Oldest child is working should we make her save money and help with her bill? (teenagers, teaching)
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My parents insisted we contribute 25% of our paycheck (including babysitting money!) towards "rent" so we would understand fiscal responsibility. We also had to contribute 25% to a savings account.
They paid for our cars, gas, clothes, tuition, etc. I had to pay for car insurance.
When I was in the process of purchasing my first house, they handed me a check. They had invested my "rent" money. It was a nice chunk of change.
My parents insisted we contribute 25% of our paycheck (including babysitting money!) towards "rent" so we would understand fiscal responsibility. We also had to contribute 25% to a savings account.
They paid for our cars, gas, clothes, tuition, etc. I had to pay for car insurance.
When I was in the process of purchasing my first house, they handed me a check. They had invested my "rent" money. It was a nice chunk of change.
How wonderful of them to keep the money for when you needed it.
I second looking at Dave Ramsey's site - he suggests teaching kids to do three things with the money they make:
Give. Save. Spend.
This way, they learn and understand how money works, how it changes your life, how to invest in your future, how to be generous, how to enjoy money, etc.
I have uncharacteristically stayed out of what my college kids (19/21) do with their paychecks. They both worked hard in HS school and earned merit scholarships to help pay for college and they both work, pay for their own gas, the majority of their clothes/shoes, a fair amount of their food, entertainment, school supplies. They don't hit us up for money.
If I thought they were making stupid choices I might step in and ask to see some proof of savings. But I think they both have their heads on pretty straight for the most part and are taking the steps necessary to become independent and self supporting adults.
So oldest child just started working, wife and I believe she should set aside 50$ from each paycheck into a savings account, we figure if she does this in 3 years when she hits 18 she would have roughly 7k in savings to do WHATEVER she wants to do with it, travel,college, buy nice vehicle, whatever she wants, we also have talked to her about paying for her new cell phone which will be around 30-40$ a month, she wants a google pixel 6 so we said we would pay for the down payment etc and she should pay for the payment every month, she says she is fine with that. Is this a good idea to teach her some financial responsibility and slowly introduce her to paying bills and saving money...Neither my wife or I were EVER taught financial responsibility we had to learn it on our own and we have no savings and live paycheck to paycheck etc. I want different for my kids.
Ok so if she is 18 in 3 years I'm assuming she's 14/15, which means she can only work so many hours every week and that all depends on what state you in but a rough ball park for the average amount of hours someone 14/15 can work is roughly 18 hours a week during the school year.
Average pay for someone that age in the positions they can apply for is anywhere from $8-$12/hr, so lets go with the average of $10/hr.
If they worked the max 18 hours a week and made $10/hr they'd make $720 a month, $8,640 a year before taxes, this would stick them in the 24% tax bracket meaning their take home would be roughly $550/mo.
After taking out the payment for the phone and money for savings she'll have roughly $450 left over every single month.
Now if you think about it high school runs daily from usually about 7-2/3pm, most kids have a homework load of several hours every night, they also have dinner and chores and as everyone else in the world needs, some down to yourself before bed to decompress from everything.
The bulk of kids shifts are on the weekend, thats where they can work the most of their hours. At 14/15 I could only legally work like 3-4 hour shifts on school nights and no more than 8 hours on the weekends.
This takes away from family time, extra curricular activities etc.
Honestly I think working during high school takes away from all the things you could be doing, like learning something you can use in a future careers, sports and arts camps that boost resumes and college apps.
If they spend this time now in high school shaping and molding themselves into something valuable they'll get good jobs and never need to worry about living paycheck to paycheck.
Getting a job as a teenager forces you into these low level, low paying positions that only teach you how to follow instruction from a supervisor and how to be a good little worker bee who doesn't question anything.
Don't get me wrong I think its great she has a lot of drive at her age and willingness to work but she should be more concerned with working on herself, instead of worrying about bills at 15 she could be interning and doing more with school so that when she graduates she goes onto some form of higher education.
I started working at 14 and I worked as much as I could. It cut into my time after school for homework, it cut into my weekends with my family and despite being made to put some aside I am still terrible with managing money.
