Kids & Money
Matt Hoffman earns about $50 a week working at an indoor sports complex in suburban Cleveland, and as he sees it, the money is his to spend as he chooses. "It's my money," says the 17-year-old high-school senior. "I worked for it, and therefore I can do what I want with it."
Almost three out of four high-school seniors hold part-time jobs, according to the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center in Ann Arbor. And, like Matt, more than half of them report earning at least $50 a week.
THE JOURNAL REPORT
See the complete Your Money Matters report.That can create a dilemma for parents: They didn't flip the burgers or work the cash register or, like Matt, do the batting-cage maintenance that generated those earnings. So should they help determine how the teenagers who did the work spend their earnings?
Sparring Over Saving
Teens report that they disagree with their parents about money more than about anything else except how they spend their leisure time -- that is, hanging out at the mall provokes only slightly more arguments than does money. Even how teens dress provoked fewer arguments. Half the teens polled yearly by the University of Michigan said they disagree with their parents about money, compared with only one-quarter who said they sparred over how they dressed.
Despite all that tension -- or maybe because of it -- Temple University psychology professor Laurence Steinberg, the author of eight books on adolescent development, says his research shows that few parents regulate how their teenagers spend their earnings. Parents say "he earned it, so it's his to spend as he wishes," says Dr. Steinberg. "They feel they don't have a right to get involved."
Matt Hoffman, who attends Willoughby South High School in Willoughby, Ohio, says he banks at least half his paycheck for college, but that's unusual among teens. Two-thirds of high-school seniors tell the University of Michigan that they bank little or none of their earnings, and about as many say they're saving nothing or only a little for college. Instead, about two in five say they spend "most" of their money on clothes, electronics and evenings out.
When Michigan began its teen survey in 1982, Jerald Bachman, a research scientist involved in the project, fretted about what he called "premature affluence" among adolescents with lots of money and little restraint over how they spend it.
Ready cash makes it easier for teens to get alcohol and drugs, afford nights out (the typical working teen is out three or four nights weekly, the Michigan data show) and buy cars, which isolate them further from the company of adults, he warned then.
The only thing that has changed in 24 years, Dr. Bachman adds now, is that "there's more stuff to buy."
Teens are "easy targets" for marketers, says Temple's Dr. Steinberg. "They have all this money, they haven't any rules and they're 16 and 17 years old." How much money? Teens spent $107 billion of their own money last year, according to Teenage Research Unlimited, a market researcher in Northbrook, Ill.
Attainable Goals
So how much should parents get involved and how should they go about it? According to the experts, lots -- and carefully.
William Doherty, a professor of family social science at the University of Minnesota, says parents and teens should work out a "policy" that sets out what expenses the teens should bear and how much they should save. Depending on what they earn, he says they might be required to pay for their clothes, cellphone service and car insurance. Temple's Dr. Steinberg adds that parents also should have the right to review and turn down expensive purchases -- "like that terrific-sounding $350 car," he says.
With a year at even a public college now costing about $12,000, it's not realistic to insist kids save for something so "impossible to reach" as their tuition, says Alan E. Kazdin, director of Yale University's Child Study Center. He says parents should require their teens to save some of their earnings, but he suggests that the goal be something attainable like a car or insurance.
All that should be worked out before the teenager takes a job, though -- and then parents should back off, the experts say. "Teenagers hate micromanagement," says Minnesota's Dr. Doherty. It "drives them to secrecy, lies and rebellion."
Parents should set any spending rules based on family values, he adds. If you don't want your youngster to have a television in his bedroom, don't use the excuse that it's too expensive, Dr. Doherty says. If he or she saves the money or acquires a hand-me-down, "you're stuck -- you have given away your moral leverage as a parent."
Parental Models
The good news, research shows, is that even if kids squabble with their parents over how to spend their money, they do absorb their parents' values. According to the University of Michigan survey, teens say they generally agree with their parents about drinking, drug use, appropriate behavior on a date, politics, race and "what values are important in life."
If saving isn't a family value and shop-till-you-drop spending is, it's going to be tough to persuade a teen to bank his earnings or even hold onto some of it for a longer-range goal. Yale's Dr. Kazdin urges parents to open "negotiations" with their teenagers in any event. If parents and kids can talk about money, he says, they'll find it easier later on to talk about drugs, sex and other issues where peer pressure can trump parents' advice.
"Negotiation puts you in the game," he says, and the best issue to negotiate over is money.
Jefrey Ficke, a classmate of Matt Hoffman's at Willoughby South High, says he and his parents reached "a mutual decision" about his earnings from a $7-an-hour internship with Cleveland's American Red Cross blood drive. He saves half his paycheck, pays for his car insurance and clothes, and only rarely splurges on a big purchase -- a $200 bowling ball is his latest.
But the negotiations were casual, he adds. "They know I'll save -- it's a no-brainer to them. They trust me."
