By Jill Suskind
Financial education should be at the top of every educator’s list: to prepare every teen with the confidence and competence to face the financial realities of adulthood. Our country needs this; our children need this.
As an educator, I ask myself what makes financial education real, relevant, and engaging for teens. One reason that I avoided my own financial education and financial responsibility was that I was utterly misguided about the subject. I thought it was about budgeting and making hard choices-- suffering, in other words. I also thought it was about stocks, bonds, insurance, and other issues that seemed complicated and tedious to me. These topics ARE, of course, important parts of the picture, but they are not foundational. We have, too often, failed to provide this foundation to young people.
When I was a teenager, I was known in my family as the Spender and my sister Judy was the Saver. You know us: Judy saved all her money, and I spent mine—I never knew exactly where it went, but when I really wanted to make an important purchase, I came up short. I didn’t have a problem—I just didn’t have a better system. I grew up believing that Spender and Saver were personality traits, and I was stuck with mine. And so I “Spent” my way through most of my adult life, and my life was limited because I lacked effective financial strategies. Most of my adult friends are like me, in fact: pay bills, have a little fun, save what’s left, and hope for the best! That was in good ole’ days, when we had some years to learn difficult lessons and invent systems of our own to make our money work, to greater and lesser effectiveness.
Eight years ago, I changed my life: I reinvented myself as a person who is masterful with money, and my journey has brought me huge personal freedom and power. Looking back, I can see that if I had known as a teenager what I know now about money, I would have had a totally different life, less stressful and even more fulfilling. The knowledge and skills I avoided for so long are now the greatest gifts I can give others as an educator.
Several basic concepts and experiences inform and shape my success as a financial educator:
1. Financial success operates on the same principles as success in most other areas of life. For example, teens can explore how net worth is the result of habits and attitudes toward money by learning about how people who are masters of money operate. The tricky part about this is that our habits and attitudes are not obvious without taking a really deep look. Many of us entertain the attitude that financial education can wait. Without thinking, this becomes a way of life -- waiting until the last minute to deal with and teach finances.
2. We learn our life lessons largely from each other in our peer groups as teens: we learn to make music in bands and orchestras, we learn to dance together, we explore our spirituality with our youth groups, and we learn to be good friends from each other. And yet, money is traditionally a subject taught in a closed-door environment. Let’s consider what would be possible if money were an ongoing teen group learning experience, too.
3. My parents were really well-intentioned; they wanted me to be independent and to make my own choices. They gave me an allowance, and I was expected to buy my own clothes and entertainment. What they didn’t teach me was a really good system for managing that money. And I always came up short—and THAT became a way of life for me. When I look back, I appreciate their intention, but I also see that they didn’t have a very effective or masterful way of managing their own money, so they couldn’t really teach me this skill. They let me invent my own way to manage money, which didn’t really work—not when I was a teen, and certainly not when I was an adult. Many of us don’t want to admit that we are not very skilled with money and that we aren’t sure how to teach our children. We are, at best, teaching our teens our own survival methods. Teens can and should be taught money management strategies that make their money work now and for the rest of their lives.
4. For much of my life, I had beliefs about money like, “Rich people are bad and selfish and shallow” and “Money is hard to make” and “There is never enough”. Financial education is about discovering the myths and facts behind these views and gaining access to a sense of personal power and responsibility. Financial education includes understanding that we are, for the most part, in control of what we have and what we don’t have, through money management and informed choices.
5. Finally, I put off learning about money because I thought, “When I HAVE money, I will learn about it and take care of it.” That‘s like saying “After I lose those 20 pounds, I will learn about exercising and eating right.”
6. Ultimately, when teens see financial education and responsibility as access to choices (rather than restricting them) and the power to make a difference for the greater good of humanity, then the landscape changes from drudgery and judgment to opportunity and vision.
Today, I am passionate about teaching teenagers to manage their money. Teens should have the opportunity to see themselves as people who will be able to afford the lives of their dreams, be generous with the people they love, and contribute in an important way to the greater good of humanity in ways that are meaningful to them. It’s the opportunity to explore and make real for others products of their passions, to forge meaningful and productive relationships with their peers, and to practice navigating the world of adults. Financial education authentically fosters effective communication, creative thinking and problem-solving, and goal setting and planning.
Our current economic climate is not as forgiving as it has been in the past. Money mastery is one of the greatest legacies we can offer—as an educational foundation upon which teens can build and celebrate wealth responsibly, in a way that comes from a commitment to themselves, the people in their lives, and the world community.
Jill Suskind, from Andover, MA, has been a public school teacher for the past 23 years. She is currently on a leave of absence, thrilled to be working full time on her mission: to prepare this generation of teens to meet the financial realities of adulthood with confidence and competence. She is committed, this year, to be a valued resource and partner for the homeschooling community. Jill is most eager to hear the thoughts, questions, and feedback so that she may serve this powerful and growing community. jill@wealthquestforteens.com
www.wealthquestforteens.com
Financial education should be at the top of every educator’s list: to prepare every teen with the confidence and competence to face the financial realities of adulthood. Our country needs this; our children need this.
