Readers speak out on children and money

Based on responses I've received to recent columns, many readers are paying close attention to their children's financial futures.

I'm glad to hear that, and I appreciate their ideas, so I thought I'd share some of them with you today.

Several people wrote in about the Charles Schwab 2008 "Parents & Money Survey," which showed that only 34 percent of parents had taught their children how to balance a checkbook, and only 29 percent had taught them how credit-card interest and fees work.

A reader named Suzan sent me an e-mail detailing how she taught her own children.

"My children, as seniors in high school, each received a checking account and credit card," Suzan wrote. "They learned to balance their checkbook each month (they didn't get their allowance until they had balanced it), how to write checks, how to deduct bank charges and make deposits."

She talked to her children about the cost of bouncing checks and taught them to pay their credit-card balance in full each month.

"I helped each child figure out how much it would cost to carry a balance on their credit card, and they were shocked about the amount of money they would be giving away to the credit card company if they didn't pay in full each month," Suzan wrote. "My children worked during summers while they were in high school. ... They had a small amount of disposable income and learned to save some, donate some and use some."

She closed her e-mail with a request that I emphasize the importance of paying off credit-card balances in full each month.

"It's shocking to read of people with $54,000 of credit-card debt," she wrote.

That is shocking, Suzan, and I am happy to pass along your admonition.

Thanks, also, for sharing your plan for teaching children sound financial lessons. Doing so for your own kids took time and effort, but I'm guessing your high schoolers learned lessons that have served them well throughout their lives.

Another reader, identified as "Concerned Parent," posted an online response to the Schwab survey column. This parent wrote that schools and parents emphasize the importance of getting a good education and a great job but fail to adequately teach children how to manage their money.