Money Management and Financial Planning for Your Child

As your child moves into the young adult and college years there are several practical challenges for you and your family. Most colleges cost a lot – even public colleges and community colleges are often having tuition increases – and most young people begin to take more responsibility for their finances during their time in college.

It is really valuable for your child to begin to get a sense of how finances work. They should begin to learn about what happens with bank accounts, how to use credit and credit cards responsibly, what a budget is and how to manage it, and how to manage paying bills. It will really help to get a handle on some of these items before your child goes off to college.

There are also important financial questions related to attending college. You should be speaking with your child about what is financially realistic for them. In order to understand this you will need to find out what options are available for financial aid or college loans. Remember that loans need to be repaid – so you do not want to put your child (or yourself) in a position of owing large amounts of money if your family’s financial situation makes it likely that repaying loans will be a serious strain.

Check out these resources to learn more about what you need to know to manage college costs and how you can learn about finances in general.