Teach your teen financial responsibility

Your teenage kids may be old enough to get a part-time job and start taking college prep exams, but do they know how to manage their money?

Parents can get their teens started on the road to financial literacy by taking advantage of ways to teach them concepts like making a budget, balancing a checking account, using credit wisely or saving for retirement.

That's because parents can have the biggest influence on their children's behavior when it comes to personal finance, says Patricia Seaman, senior director of the National Endowment for Financial Education, a nonprofit focused on financial literacy.

"Even if you don't feel like you know enough or feel you were raised in a money-savvy environment, you still can overcome that and give your kids a good foundation," Seaman says.

Here are ways to instill your teens with money-management skills for college and beyond:

One strategy is to get kids to regularly save some of their allowance, and donate another portion to church or a charity of the child's choosing.

When a child is between 5 and 10 years old, it's an ideal time to set them up with a child savings account. Many banks offer savings and checking accounts tailored for young children as well as teens.

Kids younger than 18 are not allowed to open a credit card account on their own, though use of prepaid cards in high school can help establish good spending habits.

Parents with kids going away to college may want to add the student to their card to cover books or emergency expenses. But a shared card account also can help parents keep tabs on their kids' spending and payment habits.

To help frame the money management conversation, the National Endowment for Financial Education has a booklet that can be downloaded for free at www.hsfpp.org.

And for teens nearing graduation or headed for college, check out www.cashcourse.org/prep. The site, also run by NEFE, explains a bevy of financial issues, from budgeting and financial planning, to setting financial goals and planning for retirement.