<p>Your</a> Money - A Primer for Young People Starting Their First Job - NYTimes.com</p>
<p>wow I needed this last week. My D started her first full time summer internship....which as a rising senior is giving her a taste of the real world. She loves it. thank god.</p>
<p>Before I started my first 'big' job, I made a file & talked to a variety of mentors I had in the field (& people whose style I admired). I wrote down (then typed up) what they told me -- everything from how to handle administrative/paperwork matters to special challenges women might face in my field.</p>
<p>It was really useful -- both the process and outcome.</p>
<p>Good link, Schmoo. Very useful!</p>
<p>That's a useful little article. I was expecting something a lot more preachy. :D</p>
<p>It seems to me people should have been taught all of this information from their parents long before they even started earning money. When our son was 3, we changed from a 30-year mortgage to a 10-year with a lower rate and we showed him all the spreadsheets we ran to decide which loan to pick. We also shared with him my husband's company benefits report (it had a nice colorful pie chart showing what percent of his full package went into base pay, 401K, health insurance, etc.) and the statements of predicted income at retirement (and told him we weren't counting on seeing a penny of it, but if it ever came to be, extra money shouldn't hurt). We also opened a "Young Investors" mutual fund account (sadly sold to another company which lacks this focus) and shared with him the statements from that account as well as another account that we had set up to finance his college education (as it turned out, he entered college at 9 and got a scholarship, so we never had to use any of those funds for college tuition, but we did splurge on his summer study abroad programs). The Young Investors Fund had a monthly newsletter <em>for children</em> and even things like coloring books to teach children about saving/investing. At age 4, our son had a mock checkbook (came with a kit called BanKit) and was entering in his weekly allowance (he got one dollar per year of age from age 4 till I think 12, when he had his own business and didn't need an allowance anymore) and expenses. By age 13, he had his own real checkbook and credit cards (one for business purchases and one for personal purchases). </p>
<p>He opened up his first Roth IRA at age 12 (he had introduced us to those as he read about them in a brochure at the bank when he was 6 and I was making a deposit, and he wanted one right then and there, but didn't have earned income till he was 8 and then it wasn't enough to open a Roth) and has deposited the most allowable by law into his Roth accounts every year since (even as a "poor graduate student living on a stipend"). </p>
<p>He knows he has double health insurance coverage right now (being under 18, we've kept him on my husband's company sponsored plan and his graduate school fully covers him while he's a graduate student, so he's covered in two states) and should never be without health insurance. He also knows he should never get suckered into buying life insurance until he has a spouse and/or child and then to go for term insurance. So many parents hide financial matters (parents' income, outflow, etc.) from children and I suspect these are the ones more likely to have offspring who go into a first job lacking financial skills and charging more on credit cards than they can pay off at the end of the month and such.</p>
<p>Lazybum--true, my parents never would talk about $$ with me at all -- completely an off-limits topic to 'protect' my brother & from worry. I wish I'd had some info though; I'm not very financially savvy today. Best to share the nuts & bolts, I think. </p>
<p>I think we'll start sharing a bunch w/17 yo son now, as well as 6 yo daughter!</p>
<p>It's a good article. I'm going to file away for when my kids need it. I agree that more parents should talk to their kids about basic finances, but the reality is that most don't. As parents know, sometimes kids just don't want to listen/believe when it's parents talking, so it's good to hear the same things from other sources.</p>