During this time of year, most people's budgets are stretched thinner due to the spate of present buying and the ever-increasing costs of holiday travel. Parents of teenagers also have the added expense of funding many of the gifts that their children give to friends, teachers, and sometimes even the parents themselves!
Over the past three years I have seen an increase in high school students being more conscious of how their spending habits impact family finances and, unfortunately, have witnessed boys as young as 15 stressing over how they will ever be able to get married and support a family if the economy doesn't make a significant turn-around. (In the future I will write a more in-depth post on this topic, in case you're interested.)
However, a large percentage of teenagers still operate with the proverbial "money grows on trees" mindset that can tend to drive parents crazy. If your child's repeated requests for spending money for holiday shopping are pushing you to a breaking point (both financially and mentally), perhaps youd like to give them a Reality Check.
I love this free, user-friendly online program offered by the California Career Resource Network. (Be advised that all sample cities are in California, but many are highly recognizable and the information provided about living costs can be extrapolated to non-California locations with basic common sense.)
Viewers simply click on the type of lifestyle choices they plan to make on a series of easy-to-understand screens and the program tallies up their estimated monthly expenses. It then projects that number out to a required annual income. As if that wasn't enough of a wake-up call in itself, it then offers a feature to explore what kinds of careers and higher education one would need to pursue in order to earn that annual income. And a separate feature allows you to delve into the costs of raising a family instead of just living the single life.
With only one exception in all my years of using this program with students, the young men and women who have completed the survey have gasped, bemoaned and/or spouted expletives when presented with the actual cost of living independently. I must admit it's very satisfying to watch. As much as I try to tell them this information, it's more powerful coming from the objective computer program. Perhaps your child wouldn't give you that same satisfaction of a demonstrable reaction, but if you play with the program yourself first you will see how the facts are too straightforward to not at least plant a seed.
I wouldn't recommend it for one of those anxious teens I mentioned earlier--the ones who already lose sleep about their long-term prospects or their family's current financial hardship. But if you've got a child who seems oblivious or entitled or even just earnestly curious about what the adult world has in store for them, have them check it out. You just might get a fantastic return on their five-minute investment.
