Josh Elledge - Chief Executive Angel
3 Critical life skills to teach your grad for the real world
If you have a high school senior, or even a junior, change is coming soon. It won't be much longer until they are off into the real world, making daily decisions with little to no input from you. They'll need life skills, and the next few months (or even year), are a good time to provide a proving ground. Teach them concepts and have them put them into practice while your guidance is still close at hand.
Shopping skills:
If they haven't grown up working alongside you to stretch a food dollar, teach them how you coupon and shop sales. Even if they will be on a campus dining plan, most college students still buy favorite foods and snacks, plus they will need personal care and household items.
1. Give them access to your grocery coupons to start, and then make them buy their own newspaper each week, clip digital coupons, and print internet coupons. By the time they leave for college, they'll have a personal coupon stash to take with them, and they will actually know how to leverage it to save hundreds.
2. Teach them how to spot true deals in sale ads, whether for food, personal care, or health and beauty care needs. Instill knowledge of standard retail pricing, so sales that actually save them only a few pennies don't fool them. To view and compare ads for nearly any zip code, I recommend the site Flipp.com.
3. For health and beauty care needs, especially, don't neglect teaching your teen about coupon stacking and store offers. Often drug stores, such as CVS and Walgreens, are the absolute best place to buy necessities like toothpaste, body wash, deodorant, and the like. They offer fantastic weekly store deals when goods can be purchased for pennies on the dollar, or even obtained free. Good sales often also include household supplies and various food items.
Responsible planning:
Now is also the time to teach your high school senior resource management.
1. As they learn how to shop smart, it's time for them to do their own shopping. Make the groceries and supplies they buy off-limits to the rest of the household. If their purchases mysteriously disappear, it's hard to keep track of how they are really doing. Plus, there is a built-in bonus lesson: Finding ways to keep their roommates' hands off. Sometimes roommates think everything in the dorm or apartment is free-reign. That can get very expensive, very quickly.
2. With their purchased resources, have your teen record when they bought items. Without this information, they will have no idea how long a bottle of shampoo lasts them, or how often they are buying their favorite cookies. As this information grows, they will have a clear picture of when they will need to shop again for supplies, allowing them to plan their shopping to coordinate with sales and coupons, as well as having the necessary finances.
Financial literacy:
This is, by far, the most important. An article by Retailmenot.com cited this:
“The nonprofit Money Matters on Campus gave 65,000 first-year college students across the United States a six-question survey of basic personal-finance questions. On average, students got just 2.3 questions correct.”
This illustrates a huge failing in our modern society: Most high school students graduate into adulthood with little financial literacy. They do not know how to budget, plan for future expenses, or calculate interest. Even worse, they do not realize how strongly any poor decisions made now will impact their lives month after month, for years.
1. Teach them to budget! Without a proper budget, your student will rack up debt they will regret. I recommend YNAB.com (You Need a Budget) for a portable, easy to use budget app.
2. Get both a checking and a savings account in their name only – without you on it. It's tempting to have a joint account, so you can keep track of how your student is doing, and add money if necessary, but therein lies the problem. Their mistakes become your problem, when they need the responsibility of handling finances alone. Be sure to teach them how to balance bank accounts, and record spending in a timely fashion, so they don't suffer costly overdrafts.
3. Teach them how to find bargains for the things they want and need. Check Groupon.com, Livingsocial.com, and Retailmenot.com. Have them check Retailmenot's newest division, GiftcardZen.com for deals on gift cards for several categories of spending needs.
