financial education:

• FDIC Money Smart
• Yanely Espinal, MissBeHelpful, author of “Mind Your Money”
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 
• Jumpstart Financial Literacy Database 
• Council for Economic Education 

By getting your kids on the path to financial literacy, you can save them from expensive mistakes down the road.