Kids are back in school, and many are trying to balance school, extracurricular activities, social lives and work.
Should Kids Work? How much? If so, why? These are some of the issues addressed in The ABCs of Making Money for Teens by Dr. Denis Cauvier and Alan Lysaght, financial psychology experts and international best-selling authors.
Cauvier and Lysaght address these issues in their book. Here’s a preview you can use to explore this topic with your kids:
“If you really want this car, you’re going to have to EARN it.”
“Sorry, Sweetie; money doesn’t grow on trees.”
“You’re going to have to buy that iPhone with your OWN money.”
Have you ever grimaced as you’ve heard parents utter these phrases? Are your kids earning their own cash so their parents will finally get off their back? How do teens know they’re ready to balance a job on top of all their schoolwork?
“As long as you’re making decent marks in school and you’re involved in some extracurricular activities such as sports with some extra time left over, then you can handle it,” the authors say.
Recently interviewed by The New York Times, MSNBC.com and The New York Post, Cauvier and Lysaght were available for engaging, informative interviews about school and work balance for teens. Here are some tips:
– Make sure you choose a job that will not require too many work hours. After all, most of your time should be devoted to studies. Also, avoid jobs that are early in the morning before school. A job that is only 2-3 hours may seem easy to handle, but if it is first thing in the morning, then it may challenge your ability to focus for the rest of the day.
– Once you start making money, try saving 50 percent of your earnings for the future and 25 percent for shorter-term purchases that require savings (such as a car). Feel free to spend 25 percent on whatever they would like (such as an iPhone).
-When 17-year-old Fred DeLuca opened his sandwich shop to help pay for college, he had no idea it would become a world-famous franchise with more than 30,000 locations (Subway).
Need new student-friendly job ideas for your students? For more, see The ABCs of Making Money for Teens, in which Dr. Cauvier and Lysaght offer more than 50 different ideas for teens to create their own jobs.