I wish I had spend that time instead doing things that looked great to trade schools or college, I wish I had spent time interning places I would want to work in the future, I wish I had spent that time doing anything else besides toiling away doing menial labor for peanuts.
Also don't forget that as she gets into her Junior and Senior year if she wants to get into a good college then she'll need to take hard classes which take up more of your time after school and on the weekends, leaving her less time to work.
Does your daughter plan to attend college? Do you plan to apply for financial aid? The answer to this question will definitely impact your idea on saving $50 a month and what it gets spent on.
If you plan to apply for financial aid it's best to make her, and yourselves as cash poor as possible. If you do move forward with that plan of saving $50 a month, make sure it's spent prior to filling out your FAFSA form.
Set her up on something like Mint.com or You Need a Budget. I started on Mint when I graduated from college in 2010 and it has been very gratifying for me to watch my net worth increase - in particular how saving early has made it so that my net worth increase isn't linear! It integrates into bank accounts, credit cards, retirement and investment accounts, even crypto wallets now, so everything happens automatically (whether I like it or not!). I've been through some tough stuff financially - namely a diagnosis of stage IV cancer a few months out of college and years paying the financial price - so it's easy to feel behind. Tracking my budget shows how even those years where I was putting away the minimum to get a retirement match at work and could only save $25 a month added up.
Mint not only shows where money is coming from, but where it goes. One year in my end-of-year roundup, it showed me how much I spent on Chipotle. It had been a difficult year with lots of obligations that kept me out of the kitchen, but man was it eye opening! I opt for more batch cooking now.
I wish I had a better grasp of compound interest before graduating from college. I saved all of my birthday, Hanukkah, and babysitting money in high school, but spent it all in college. Happily, most of that was for a year abroad living in 3 different countries and traveling to about a dozen more - something I wouldn't get the opportunity to do as a "grown up" with a job and other obligations, but I wish I had saved more instead of getting my weekly Thai takeout or buying trendy clothes. It's easy to spend $5 on coffee or $15 on a tshirt, but seeing how that could have grown if invested later on would have been very motivating for me. If you can help show your child how to set up a budget and what those numbers really mean, all the better!
And if you live in a cheap COL area, make sure to run some numbers with your child about more expensive areas. My parents taught me based on where we lived knowing that I wanted to go to college (and did!) in a much more expensive out of state metro. They told me that my salary would be higher to scale with the COL - not true! Give some comparisons.
If she does not have a bank account then now is the time to go in together and open one up.
It might be intimidating for her to do it herself.
Just becoming familiar with how banks work is valuable.
Should you require her to save a certain amount every week? No, she is old enough to make her decisions.
But you can do a soft-sell by asking what she might want to save money for: a car, a nice trip, etc.
Plant that seed and see what she says.
Its time for you to let go a bit and let her make decisions.
Yes we signed her up for an online bank that me and her mother use as well and it's VERY easy to swap money around. Her job still gives paper checks so we will have to figure out how to deposit her check lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by txtqueen
Ok so if she is 18 in 3 years I'm assuming she's 14/15, which means she can only work so many hours every week and that all depends on what state you in but a rough ball park for the average amount of hours someone 14/15 can work is roughly 18 hours a week during the school year.
Average pay for someone that age in the positions they can apply for is anywhere from $8-$12/hr, so lets go with the average of $10/hr.
If they worked the max 18 hours a week and made $10/hr they'd make $720 a month, $8,640 a year before taxes, this would stick them in the 24% tax bracket meaning their take home would be roughly $550/mo.
After taking out the payment for the phone and money for savings she'll have roughly $450 left over every single month.
Now if you think about it high school runs daily from usually about 7-2/3pm, most kids have a homework load of several hours every night, they also have dinner and chores and as everyone else in the world needs, some down to yourself before bed to decompress from everything.
The bulk of kids shifts are on the weekend, thats where they can work the most of their hours. At 14/15 I could only legally work like 3-4 hour shifts on school nights and no more than 8 hours on the weekends.
This takes away from family time, extra curricular activities etc.
