Money Management Tips for Teens

Whether you receive a paycheck or an allowance, you are responsible for finances. Scary right? On the brink of adulting, developing good money habits is more crucial than ever. Keep reading for tips to reduce common frivolous fees and monitor your account activity.

Where the money goes:

When looking at my own account, I noticed that- like most of us- I spend most of my money on food. Food is a necessity obviously, but eating $10-15 meals multiple times a week? Grossly excessive. I’ve also bought way more clothes than I’d like to admit in bulk with the logic that “I won’t have time to go shopping later”.

It gets to a point where you’re practically spending as much as you’re making. In order to manage your money responsibly, you should save at least ten percent of what you make per pay period and cut down on unnecessary costs.

How to slow it down:

Lunch for days

  • It’s so easy to go on Pinterest or Instagram to find easy lunches to make when you have to cook for yourself (the downside to being home alone!). Even if you have to buy a couple things from the grocery store yourself, it’s so much less expensive than daily trips to Chipotle.

One sip at a time

  • Another common food habit is frequenting Starbucks and other coffee shops. Pro tip: it isn’t considered “treating yourself” when you’re stopping in for a latte three times a week. If you have a coffee maker, you will save so much money making coffee at home. If you don’t, you can always buy the powder mixes instead. These don’t taste as great but they’re less expensive than coffee shop frequenting and reasonable if you aren’t willing to commit to becoming a home barista just yet.

 Overdressed?

  • As far as clothing, I’m now trying to limit the amount of money I spend on clothing to a certain percentage of my income per month. The percentage is 20% to leave room for emergency purchases, savings, and a recreational stash.

Keeping track of the money:

  • Keep a written or typed list of fixed expenses like monthly fees. Even if you don’t have bills, you might have to pay subscriptions. Pay attention to the duration of the fees.
  • Keep a list of recent purchases. Until these purchases show up on your account, you may want to keep a temporary list of them on your phone so you won’t have any surprises when they do go through.
  • Along the same lines, checkbooks- or some equivalent- are so important. An easier alternative is monitoring your online statement using your aforementioned lists. One thing I like to do is change the names of the charges online so I’ll remember what they’re for. As soon as the charges are cleared, I have the option to edit the description so I just leave myself a few-words memo before I forget so I won’t be alarmed by charges I don’t recognize.

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