Practice Safe Spending with American Express

 “I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of American Express and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Talking with your kids about money is tough. Not as tough as having "THE" talk, but it's pretty difficult. Especially if you aren't the best role model. Maybe you were never taught how to spend correctly, or save, or be thrifty. Maybe you like to spend, but you don't want your child to be faced with a mountain load of credit card debt. Have you explained how credit is built? How, exactly, will you teach your child to "do as I say" and not necessarily, "do as I do"?

My older two kids have debit cards, and that's been a great way to help them learn to handle their money, while at the same time having the appearance of a credit card. Plus, it negates the "I've got cash in my pocket so I'm RICH, let's go SPEND!" syndrome that is so common.

I speak from experience. I frequently send kids to school to buy a $2.75 lunch with change, just because I never keep money around. If it's here, it's spent.

American Express has come up with a new initiative, aimed to help kids learn financial responsibility. After all, more than half of parents (57%) with kids in high school and college give schools below average or failing grades in teaching kids responsible spending, with more than one-third (35%) giving a straight out ‘F’. This is compared to 37% of parents who give schools an ‘A’ or ‘B’ for teaching safe sex, according to a recent American Express Survey. (source: American Express promotional material)

I'm not sure that I expect my kids to learn financial responsiblity at school. I'm thinking it would be better off to be taught at home, but I think I'm in the minority. Certainly it's a lofty goal - maybe you don't know what to say. In that case, visit the Practice Safe Spending tips link.

I'm really interested to know how you have handled this in your house. Has it been discussed, or is it a case of let the kids observe, process and then correct as necessary?

Comments

[Laura H.]

With my oldest child (9 years old) we discuss the amount of money coming in, and I show her my budget list, and explain what each item is, and then we discuss what's left for groceries, fun, etc. When we make a big purchase, we will let her take part in comparing prices online, and let her see how much we spent on it, and discuss why we chose that one. We've talked about credit (and why ours is bad, but we're now fixing it ugh). I want her to know how much $100 really is, so that she understands the ACTUAL value of money when she grows up. It's what my Mom did with me, so I'm just automatically doing it with our kids. I know some parents vehemently disagree with their kids knowing how much they make and spend, and that's fine, but this works for us. We don't have a bunch of credit cards and IRA's and all that, so we work with what we have.

[Laura H.]

I just noticed, the tail end of my comment sounded almost defensive. I didn't mean to, but I've been attacked for discussing our finances with my daughter, so I guess it's automatic to get defensive when I'm talking about it to strangers. LOL

[addy]

We discussed and taught every step of the way. Quite the savvy college girl now. Not to say she wont spend too much for the concert tickets but she knows how much she has and how long it needs to last. I am all for open communication about all things money. I don't think it is the school's responsiblity to teach that.