Honestly I think working during high school takes away from all the things you could be doing, like learning something you can use in a future careers, sports and arts camps that boost resumes and college apps.
If they spend this time now in high school shaping and molding themselves into something valuable they'll get good jobs and never need to worry about living paycheck to paycheck.
Getting a job as a teenager forces you into these low level, low paying positions that only teach you how to follow instruction from a supervisor and how to be a good little worker bee who doesn't question anything.
Don't get me wrong I think its great she has a lot of drive at her age and willingness to work but she should be more concerned with working on herself, instead of worrying about bills at 15 she could be interning and doing more with school so that when she graduates she goes onto some form of higher education.
I started working at 14 and I worked as much as I could. It cut into my time after school for homework, it cut into my weekends with my family and despite being made to put some aside I am still terrible with managing money.
I wish I had spend that time instead doing things that looked great to trade schools or college, I wish I had spent time interning places I would want to work in the future, I wish I had spent that time doing anything else besides toiling away doing menial labor for peanuts.
She's 15 yes, she WANTED to get a job, I never pushed her, heck I delayed taking her application back I wanted to make sure that's what she really wanted but she does essentially online high school where can move at her own pace so she was very bored at home because she was finished entire units of school in a few hours vs a few weeks for regular school kids so she wanted to do something to get out of the house. Right now she is working 25 hours a week and she loves it so far. She's pretty much a model 15 year old, not really into boys, VERY mature for her age, isn't really a social butterfly, I have a feeling her drive comes from not only her mother who busts her butt 12 hours a day working but also she has seen how me and my wife have struggled for so long to make ends meet and doesn't want to do that, we have pushed education from day one and she is an A/B student and allowed her to switch from normal high school to online school where she can go at her own pace and I told her as long as she stays on pace with the normal class she was in I have no problem but she is already weeks ahead and may end up half done with 10th grade by the end of May she was only in her 2nd semester of 9th when she started this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChiGuy2.5
Does your daughter plan to attend college? Do you plan to apply for financial aid? The answer to this question will definitely impact your idea on saving $50 a month and what it gets spent on.
If you plan to apply for financial aid it's best to make her, and yourselves as cash poor as possible. If you do move forward with that plan of saving $50 a month, make sure it's spent prior to filling out your FAFSA form.
Yes absolutely, I told ALL my kids at 18, it's college, military or a job and you are out on you're own. College you can stay home as long as you attend and pass. Yes on Financial Aid as well, thank you for the advice! Didn't realize needed to do that.
Yes we signed her up for an online bank that me and her mother use as well and it's VERY easy to swap money around. Her job still gives paper checks so we will have to figure out how to deposit her check lol.
She's 15 yes, she WANTED to get a job, I never pushed her, heck I delayed taking her application back I wanted to make sure that's what she really wanted but she does essentially online high school where can move at her own pace so she was very bored at home because she was finished entire units of school in a few hours vs a few weeks for regular school kids so she wanted to do something to get out of the house. Right now she is working 25 hours a week and she loves it so far. She's pretty much a model 15 year old, not really into boys, VERY mature for her age, isn't really a social butterfly, I have a feeling her drive comes from not only her mother who busts her butt 12 hours a day working but also she has seen how me and my wife have struggled for so long to make ends meet and doesn't want to do that, we have pushed education from day one and she is an A/B student and allowed her to switch from normal high school to online school where she can go at her own pace and I told her as long as she stays on pace with the normal class she was in I have no problem but she is already weeks ahead and may end up half done with 10th grade by the end of May she was only in her 2nd semester of 9th when she started this.
Yes absolutely, I told ALL my kids at 18, it's college, military or a job and you are out on you're own. College you can stay home as long as you attend and pass. Yes on Financial Aid as well, thank you for the advice! Didn't realize needed to do that.
Most jobs start you at that bottom rung and it's usually at least a year into a company before you can start moving up and getting raises.
Right out high school at 18 without going to college, there isn't much you can just hop right into and make enough to support yourself.
I say as long as they're working what's wrong with them still staying a few years while working and saving?
I wouldn't rush to boot anyone out of the nest at 18 especially if they were working a lot of hours and contributing to the household.
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