On Youth and Teens Today with Vanessa Van Petten

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7 Year-Old Me: Dad, can I have a quarter for the gum machine?
Dad: Why don’t you use your allowance?
Me: Um, because I used it to buy candy yesterday after-school.
Dad: Well, you get 5 dollars a week and that’s it. That’s you’re a-llow-ance.
Me: Man, allowance sucks.

Oh, I wish I had known at 7, what I know now—allowance far from sucks, in fact, I wish I was still getting allowance. Now, as a bootstrapping 22-year-old entrepreneur living at home, I cherish the money and saving lessons my parents bestowed on me. There are four key messages that have stayed with me and I hope I can tell you, to share with your kids.

1) Learn what you do not need and look for ways to get it cheaper
My dad is the guy who taught me how to clip coupons, by food in bulk and never turn down freebies. My dad made the decision early on to save where he could on things that he did not need to spend on. Teaching kids how to bargain and that there is almost always a cheaper way…you just have to look. When I got to college I was shocked to see that many of my friends never asked for discount tickets or group rates when we went to concerts or movies. Teach your kids to ASK, the worst that happens is that someone says no…and then you are in the same place you are when you started off!

2) Learn what you love, and spend on it, and then love it even more.
While my dad taught me to save wherever I can, my mom loves what she loves. What I mean is, she has certain aspects of her life that she freely spends on because she enjoys them so much. What she taught me is that it is really important to know what you love and allocate money to spend on it. Once she figures out what she wants to spend money on, how much money she wants to spend on it, then she enjoys it guilt free. This has been an important message for me to hear because it taught me to allow myself certain planned and budgeted luxuries so I feel like I can treat myself.This is a guest post I did for the Chores and Allowance blog, please see the rest of the article here!