Want to be sure your homeschooled teen is ready for the financial responsibilities that come with adulthood? Here are 5 crucial financial literacy skills to cover, plus a comprehensive personal finance curriculum that can do all the heavy lifting for you.
*This post is sponsored by Beyond Personal Finance. See this disclosure to learn more.*
I’ve mentioned before that I didn’t have much guidance when it came to preparing for life after the teenage years. Perhaps it was a generational thing, but my parents, teachers, and the other adults in my life didn’t talk about money management, smart spending, or anything related to personal finance.
That lack of preparation meant that I was on my own to figure out taxes, savings, and the financial aspects of attending college.
What’s more, my spouse shared that lack of financial preparation. Thus, we got a crash course in all things finance when we married in our early twenties. Unfortunately, that trial-by-fire introduction to personal finance left us making some less-than-ideal decisions that took YEARS to correct.
Now that we’ve got one kid in college and another one preparing to enter high school, we know the importance of equipping our kids with the financial literacy skills they’ll need when they’re launched into the world. That’s where the following personal finance topics come into the picture.
Financial Literacy Skills Teens Need to Know
Before jumping into these personal finance skills for teens, keep in mind that this list isn’t exhaustive. It is, however, a great place to start these conversations so that your teen isn’t blindsided by the complexities of money management.
1. Basic Money Management
Basic concepts like earning, spending, and saving are the ideal place to start teaching financial literacy to students. By giving them access to money now, they can get a feel for saving and spending within their means while the stakes are low.
For practice, consider ways to help them earn real money so they can get used to managing it. This could be payment for chores or neighborhood jobs. Similarly, students can use financial gifts from birthdays or holidays to start practicing spending and saving.
Beyond earning and saving money, students should know how to manage and use their money. That can happen through services like Greenlight and Venmo or old-fashioned cash. You may also want to introduce banking concepts like opening savings accounts and how interest works at this time.
2. Smart Spending
Along with money management, smart spending is an important part of personal finance. This includes comparison shopping, making informed purchases, and understanding sales tactics. I’m looking at you, Prime Days.
To tackle smart spending with your teens, include them in your process the next time you’re researching a purchase. You can also introduce comparison shopping by having them look up products and prices from different retailers. Then, consider shipping, item quality, costs, additional fees, or spending requirements to receive promotional prices.
For sales tactics, visit the websites of different retailers or screenshot various ads that show up in your social feeds. Pay attention to the language used for promotions and product descriptions. You should also observe graphic design and color psychology when reviewing the promotion and the product itself.
You Don’t Have to TEach personal finance alone!
Beyond Personal Finance covers essential financial literacy skills teens should know, so they’ll be set up to thrive as they reach adulthood. Their simulation approach teaches teens about money and how it impacts their futures through practical interactive lessons.
Everything communicates: a product or service’s name, packaging, description, logo, people featured in images, and much more. This is true for anything from nail polish to luxury vehicles to nutritionists and it all impacts how consumers spend money.
Being aware of these should help your teen understand the intentionality that goes into production and promotion. In turn, they can understand what they’re drawn to and why and then make thoughtful purchases instead of being swept up by the fear of missing out.
3. Budgeting
I read something recently that said two-thirds of Americans don’t create budgets. It explained that people often avoid budgeting because it reminds them of dieting, that it’s a reminder of all they can’t have, and the disappointment these restrictions conjure.
While budgeting can certainly be a reality check, it’s an important personal finance skill for teens to learn because it helps them see where their money goes and plan accordingly. It also helps them understand that financial planning sometimes requires reprioritization, delayed purchases, and other adjustments.
Teens can practice this by managing their own small budgets for activities, gifts, or personal expenses. For documentation, you can find student-friendly templates on platforms like TPT and Etsy or use a free Google Sheets budget template as a starting point.
4. Credit, Debt, and Loans
Understanding debt and credit before entering adulthood is a huge win in the personal finance column. Whether it’s considering credit card offers, financing a car or home, or borrowing for student loans, these concepts inevitably come up for most individuals as they transition from the teen years to adulthood.
Having open, informative conversations with them now can help students understand differences between borrowing and lending options, when to rely on financing, and the consequences of delinquency.
Kal Penn and Mashable have a great series of short video explainers about debt and credit. In particular, What is Debt? could be helpful here introducing these topics to your teen.
5. Taxes
It’s probably safe to say that no one enjoys paying taxes, but it’s a part of money management. At some point, taxes will be deducted from earnings and your student will have to reckon with the difference between their gross income and take home pay.
Income tax may be a few years away, but your teen has likely already experienced taxes in small doses through sales tax on items purchased.
Side note: we moved to a state with no sales tax in 2022, so we have to adjust to that extra cost at checkouts when we travel now.
Since these kinds of taxes will likely be encountered first, you can help your homeschooled teen by introducing basic tax forms and giving them practice using them. While you’re at it, explain why taxes exist and how they’re used. Consider viewing Taxes: Crash Course Economics together for a helpful overview.
Beyond Personal Finance: a Financial Literacy Curriculum for Teens
With all of these financial literacy skills in mind, it’s a relief to know we don’t have to tackle all of this alone. There are fantastic resources out there that can walk you through teaching personal finance and help you guide your teens through these concepts. Beyond Personal Finance is one of those resources, and it’s the most comprehensive option I’ve come across in my sixteen plus years of homeschooling.
Beyond Personal Finance is a self-paced online curriculum that covers all things finances, from career choices to credit cards to business planning to retirement. Designed for middle and high schoolers, it contains twenty lessons and includes the following financial literacy topics:
- the cost of education
- car purchases
- insurance
- credit cards
- marriage
- charitable giving
- business basics (great for teens with an entrepreneurial spirit!)
- taxes and more!
Better yet, all of this happens through Beyond Personal Finance‘s “Future You” simulation approach, which provides a unique opportunity for teens to think through financial decisions they’re likely to encounter and face inevitable financial challenges we all face from time to time like car repairs and job loss, all while learning financial literacy skills that will greatly benefit them.
Worth noting, my teen is LOVING these lessons and is happy to share all the things that have come up while working through the units.
Also, we both appreciate that this curriculum pairs online lessons and exercises with a physical student book. This makes it easy to take notes and reference points made in previous lessons.
All that to say, if you’d rather skip the DIY approach to teaching personal finance to your teen, Beyond Personal Finance can help you make it happen!
FYI, Before Personal Finance is a great way to teach financial skills to tweens.
Personal Finance for Teens: Putting It All Together
Be encouraged that helping your teen develop financial literacy doesn’t have to be stressful or complicated. You can integrate personal finance skills into daily life since many of these skills overlap and reinforce each other when taught together.
Related: 10 Excellent Resources for Homeschooling High School
And finally, you can add Beyond Personal Finance for Teens to your homeschool plans to give your student a strong foundation in financial literacy so they’ll be prepared and equipped for this aspect of adulthood.
