Teaching Credit Card Debt Management To Young Adults
If a young person you know comes up to you for your advice on how to get their first credit card, what would you say? You would probably sit them down and set them straight. Your answer would most likely be a flat out, 'No, do not do it!'...right? These days' credit card debt management can test even the strongest of us.
With that plastic card in your wallet, the temptation will always be there! You give up, you spoil yourself, but then you baulk at the bill at the end of the month. Of course, you pay it off straight away. Can't you? Of course you can...
Then you will have no money left to live on, and you are forced to push up your credit card debt all over again! Now why on earth would you ever wish that on a young adult in your life?
Well actually, you just might! A credit card, albeit with a small limit, is a great way to teach young people about debt and responsibility. It may even help them start building up a good credit rating. If managed right, you could help someone learn some valuable life lessons and save themselves some financial heartache later on.
Your Teenager NEEDS Experience in Budgeting!
Carmella is a single mother to Jimmy. The family home is in New York State, while Jimmy attends college at NYU. Struggling to raise Jimmy on her own, as well as saving up for his tuition, Carmella has found herself in A LOT of debt by the time Jimmy was ready to leave for college.
She claims that no one ever taught her about money and that she learnt the hard way! Over the last two years she has gotten her debt under control, mostly through some debt consolidating. The credit card debt relief made the biggest impact on Carmella.
'I wanted Jimmy to have experience with money, so instead of giving him an allowance like most parents; he has a credit card with a five hundred dollar limit which I pay at the end of each month.'
Jimmy has to then budget out his money for other expenses he incurs while at college. Carmella hopes when he graduates he will be able to use the budgeting skills he has learnt in his own life.
RELAX! It is NEVER too late to Learn!
While some parents chose to teach credit card debt management this way, others chose a different route. Some decide to take out a credit card in their own name and give it to their children to use and also give them the bill to pay at the end of each month. This way a young adult learns both the freedom of being in control of themselves financially, but also the consequences and responsibility that is attached to it.
You need to keep in mind that not all children will grow up to be financially responsible. Some teenagers just do not seem to care. Often they will let their parents to discover that their children have racked up HUGE credit card debt all on their own and are now are left to clean up the mess.
A good option here is debt consolidating. All of the credit card bills can be rolled into a personal loan and paid off at a lower interest rate. This also takes away the temptation of a credit card altogether.
This is a great way to achieve credit card debt relief for parents and children alike. If this has happened to your own child or a young adult in your life, know that it is never too late to teach credit card debt management. Sit down with them and speak about the decisions they have made that have led them to where they are. What are they spending their money on? Is it luxury or necessity?
Sometimes it is difficult for young people with limited life experience to tell between the two. Help them to make a budget for themselves and give them some debt consolidating information.
Teach your Teenager about Credit Card Debt Management through Life Lessons
They say the difference between a teenager and an adult is the ability to recognize consequences. If this is true, then somewhere along the way we must all, thorough first hand experience, learn the difference. Sometimes we will learn this the hard way, but if you take some time to help the young people in your life, they will learn the easy way. Remember that no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes.
You are fooling yourself if you think otherwise! Let your teenagers experience a little bit of debt now (they will think it is a HUGE debt), and prepare them for mortgage repayments and other debts they will most likely face later in life!
With that plastic card in your wallet, the temptation will always be there! You give up, you spoil yourself, but then you baulk at the bill at the end of the month. Of course, you pay it off straight away. Can't you? Of course you can...
Then you will have no money left to live on, and you are forced to push up your credit card debt all over again! Now why on earth would you ever wish that on a young adult in your life?
Well actually, you just might! A credit card, albeit with a small limit, is a great way to teach young people about debt and responsibility. It may even help them start building up a good credit rating. If managed right, you could help someone learn some valuable life lessons and save themselves some financial heartache later on.
Your Teenager NEEDS Experience in Budgeting!
Carmella is a single mother to Jimmy. The family home is in New York State, while Jimmy attends college at NYU. Struggling to raise Jimmy on her own, as well as saving up for his tuition, Carmella has found herself in A LOT of debt by the time Jimmy was ready to leave for college.
She claims that no one ever taught her about money and that she learnt the hard way! Over the last two years she has gotten her debt under control, mostly through some debt consolidating. The credit card debt relief made the biggest impact on Carmella.
'I wanted Jimmy to have experience with money, so instead of giving him an allowance like most parents; he has a credit card with a five hundred dollar limit which I pay at the end of each month.'
Jimmy has to then budget out his money for other expenses he incurs while at college. Carmella hopes when he graduates he will be able to use the budgeting skills he has learnt in his own life.
RELAX! It is NEVER too late to Learn!
While some parents chose to teach credit card debt management this way, others chose a different route. Some decide to take out a credit card in their own name and give it to their children to use and also give them the bill to pay at the end of each month. This way a young adult learns both the freedom of being in control of themselves financially, but also the consequences and responsibility that is attached to it.
You need to keep in mind that not all children will grow up to be financially responsible. Some teenagers just do not seem to care. Often they will let their parents to discover that their children have racked up HUGE credit card debt all on their own and are now are left to clean up the mess.
A good option here is debt consolidating. All of the credit card bills can be rolled into a personal loan and paid off at a lower interest rate. This also takes away the temptation of a credit card altogether.
This is a great way to achieve credit card debt relief for parents and children alike. If this has happened to your own child or a young adult in your life, know that it is never too late to teach credit card debt management. Sit down with them and speak about the decisions they have made that have led them to where they are. What are they spending their money on? Is it luxury or necessity?
Sometimes it is difficult for young people with limited life experience to tell between the two. Help them to make a budget for themselves and give them some debt consolidating information.
Teach your Teenager about Credit Card Debt Management through Life Lessons
They say the difference between a teenager and an adult is the ability to recognize consequences. If this is true, then somewhere along the way we must all, thorough first hand experience, learn the difference. Sometimes we will learn this the hard way, but if you take some time to help the young people in your life, they will learn the easy way. Remember that no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes.
You are fooling yourself if you think otherwise! Let your teenagers experience a little bit of debt now (they will think it is a HUGE debt), and prepare them for mortgage repayments and other debts they will most likely face later in life!