A Strong Financial Foundation | Parents Guide

Chances are you’ve established a relationship with your local credit union by opening your child a youth savings account. You may have even introduced your teen to their first checking account. So you might be thinking “what else can I do to make a positive impact on your teenager’s financial future?”

We want to share a Parents’ Guide to building a strong foundation for your teen’s future financial journey.

Establish Healthy Money Habits

One of the most important pieces to a strong financial foundation is understanding how to have a healthy relationship with money. Creating self-awareness of how we spend, save, and give when it comes to our finances is a key component that goes hand-in-hand with how we learn to budget and manage our personal finances. Think back to your own first money memory and how it influenced your money habits today. Setting up our children with healthy money habits now can be pivotal in how they relate to money later in their future.

Budgets As Building Blocks

When we hear the word budget, for many of us we get the feelings of restriction and financial confinement. But it’s important that we talk to our teens about the empowerment a budget can give us over our finances. Talking about budgets as a positive financial habit rather than a negative action. Budgeting allows us to take control over our finances and gives us the confidence to take on our financial goals and can be vital in building a strong foundation in our teens’ future.

Never Too Early To Talk About Credit

Your teenager may be too early to open their first credit card or take out a loan. But talking about credit is not a conversation to wait to have. Today, our credit history plays a major role in our present and future financial goals. Future employment, our first big purchases, and even furthering our higher education can all be impacted by how we’ve managed our credit. Talking to your teen early on about the influence credit has on future financial goals can empower them to make informed decisions in adulthood.

Building a strong foundation for your child’s financial future can start now. Visit our Money & Beyond Jr. page to start building today.