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One of the most startling statistics to come out of the Statistic Brain Research Institute Report centers on teens’ total annual spending—which sits just shy of $259 billion annually—is that they’re spending more than they earn. It seems that deficit spending has become a habit among teens. If this figure is accurate, it means that … Read more

The one thing that kids care more about than what they wear is where they eat. According to Piper Jaffray’s biannual Taking Stock With Teens 2018 study, teens are spending more money on food than on clothing. Today’s teens, called Generation Z, have surpassed millennials as the largest group of American customers, making them an … Read more

Investment management firm Piper Jaffray’s Taking Stock With Teens report found that clothing accounts for 21 percent of their budget. The average amount that upper income teens spend on clothes adds up to nearly $1,100 annually. Many of these clothes are so-called “fast-fashion”, low-price, low-quality items meant to be worn for a short period of … Read more

In Forbes article Peer Pressure, Keeping Up With the Joneses’ Teenagers, Neil Godfrey writes, “Teens are all too capable of reinforcing each other’s financial misconceptions. And, where financial misconceptions flourish, that’s where there’s fertile ground for all kinds of mini money disasters. I might be understating “mini” because sometimes they become major financial disasters.” One … Read more

Many youth think of credit cards as free money. Many high school students surveyed thought that it was okay to borrow against future income to go on vacation or buy clothing. Baby Boomers learned basic financial management skills from their parents, and the experience of using cash and personally calculating their bank accounts the hard … Read more

Here’s how they lure you in: they start with a sorrowful backstory and a super cute photo, sure to tug at your heartstrings. The scam artist will weave a long tale of why the payment or deposit must be made before delivering your new family member—through wire-transfer, cryptocurrency, or shipped in a pre-paid credit card. … Read more

Social media is an integral part of daily life for most youth today. Besides the vast amount of traditional advertising, social media is full of hidden advertising. With our increasingly cynical view of company-posted reviews, many companies have turned to word-of-mouth marketing and seeded marketing campaigns. Seeded marketing campaigns are cheaper than traditional advertising and … Read more

A recent article in Fast Company, “How parents talk about money differently to their sons and daughters,” details how gender influences financial education received by children. The article focuses on a parent survey, where respondents said they were more likely to teach their daughters fiscal restraint, while their sons were more likely to be taught … Read more

We’ve heard from many parents that living in high socio-economic circles ensure their offspring are smarter about financial issues. While this may be true in many cases about some financial issues, after working closely with almost 15,000 kids and young adults at all socio-economic levels, we’ve discovered some fascinating insights. Through firsthand observation of youth … Read more

The Internet is full of ads and organizations pretending to be something they are not. Stanford History Education Group researchers set out to determine the ability of young people — from middle-school to college — to judge the credibility of online information. In Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning, the results demonstrated that … Read more