15 Money Rules

There is a great article written by Jeff D. Opdyke in the WSJ this past Sunday called The 15 Money Rules Kids Should Learn. It gives a list of 15 rules kids should live by and you as a parent should teach them.

An interesting statistic that is pointed out is only 10% of 12th graders could answer correctly basic personal finance questions asked by the nonprofit JumpStart Coalition for Personal Finance. This seems to coincide with everything I've read on teenagers and finance. As mentioned in this article, most don't even know how to balance their own checkbook. Back when I was that age, there was very little in terms of financial education for kids. Now there are plenty of resources available to help your kids better understand the basics of personal finance.

Even though there are more resources available now than ever before, don't assume your kids are learning this on their own. You need to educate them early on yourself and instill in them the confidence to understand these principles. Jeff makes this same point which I believe is very important especially since you will have the biggest financial influence and impact on your children at a very young age.

As the list states - Teach Your Children Well.

Carleton