小小少年 怎样花钱
17岁高中生马特?霍夫曼(Matt Hoffman)在克里夫兰郊区的一家室内综合体育场馆打工，每周能挣到50美元。正如他料想的那样，这笔钱由他自己做主。霍夫曼说：“这是我的劳动所得，怎么花我说了算。”
密歇根大学(University of Michigan)安阿伯分校调研中心对高中生的调查显示，近四分之三的受访者都在课余打工。其中有超过一半的学生每周收入至少50美元。
这就使学生的父母左右为难了。他们年轻的时候没有在快餐店或超市收银台打过工，或者像马特一样在棒球训练场谋得一份差使，更没有赚到过这样的打工收入。那么，父母是不是应该帮助孩子决定怎样花掉他们的打工收入呢？
青少年在理财方面与父母观点不一
青少年普遍反映他们在理财方面与父母观点不一，意见分歧之大仅次于如何管理闲暇时间这个问题。接受密歇根大学年度调查的青少年有一半与父母在理财上存在分歧，而只有四分之一的受访者表示与父母们在著装方面发生过争吵。
Temple University心理系教授劳伦斯?斯坦恩伯格(Laurence Steinberg)表示，尽管分歧很多──或者说正是因为分歧太多，他的研究发现很少有父母会监督他们十来岁的孩子如何花钱。斯坦恩伯格在青少年发展方面著作颇丰，一共写了8本关于这方面的书籍。他表示，父母一般都会说：既然钱是孩子自己挣的，他爱怎么花就怎么花吧，这是他的权力；他们普遍认为无权干涉孩子们的消费。
在俄亥俄州威洛比读高中的霍夫曼表示，他至少会把打工所得的一半存起来用作大学学费，但像霍夫曼这样有远见的青少年并不多见。密歇根大学采访的高中生中有三分之二表示他们基本上不存钱，还有三分之二表示他们并没有为上大学存钱或者只积攒了很少的学费。有40%的学生称，他们把大部分打工所得都花在了服饰和电子产品以及晚间活动上。
1982年密歇根大学首次开展青少年调查时，参与调查的研究人员杰拉德?巴克曼(Jerald Bachman)对学生所谓的“提前致富”感到不安，这些孩子有不少钱，花起来又几乎不受限制。
手头拥有现金为青少年喝酒、吸毒、深夜不归和购车提供了便利，使他们更有条件远离成年人的监管。密歇根大学的数据显示，打工的青少年每周通常都有3-4晚上要外出。
巴克曼说，时隔24年之后的今天，调查中唯一的变化是“可买的东西更多了。”
斯坦恩伯格说，在各种营销噱头面前，青少年很容易受到诱惑。他们有钱了，不受任何规则的约束，正值16-17岁的青春躁动时期。想知道他们的消费能力么？据市场调研公司Teenage Research Unlimited的调查，青少年去年的花销高达1,070亿美元。
制定可行的目标
那么父母应在多大程度上帮助孩子管理钱财以及如何开这个头呢？专家们的意见是，应密切参与，但要谨慎行事。
明尼苏达大学(University of Minnesota)家庭社会学教授威廉姆?道赫提(William Doherty)认为，父母和孩子应该共同制订一项“政策”，列出孩子应该自主承担哪些费用，以及应该储蓄多少等。道赫提说，根据孩子打工收入的多少，可以提出让他们自己买衣服、支付手机费和汽车保险。斯坦恩伯格说，父母们应该有权察看他们的消费，并否决一些昂贵的开支项目。
耶鲁大学(Yale University)儿童研究中心的主管阿伦?卡斯丁(Alan E. Kazdin)表示，现在公立大学每年的学费在12,000美元左右，因此让孩子积攒大学学费恐怕“不切实际”。他认为，父母应要求孩子为实现某一目标而积攒一部分所得，但他建议目标不要定得太高，要符合实际，例如，买车或保险。
专家们建议说，这套计划应该在孩子们去打工之前就确定下来，然后父母就应抽身而退。明尼苏达大学的道赫提表示，青少年反感父母在小事上插手，管得过细反倒会让他们掩藏自己的秘密、甚至撒谎，还会激起他们的反叛情绪。
他认为，父母们应根据自己家庭的价值观为孩子的消费定下规矩。例如，你不希望孩子在他的卧室拥有自己的电视机，就直言相告，但别用“电视机太贵”这样的借口。如果孩子们把钱存了起来或者买了一台二手货，“你就被动了──你失掉了作为父母能够发挥道德影响力的机会。”
父母做榜样
好在研究发现，即使孩子与父母在如何支配打工所得的问题上发生争吵，但他们确实还会听取父母的意见。密歇根大学的调查发现，青少年在饮酒、毒品、约会举止、政治、种族及有关生活的各种重要价值观方面基本上与父母意见一致。
如果一个家庭在开销方面毫无节制、根本没有储蓄的习惯，那么劝说孩子存钱或者为长远著想而积蓄一部分所得可就难了。耶鲁大学的卡斯丁建议父母与孩子开诚布公地对话。如果父母和孩子能在金钱上展开对话，那么今后谈论毒品、性等同龄人影响力会大于父母影响力的问题也会轻松一些。
他表示，对话能让父母进入孩子们的内心世界，金钱应该是最适宜的话题。
霍夫曼的同学杰弗瑞?菲克(Jefrey Ficke)表示，经过和父母的协商，双方对他对在克里夫兰美国红十字会献血站打工每小时7美元的劳动所得做出了如下安排：把一半收入存起来，支付自己的汽车保险和购买衣服，鲜有大额购物行为，最近的一次是买了一个200美元的保龄球。
他说，他与父母的协商很轻松随意。“他们知道我会存钱的，他们根本不用操心，他们信任我。”
