a) Kids should be able to make money. b) Video game currency
right now is one way: You buy game credits with real money but
you can't turn it BACK into real money.* I think they should be
allowed to turn it back into real money.* Make money playing
video games. c) Adults shouldn't keep hogging up all of the
jobs.* I was one of the last generations where kids having paper
routes were common and we sold candy door-to-door.* Now, it's
really hard for kids to make money, doing chores and stuff.*
Babysitting (I did it a few times) was an easy way to make some
money but again; adults are hogging up the baby-sitting market.
d) Kids 11-13 should be able to have their OWN Savings accounts
with a limited Visa Debit card; limit how many times a month it
can be used (maybe 6 times), and with the bank account will come
money management training. e) Under 11, Savings accounts jointly
owned by parents and kids without a debit card but with the
ability to withdraw once a month with a parent. f) 14+: Full
savings and checking account (with training) and Visa Debit.* No
limits to the amount of use Credit cards are a tricky thing
though.* I stress Debit Visa because you're using your own
money.* Credit cards, on the other hand, are a measure of "How
trustworthy are you to pay us back?" I was blasted with credit
card apps the day I turned 18.* Even though I had a savings+
checking acct by then (I was lucky enough that the law still
allowed kid accounts; they took that away from kids in the late
90s or early 2000s COMPLETELY); I screwed it all up quickly.
Maybe a limited Secured Credit card at 14; that's where you
would have to put, say, $250 in and you get a card with a $300
limit; and if you use and pay back faithfullly for a year, you
get your $250 back plus interest. But the credit card world is a
dangerous place; it "feels" like free money; and it's not.* I
know; I know everything there is to know about Credit cards;
fixing bad credit; establishing credit; because I've screwed it
up a few times in life and kept trying to "beat the system".* I
can teach anybody about money and I can do it myself for years;
but eventually, I screw it up again :P temptation is very
difficult to beat, when you feel like you have free money,
rather than actually owing. Still.. perhaps a limited card; but
with a main focus on savings, checking and Debit Visa, which
still lets you buy what you want as long as you have the money.*
And... maybe instead of just a debit visa, a secured credit card
that lets you "go a little over" what you have in the bank a
little, just so long as you pay it back like you would a credit
card. There's just too much great stuff out there; and how else
can someone learn to be good with money, if they don't get the
chance to screw it up a few times... and a chance to prove
themselves.
