The Hidden Costs Of Teenagers

[jeffrey]

A piece over at <A HREF="http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/CollegeandFamily/Raisekids/P118759.asp?GT1=6657">msn.com</A> shows how the average teenager can easily add $1000 a month to your expenses even before they begin to drive. There are ways to reduce the costs, but the piece also warns to always be prepared to be surprised:

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<i>It's not that adolescents spend all their time figuring out ways to cost their parents money (despite substantial evidence to the contrary). It's that their growing bodies, minds, interests and need for independence almost inevitably lead to bigger bills. Combine that with a notorious lack of judgment -- which produces its own expenses, from fender-benders on up -- and you can face a serious strain on your budget...</i>

[Bluezy]

Re: The Hidden Costs Of Teenagers

Three words to the teenager... GET A JOB! What people don't realize that by the time a child becomes a teenager, they are old enough to begin work and learn to budget some of those costs themselves.

It amazes me that parents don't prompt their teen(s) to work and hand them absolutely everything. When the teen leaves home, they then wonder why the teen got themselves into such a financial blunder. The teen does not know what they haven't been taught.