As an educator, I ask myself what makes financial education real, relevant, and engaging for teens. One reason that I avoided my own financial education and financial responsibility was that I was utterly misguided about the subject. I thought it was about budgeting and making hard choices-- suffering, in other words. I also thought it was about stocks, bonds, insurance, and other issues that seemed complicated and tedious to me. These topics ARE, of course, important parts of the picture, but they are not foundational. We have, too often, failed to provide this foundation to young people.
When I was a teenager, I was known in my family as the Spender and my sister Judy was the Saver. You know us: Judy saved all her money, and I spent mine—I never knew exactly where it went, but when I really wanted to make an important purchase, I came up short. I didn’t have a problem—I just didn’t have a better system. I grew up believing that Spender and Saver were personality traits, and I was stuck with mine. And so I “Spent” my way through most of my adult life, and my life was limited because I lacked effective financial strategies. Most of my adult friends are like me, in fact: pay bills, have a little fun, save what’s left, and hope for the best! That was in good ole’ days, when we had some years to learn difficult lessons and invent systems of our own to make our money work, to greater and lesser effectiveness.
Eight years ago, I changed my life: I reinvented myself as a person who is masterful with money, and my journey has brought me huge personal freedom and power. Looking back, I can see that if I had known as a teenager what I know now about money, I would have had a totally different life, less stressful and even more fulfilling. The knowledge and skills I avoided for so long are now the greatest gifts I can give others as an educator.
Several basic concepts and experiences inform and shape my success as a financial educator:
1. Financial success operates on the same principles as success in most other areas of life. For example, teens can explore how net worth is the result of habits and attitudes toward money by learning about how people who are masters of money operate. The tricky part about this is that our habits and attitudes are not obvious without taking a really deep look. Many of us entertain the attitude that financial education can wait. Without thinking, this becomes a way of life -- waiting until the last minute to deal with and teach finances.
2. We learn our life lessons largely from each other in our peer groups as teens: we learn to make music in bands and orchestras, we learn to dance together, we explore our spirituality with our youth groups, and we learn to be good friends from each other. And yet, money is traditionally a subject taught in a closed-door environment. Let’s consider what would be possible if money were an ongoing teen group learning experience, too.
3. My parents were really well-intentioned; they wanted me to be independent and to make my own choices. They gave me an allowance, and I was expected to buy my own clothes and entertainment. What they didn’t teach me was a really good system for managing that money. And I always came up short—and THAT became a way of life for me. When I look back, I appreciate their intention, but I also see that they didn’t have a very effective or masterful way of managing their own money, so they couldn’t really teach me this skill. They let me invent my own way to manage money, which didn’t really work—not when I was a teen, and certainly not when I was an adult. Many of us don’t want to admit that we are not very skilled with money and that we aren’t sure how to teach our children. We are, at best, teaching our teens our own survival methods. Teens can and should be taught money management strategies that make their money work now and for the rest of their lives.
4. For much of my life, I had beliefs about money like, “Rich people are bad and selfish and shallow” and “Money is hard to make” and “There is never enough”. Financial education is about discovering the myths and facts behind these views and gaining access to a sense of personal power and responsibility. Financial education includes understanding that we are, for the most part, in control of what we have and what we don’t have, through money management and informed choices.
5. Finally, I put off learning about money because I thought, “When I HAVE money, I will learn about it and take care of it.” That‘s like saying “After I lose those 20 pounds, I will learn about exercising and eating right.”
6. Ultimately, when teens see financial education and responsibility as access to choices (rather than restricting them) and the power to make a difference for the greater good of humanity, then the landscape changes from drudgery and judgment to opportunity and vision.
Today, I am passionate about teaching teenagers to manage their money. Teens should have the opportunity to see themselves as people who will be able to afford the lives of their dreams, be generous with the people they love, and contribute in an important way to the greater good of humanity in ways that are meaningful to them. It’s the opportunity to explore and make real for others products of their passions, to forge meaningful and productive relationships with their peers, and to practice navigating the world of adults. Financial education authentically fosters effective communication, creative thinking and problem-solving, and goal setting and planning.
Our current economic climate is not as forgiving as it has been in the past. Money mastery is one of the greatest legacies we can offer—as an educational foundation upon which teens can build and celebrate wealth responsibly, in a way that comes from a commitment to themselves, the people in their lives, and the world community.
Jill Suskind, from Andover, MA, has been a public school teacher for the past 23 years. She is currently on a leave of absence, thrilled to be working full time on her mission: to prepare this generation of teens to meet the financial realities of adulthood with confidence and competence. She is committed, this year, to be a valued resource and partner for the homeschooling community. Jill is most eager to hear the thoughts, questions, and feedback so that she may serve this powerful and growing community. jill@wealthquestforteens.com
www.wealthquestforteens.com
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