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\u2022 Almost 75% are in some form of debt, and most assume they always will be.*<\/p>\n
*according to a 2017 online CareerBuilder survey<\/p>\n
Youthentity\u2019s financial literacy program begins with fifth-graders, teaching them the basics of finance \u2014 credit, debt, interest, saving and more \u2014 and builds upon those concepts for eighth-grade Level 2 students. Yet as important as formal education is, raising money-smart kids starts at home \u2014 and most experts agree you can\u2019t start too early:<\/p>\n
Ages 3-5: Add earnings from chores, the tooth fairy, and lemonade stands to a clear jar to employ a powerfully visual way to teach your kids about money. When your child wants to buy a new toy, have them take money out of the jar and physically hand it to the cashier. Show \u2014 don\u2019t tell \u2014 kids what things cost.<\/p>\n
Ages 6-10: Include your child in financial decisions. For example, explain your choice to go with a store brand: \u201cThe store brand is a dollar less, and it tastes the same to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tweens: Go to the bank with your child and set up a joint account (once they turn 18 they can set up an independent account). Review statements together, pointing out balances and earned interest. Get them on a simple budget (using a spreadsheet or app) to get them accustomed to the idea of putting away a percentage of their savings, no matter how small.<\/p>\n
Teenagers: Help them to begin thinking of ways to make money with after-school and summer jobs (or starting their own business), and the power of investing their earnings. Also, discuss the danger of credit cards \u2014 once they turn 18, they\u2019ll be hounded by credit card companies looking for new and uneducated card holders.<\/p>\n
At any age: Set an example in the way that you use and talk about money. Reinforce the power of delayed gratification. Teach them about opportunity cost (\u201cIf we buy these shoes now, you won\u2019t be able to buy an iPad\u201d) and the security afforded by an emergency fund.<\/p>\n
Though it\u2019s an incredibly tough time for many, the cyclical nature of our economy ensures it will recover. Yet during those upswings it\u2019s easy to forget that future recessions are a guarantee. Now is the time to teach kids about the power of compounding interest and of living below one\u2019s means. If we fail to invest in our kids\u2019 financial education, we are doing a substantial disservice to their future financial health and wealth. Let\u2019s commit to teaching our kids how to make the right decisions about money, for the right outcomes: resilience, success and ultimately, happiness.<\/p>\n
Kirsten McDaniel is executive director of Youthentity.<\/p>\n
via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As someone said to me recently, \u201cLast week was quite a year.\u201d Our world is much different than it was just 10 days ago, with record numbers of Americans filing for unemployment and unmatched economic uncertainty. As I write this column, it\u2019s hard to ignore the timeliness of our planned topic: financial literacy. April is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1319308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 12:33:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1319308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1319308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1319308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1319308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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