Last night I sat him down and told him it was time to really get serious about keeping up with his money. I asked him how much he had in his checking account and he gave me a guess. His computer was right next to him and I told him again he really needed to be keeping up and he said "yeah." Obviously he was not getting that I was pretty much saying "get off your IPad and look at your account" so I finally said, "Pull up your account." To which he replied "I don't remember the password." When I asked "Why not?" He said "Well, you don't know it either." Of course then there had to be a discussion about how I know my passwords to all my accounts except the one I have emergency money in and I don't want to have easy access to that one. I also explained I did not need to know the password to his account as it is his account and my name has been removed from that account because he is pretty much considered an adult. I also reminded him of where he could find his password.
Funny thing was that during this conversation he managed to open his account records without a problem. We then took a look at how much money he has made over the summer (quite a lot for a student), and how much he has spent. We went over every expenditure to see where his money was going (mostly rent for an apartment he does not live in), and talked about how much he needs to put away from what is in there to make sure he can pay his taxes come April.
He became quite depressed over the fact that he doesn't have a lot left after taxes and rent. We then had to have a discussion about how very few 20 years olds are in the situation he is in. That the experience he has gained from having this wonderful job is worth a lot more than he was paid, even though he was paid quite well. We talked about the fact that he has a guaranteed job after graduation if he so chooses to continue on with this company, and that he has met some terrific people.
I think he felt better after the discussion because a while after the talk he said that he really was not as bad off financially as he thought. That just confused me because he has about half of what he has made still, and would have had almost all of it if he wasn't paying so much in rent every month. I think he just wants to have a huge account now and not wait.
I told him I was proud of how little he has spent on just "stuff" and that I was very pleased he paid for his last car inspection, oil change, and maintenance himself without asking me for any money. I also told him that he would start using a side account that I had set up for him years ago to put his savings in it would build up faster and he would not have easy access so it would stop impulse buying in case that ever became an issue.
All in all I think it was a good talk. Do I think he will keep up with his account? No. I do know where he is and that he is not being foolish with his funds and once I help him set up some automatic savings plans, he will be just fine.
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