When I was growing up I was aware of money and I knew that my parents watched their money carefully. I knew not to go into debt and to save. As a teen I saved a lot of my money with no purpose in sight. I just saved it. I would often spend some of it on presents for family members for Christmas or snacks but other than that, I saved my money. Eventually I graduated from high school and my budget was extremely tight. It went something like this: “Is this ABSOLUTELY necessary? If not don’t buy it.” When I got married, my husband and I were both full time university students. We worked the equivalent of 1 full-time barely above minimum wage job between the two of us. I remember digging through the couch cushions to find $1 so we could rent a movie. At the time, there was a video store down the street where you could rent an old movie (3 yrs or so or older) for $1. New movies were $2 and that was too expensive for us. Somewhere around here in a journal my husband has a label from a soda can where we had been out of town and were so thirsty we scrounged for the change necessary for the drink and then shared it. While those were good times, money was very tight. We never went into debt but we always felt like we couldn’t. Even after we graduated and had a real job, we still felt like we couldn’t. Our income had doubled, our expenses had dropped and yet we didn’t know how to plan our spending. We still didn’t go into debt but we didn’t know how to manage the money efficiently. As I reviewed WealthQuest for Teens I wished we had known what it teaches back then!
WealthQuest for Teens is a program that teaches teens, ages 14-19, and parents how to have positive attitudes, relationships, and habits with money no matter how small or large the budget and income are. For $39.95, you receive the whole program which consists of four parts.
The first part is an interactive online workbook type seminar. Here is a screenshot of that portion. It consist of a small video screen with teens talking about the topic as well as a workbook to answer questions and reflect on to the right of the video. The workbook answers can be printed once they are finished. The entire seminar consists of 7 modules and gives an overview to the entire program followed by more specifics and information on how to relate to money in a healthy and productive way. The entire seminar only takes about 2 hours plus reflection and discussion time should you choose to discuss with your teen. I think my favorite part was the portion on changing points of view. It was especially well done with excellent examples and illustrations.
The fourth part of the program is advice to utilize a free online money management program called MoneyTrail. MoneyTrail is not affiliated with WealthQuest for Teens but can be used to help teens track their spending, create their “silos” and manage their money effectively. While I did not personally use MoneyTrail, I found that it dovetails very nicely with WealthQuest for Teens and would be an excellent tool for parents of younger children as well as teens or teens and parents.
As I do not have any teens, I used this program myself. I attended a seminar early in May on money management and learned many of the same principles. The biggest difference is that I paid a lot more for that seminar than this program! This program does an excellent job of teaching how and why to manage money. Some people might perceive that this program is only for those who aim to have a very high net worth. It would definitely benefit them, but truthfully, it would benefit anyone who has money at all. The definition that WealthQuest uses for wealth or rich is “the amount of money you need to have the life you want and to make a difference in ways that matter to you.” WealthQuest stresses the importance of giving 10% to better the world in some way as well as saving for education, everyday expenses, fun, large expenses, and future. I believe that if a person learns these principles at a young age, even when their income is $5 or $10 a week or month, his feet will be firmly planted on the path that is financial fitness.
Overall I found this to be a valuable tool to teaching about money management beyond the standard save, don’t go into debt, and budget. While those principles are great, they don’t explain what to do very effectively. WealthQuest for Teens does an excellent job of truly teaching how to manage money effectively in order to do the above adages in a systematic manner. The only things that I think could really use improvement is the ability to rewind/fast forward during the video seminar and the video size. In order to rewind or fast forward you have to listen to the whole module again. The videos are very small, possibly smaller than an iPod Touch screen and can not be resized. Despite these minor inconvenience, the content was excellent. As I have been modifying my money management methods I have had the lessons I learned from this program in my mind and I am seeing that they are really effective. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to learn to manage money effectively. I will be having Tiger go through this shortly even though he is younger and it truly is geared to teens who are starting to look towards their futures as adults. Even so, I think planting the seeds of how to manage money will be beneficial.
Other members of the crew also reviewed WealthQuest for Teens. Be sure to read their reviews by clicking the banner below.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.
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