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Financial Advice for Your Teens and Tweens: Setting Them Up for Success

Give your child a financial head start by teaching them smart money habits with FNBT’s youth-friendly savings and checking accounts. From budgeting basics to responsible spending with a debit card, we provide the tools to help your teen or tween build lifelong financial skills.

As a parent, you want to give your child every advantage in life, including teaching them how to manage money wisely. Whether they’re earning their first allowance, getting their first paycheck, or just starting to make spending decisions on their own, now is the perfect time to build smart financial habits that will last a lifetime.

At FNBT, we make it easier for families in our communities to instill financial responsibility through youth-friendly checking and savings accounts, plus debit cards designed specifically for kids and teens.

In this guide, we’ll explore practical strategies to help your teen or tween develop strong money management skills and the tools FNBT offers to support their financial growth.

Start With the Basics: Needs vs. Wants

Before opening a bank account, it’s important for kids to understand the difference between needs (food, housing, school supplies) and wants (video games, fast food, trendy clothes). You can introduce this topic while out back-to-school shopping in a store, driving in a car, or sitting around the kitchen table with a piece of paper, separating everyday items into one of these two categories.

While you have that paper out, you might also want to create a simple budget. Showing your child how to allocate money for savings, spending, and giving is a valuable exercise on many levels, opening up discussion on personal and family values.

FNBT Tip:  Explore our Saving Towards a Goal calculator to help your teen set realistic expectations for reaching their savings goals. This tool breaks down how much they need to save each month and how long it will take to reach their goal, encouraging them to make saving a priority.

Open a Kids Savings Account to Build Healthy Habits

A savings account gives tweens and teens a secure place to store their money while teaching them how to track balances and watch their money grow.

Consider helping them set small goals, like saving for a new phone or summer camp, to make the data they see more meaningful. Even ensuring money from gifts or allowances goes into these accounts before being spent can help them build a foundation of knowledge about how money impacts their lives.

FNBT Solution: Looking for the best savings account for kids? FNBT’s First Choice Savings Account offers an easy way for kids to start saving with parental guidance.
 

Introduce a Checking Account and Debit Card for Teens

As your teen starts working or managing an allowance, a checking account can help teach them how to deposit money, manage transactions, and budget for expenses. Reviewing printed or e-statements can help your child better visualize the flow of their money and provide an opportunity for guidance and goal setting.
A debit card in their wallet allows teens to learn responsible spending without the risks of credit card debt.  

Teach Smart Spending Habits and Avoiding Impulse Purchases

We’ve all been there, standing in front of a store display as our teen ogles at the latest gadget or garment. Their emotions start to take over, and the voice in their head gets louder and louder—“I want it!” Here is where you, as a parent, can really help your child. Help teens develop mindful spending habits by asking, 'Is this a need or a want?' Encourage them to apply the “24-hour rule”—waiting a full day before making a nonessential purchase to prevent impulse buys.
 
FNBT Tip: Reviewing monthly checking account statements together, whether online or on paper statements, can spark meaningful discussions about spending patterns and financial goals.

Consider asking questions that lead them to think about the long-term value of the times they purchased. Would they have made the same choice today? What factors motivated them to spend the way they did?

Help Them Start Investing Early With a Roth IRA

While it might feel a bit early to start talking to your kids about their retirement, planning provides a head start that can make that day come even faster. If your teen has a part-time job, consider helping them open a Roth IRA—even a small deposit now can grow significantly over time.

Roth IRAs are great for teens because they have decades of tax-free growth.

FNBT Tip: Talk to an FNBT banker about options for helping your teen get started with investing.

Encourage Saving for Long-Term Goals

With apologies to Ben Franklin, “A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned” just doesn’t seem as motivating today as it might have been 200+ years ago. Replacing pennies with dollars or tangible items helps make the sentiment more meaningful. Whether saving for new headphones, a car, college, or a future apartment, setting long-term goals builds patience and planning skills. Have your teen set a goal, determine how much they need, and create a savings plan. Be sure to return to the plan often, measure successes, and adjust strategies as needed to keep up the momentum.
 

Teach the Value of Earning Money

Giving teens opportunities to earn money through chores, part-time jobs, or summer work can be an important step in helping them learn financial responsibilities. Neighbors and family members often have small tasks that can expand the opportunities for less formal employment and provide valuable experience when the time is right for your child to pursue their first job. Some parents even pay their kids for good grades in school—should you?

Regardless of how they earn, returning to the basic tenets of budgeting once they do is important. Seeing a direct correlation between their efforts and money can be powerful (and occasionally humbling). Everything is an opportunity for a conversation, and being there to talk through their emotions helps pave the way for healthy relationships with money.

FNBT Tip: When they start earning a paycheck, consider setting up direct deposit into their checking account.

Set Your Teen Up for Financial Success with FNBT

As parents of teens and tweens, it can sometimes feel like we compete to influence our children in so many areas. While you are less likely to have too much influence over the music they listen to or the movies they are drawn to, there is one area where your influence is almost 100% certain—managing money. Teaching financial literacy early sets kids up for a lifetime of smart money management.

Extra Credit: Read our blog post, “What age can a kid have a bank account?” for additional ideas, guidance, and requirements.

FNBT offers savings accounts, checking accounts, and debit cards to help support your child as they learn essential money skills. Stop by any of our convenient locations in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, including Beloit, Argyle, Clinton, Darien, Delavan, Elkhorn, Janesville, Monroe, Walworth, Williams Bay, Rockton, Roscoe, and Winnebago. Our friendly team is ready to help your family take the next step toward financial success.

Prefer to get started from home? You can open an account online in just a few clicks.  
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Securities and insurance products are offered through Cetera Investment Services LLC (doing insurance business in CA as CFG STC Insurance Agency LLC), member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services are offered through Cetera Investment Advisers LLC. Neither firm is affiliated with the financial institution where investment services are offered. Investments are:
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