Talking to your Teen Tip #3
Share Your Own Successes and Mistakes
The more that money is discussed, the more that it is understood.
Be your teen’s best example. Discuss your own financial successes and failures with your teen.
You don’t always have to use exact dollar amounts. If you do, you may first want to tell your teen that you expect them to keep your conversations in confidence. They should not discuss your family money matters with their friends at the lunch table!
What financial decisions have you made that were successful? Did you move out of an apartment and buy a house? Did you work hard to pay off credit card debt? Of course you want your own teen to make the same positive choices that you have made and have the same feelings of success! So share these choices with your teen freely and often.
Do you ever wish that your child will avoid the mistakes that you made? Now is the time to tell them! Tell them why you were hurt by your own poor decisions. But more importantly, tell them how valuable the lesson was to you. If they see your mistakes as a valuable lesson to you, they will be more likely to see it as a valuable lesson to themselves.
By discussing your own successes and mistakes often and freely with your teen, you are setting the best example that they will have. You are encouraging them to learn more about basic money skills.
Because the more that money is discussed, the more that it is understood.
Click here to read the next article:
"Review Their Successes and Mistakes with Them"
