Mortgage Moms Do Teens Know The Value Of A Buck?

Ask Yourself Tough Questions About What You Are Teaching Your Children

By ASHLEY GRAVANO, Contributor, Mortgage Women Magazine

Igrew up very poor. It’s not something many people talk openly about but I always want to be transparent and authentic with my readers/followers. When I was 5, my mom became a single mom to me and my brother. She had not worked and had to start over.

We went for many months with no phone, cable and, at times, no electricity.

My mom worked two jobs and went back to school to become an interior designer at 37 years old. As a young child seeing my friends have nicer things was hard for me.

As hard as it was watching my mom struggle, she became my hero as she completely reinvented herself. She taught me the value of a dollar. She taught me to work extra hard. She taught me to save money. She never wanted me to have to struggle like she did.

Times were so different; we could get a happy meal at

McDonalds for $1.10. We would rake the neighbors’ leaves to save for candy money at the local 7-Eleven! I had to take a class in high school to teach me how to write and balance a checkbook. I don’t even think my kids would know what to do with a checkbook. Now our kids save for $150 sneakers and $999 cell phones. We have money apps and debit cards as a teen.

Times have really changed since I was a pre-teen. Social media, Cash App, Venmo, the list goes on. After the rise in interest rates, the cost of EVERYTHING going up, and the recent bank collapses, I think it’s important that teens are taught financial literacy more than ever. I have spent many hours passing my mom’s wisdom onto my two boys.

This month the following moms are asked all questions surrounding financial literacy with their teens.

Does/Did your child’s high school teach financial literacy?

Q:

JENNIFER LOMANNO: No. Both of my daughters attended a local parochial school and while they offered wonderful college prep programming, there was little to no ‘real world’ instruction.

SHELLY GRIFFIN: The only thing close was government/economics where they did discuss stocks and investing. When my kids were in elementary school, I volunteered as part of a program called Junior Achievement and taught fifth-graders about entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy but it was a basic introduction. When I was in high school, there was a class called consumer math that went over how to balance a bank account and prepare a basic tax return along with preparing a budget. Now the math classes in high school are more geared to prepare them for college.

JENNIFER METZGER: There were business classes, but no courses on financial literacy. I remember being excited when in his junior year of high school, he brought home an assignment where you picked a career, researched the salary and then searched for housing, a vehicle and budgeted those and your other expenses. It was fun to hear him talk through the cost of renting and how much a loan payment was. The project created about two weeks of good discussion. but beyond that he didn’t have any other education on real-life finances.

Q:

How are you teaching/did you teach your child about the value of money?

JL: When my girls were small and would receive money as gifts for birthdays or holidays and they wanted to buy something with their money, I would tell them to wait to see if it would go on sale. They learned to look for the little red tags on items at Target. I also taught them to save at least 30% of everything they received. It’s taking longer for one of my girls to adopt as a regular practice, but they do love to see their accounts growing.

SG: As soon as my oldest son was