Thank you to NGPF Fellow, Diane Mondoro, who shared this observation with us with the following note: "I had an experience today with my son at the bank that I wanted to share with you, because it gave me pause and changed the way I think about my teaching. I'm sharing it with you - I don't know if anyone is in the same boat as me, but I often feel like parents today don't want their kids to work. Here's my reasons why they should."

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My son recently got his first “real” part-time job. He has been working since he was 15 as a summer camp counselor, but this is his first experience with working during the school year and making minimum wage. After working for about 2 months, he mentioned to me that he had paychecks and that he needed to go to the bank. We discussed how much of his money he wanted to spend and how much of it he wanted to deposit into his savings account. So off we went to the bank, where I had to walk him through endorsing his check and filling out the deposit slip, which was complicated since he had both cash and checks. He deposited his money, looked at the receipt, and then said, “That makes me happy.”  When he got home, he showed his father his updated account balance and said, “This makes me feel good.”

Why am I writing about this experience?  After all, as a parent and a financial literacy teacher, isn’t this what I preach day in and day out?  Yes, but I have to admit, when I teach my students, I think about the end game. My students probably get sick of hearing me say, “You don’t want to be paying off you student loan when you are 60,” and “Make sure you have enough money to pay off your whole credit card bill before the grace period,” and of course the ever popular, “If you enjoy indoor plumbing and don’t want to be eating cat food when you’re 65, start saving for retirement now.”  There is a lot of negativity and warnings about the horrors that will befall you if you don’t heed the experts’ financial advice. I have been forgetting something that all teenagers can relate to: how does it make you feel to do the financially beneficial thing?

All three of my children have begun working when they turned 16. At that age, I stop paying for movies, pizza with friends, trips to the mall, etc. I expect them to pay for the “extras” in their lives once they hit the legal working age. I have been criticized by other parents for doing this. “You know, they have the rest of their lives to work,” is the most popular phrase that I hear. “Johnny doesn’t have time to play varsity baseball, take 6 AP classes, and work. I want him to have the full high school experience,” probably takes a close second. With these comments, I feel like I have to defend my parenting. I usually explain that I want my children to be responsible or that I want them to start building their resumes at a young age. And while this is true,  I neglected to think about the financial literacy aspect of working as a teenager.

My son is not 17 yet. He does not have his driver’s license. There is no car payment, no insurance premium, no health insurance, no rent, no groceries. The only bills he needs to pay are for the movies, for prom pictures, and if he wants to pay for his girlfriend when they go out. When he works and earns $150, most of that money can be funneled directly into his savings account. And it makes him feel good!  There is a sense of pride and accomplishment in working, earning, and saving money. He is beginning to value the dollars that he is spending. He realizes that if he spends the money, he can’t save it!  He doesn’t get the joy of watching the bank account grow.  If he waits to work until he’s done with college, yes, he can save money. But he will also have to pay rent, buy a car, get insurance, buy clothes, groceries, and all that other fun stuff. Will he be able to save some money? Sure. If he follows the 50 -30 - 20 rule that I preach to my students, he can save 20% of his salary. But will there ever be an opportunity to bank 100%  of his paycheck like he can right now? NO. And that makes the trade-off of working as a teenager worthwhile. Plus, he gets the satisfaction of watching the numbers on his savings account increase, which makes him happy.

This is a moment I will bring back into my classroom. From now on, I will not only talk about the negatives behind being in debt or the fear of owing money. I will discuss the joy and satisfaction of being able to save money!

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