10 Financial Reality Checks To Give Your Kids, Before Life Does - Page 6

Show them the bills

Let your kids take a look at the bills, like the power bill, the grocery bill, and the water bill. If you issued your kid a credit card in her name that she’s allowed to use on limited items, show her that credit card bill at the end of the month. It may come as a shock to her just how much her sandwich there, movie ticket there, t-shirt there, several Boba teas, museum ticket, and dinner with friends added up. If she just uses your card throughout the month, she probably only thinks of the expenses as one-time things. She doesn’t think about how much it all adds up, and that somebody has to pay that $320 at the end of the month. Showing her that bill could get her thinking, “What if it were me who had to pay that bill?” and it might make her more conscious of her spending.

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Look at job listings

You believe in your kid, and you feel confident that one day, they’ll have a very high-paying job and afford an impressive lifestyle. But, you see that one day as being at least five years after college (probably closer to 10), and they see it as the day they leave school. If your kid has some idea of what they’d like to do after school, sit down with them, and look at currently active job listings for beginner positions in that field. Whatever industry it is, they can likely expect to start in an assistant, intern, or apprentice role. Show your kid the real pay offered by those jobs, then have them calculate their cost of living, and how that all works out with the pay they can expect to receive. They may be shocked to find that simply leasing their dream car would cost them their entire paycheck.