PROGRAMS HELP STUDENTS LEARN TO BUDGET, SAVE

Last year, American teens spent $170 billion, according to ABC News. With about 33 million teens in the country, that works out to $5,150 apiece.

Kids get money as gifts. They often hold part-time jobs, even if it is only baby-sitting, and some draw allowances. Many have a lot of disposable income, but what do they learn about managing their money and saving?

Several programs offer money management instruction to teens, and Y-Press recently talked with some students to see what they learned. Kyle Steppe, 16, and Nathan DuFour, 16, are Boy Scouts who completed the personal management merit badge. Megan Vonderheide, 18, Klarissa Wooley, 18, and Stacey Wooley, 17, completed the Financial Fitness program in their consumer economics class at Union County High School in Liberty, Ind.

In Financial Fitness, a national program of the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, students learn about bank accounts, how to track and plan personal spending, and how to do such tasks as filling out tax returns and balancing checkbooks.

"It's real thorough," Klarissa said. "The five things we did were making budgets, doing taxes, comparing clothing prices, checking accounts and comparing food prices."

The Boy Scout badge, required to become an Eagle Scout, focuses on similar topics. Also, the boys must keep a budget for 90 days, talk to their families about expenses and investigate a career they find interesting.

"Since we had to make a trip to the bank, we basically learned about loans, stocks -- all of that. It'll help us when we have a savings account or a checking account with the bank because we'll know how it works," said Nathan, a sophomore at Cathedral High School.

The badge also requires Scouts to comparison shop and save for something they want.

"My financial plan was to save up to buy a box set for this game I play," said Kyle, a junior at Carmel High School. "It cost $210, and so I saved up for several months to get that -- I put at least $5 away every week to go towards that. And then my parents gave me a loan for half the money when it finally came out, and I paid them back over the rest of the summer."

Instead of attaining a personal financial goal, the Union County students sponsored community fund-raisers to apply the skills they learned in class. One event benefited the local fire department. "We ordered little patriotic things out of a magazine, and then we sold them to the middle school and businesses in the community," Megan said.

The time learning money management was well spent, according to the teens. All agree that they weren't wise with their money before.

"I'd get money, spend it, get money, spend it. I'd look in my wallet, and nothing was there -- ever. And if there was, I spent it," Kyle said.

Nathan also said he spent more than he saved.

The girls agreed that they are spending money more wisely now. "I don't get money and spend it on junk food and candy and stuff that I don't need anymore," Stacey said. "I save my money, and when I really need something, instead of going to my parents, I go get it myself."

Megan also said she's become more practical. "My parents decided to give me a credit card, and the first bill that came back was a little bit outrageous. And then after I took the class, it was reasonable and under a good limit.

"I'm making sure that I have a certain amount of money in my checking account for my car insurance, my cell phone bill, all the things that I pay out of my pocket."

The teens all say they get some financial support from their parents, who usually pick up the cost of food and some clothes.

"I don't really pay for when we all go out to eat together and clothes and things like that. But I usually have to pay for extra things that I want," Nathan said.

Megan said she does most of the buying now that she has a job. "Every once in a while my parents will say, 'Here's an outfit I'll buy you,' but pretty much I do the buying myself."

Some of the teens receive an allowance because they aren't working. "My parents are starting to do this thing where we have required chores to do, and we get a certain amount of money every two weeks to cover all of our expenses for that period," Kyle said.

"I basically have an allowance for shoveling snow, taking out trash -- the usual things -- and I get a set amount, which partially goes to the bank for savings, and the other part I get for food and snacks," Nathan added.

Have any of these students managed to save money?

Nathan has a savings account; the money is for college and a car. The others say they save for things they really want and avoid impulse purchases.

"I ration out my money for longer periods of time," said Kyle, who added that long-term saving isn't possible for him right now.

"Trying to support a girlfriend and just living day to day, I don't get enough money to really put a lot away for savings," he said.

They have some advice for those who want to improve their spending habits.

"Get a picture of what you want and put it next to your savings, so when you reach for that money you can think about it -- 'Do I really want to buy this little junk thing that is gonna get old in a week, or do I want to save up and be happy that I got this accomplished?' " offered Kyle.

Megan passed along a tip from her mother. "My mom always taught me to put $10 in a wallet or a billfold -- somewhere where you can't see it. She always called it her 'mad cash.' "

REPORTERS: Austin Golden, 11; Tiera Haley, 13; Meera Patel, 12.