Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Are Debit Cards Good For Your Teen?

Like most teens, James is far less financially capable than your average adult. This is because he is young, financially dependent on his parents and just doesn't have enough experience in handling money. However, sooner or later, he will have to depart from his parents' care. He has to go to college or go live his own life. It is inevitable, he will soon be on his own.
When he embarks on this journey, he must become independent from his family and make a life for himself. This includes choosing the right career path, saving and budgeting efficiently and establishing himself within society. In short, his success or failure in the future will solely depend on his abilities. He then needs to be a good decision-maker and take care of his finances.
But for now, while he is under his parents' care, they take great part in shaping his future. It is up to them to ready him for certain life challenges, one of these challenges being finance management. In the future, James must know when to splurge and when to save. His parents' training will greatly influence him on this. There are many ways in which they can shape him into becoming a a good saver. One of these is by letting him handle a job. Just like other kids in their teens, James can undertake a job in the evenings, or over the summer holidays.
Through this he will learn the value of hard work ethic, obeying company rules and managing ones finances. When it comes to money, James should handle his work finances himself. This includes paying his mobile bill and even owning his own debit card. Sooner or later he will learn to put aside savings, pay bills on time and only spend money on necessities.
Other parents tend to assist their teenagers far too much in this crucial point of their progression into adulthood. They lend their kids their credit cards. But as they have surely learned by now, credit cards cause debt. It also shrouds the mind of a supposed-power to purchase. However, it only fools people in to such thinking. Credit cards are nothing but debt with interest rates that needs to be repaid on time.
A debit card, however, is far different. It uses the funds on a person's account therefore there is no lying. Whatever a person spends, it is his own hard-earned money. Mentally, debit cards benefit through the lesson of "living within your means". When one exposes their teenager to such an idea, he will carry it with him for life. He will always have the notion to spend his own money and buy only what he can afford. So by exposing kids to the benefits of debit cards, parents are preparing their loved ones for a financially wise future.

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