Money Quiz for Parents

1. You’re planning to get a car for your 16-year-old. Will you:

• Lease a brand-new car for your teen?
• Give your teen your old clunker and buy a new, fuel-efficient car for yourself?
• Buy your teen a practical car after carefully researching the market together?
• Help pay for a used car after discussing how your teen will pay for insurance, gas and maintenance?

2. Your 15-year-old gets a summer job. Will you:

• Get them to start saving now, and explain the tax implications of a paycheck and help them with their year-end taxes?
• Watch him or her buy a flashy new cell phone and spend money at the mall?
• Have your teen turn the money over to you and deposit it into a savings account?
• Encourage your teen to open a checking account and set up a savings plan with direct deposit?

3. You decide to set up an investment account for your 12-year-old. Will you:

• Pick the best securities yourself after careful research?
• Ask your child which companies or industries might be fun to own, and invest in a couple of his or her picks?
• Put all the money into a single hot stock?
• Do some research together and jointly decide what to buy?

4. Your first-born is heading off to college. Will you:

• Together, develop a budget and figure out how to cover expenses using any combination of loans, savings and income from a part-time job?
• Have your teen get a part-time job or student loan to help pay part of the costs?
• Hope for the best?
• Pay for his or her education yourself in full and provide an allowance?

5. It’s April, and you’ve just filed your tax return. Will you:

• Pay the taxes on time without any family discussion?
• Use the occasion to talk about the impact of taxes on family finances?
• As a family, choose a charitable organization and make a donation with part of the refund?
• Complain loudly that you’re being gouged.

6. You’re at the grocery store with your two middle-school children. Do you:

• Cave in to their demands for sugary snacks and sodas?
• Bring a shopping list and stick to it?
• Use the trip as a way to teach them to comparison shop?
• Give each child $20 to purchase the ingredients for a family dinner?

7. You’ve just made an offer on a new house and your teen asks, “How are we going to pay for it?” Do you:

• Talk about how the housing market works, including the pros and cons of different types of mortgages?
• Explain the concept of a mortgage?
• Tell your teen that you will take care of that?
• Say you’re hoping to win the lottery?

8. From your teen’s perspective, a credit card is:

• A foreign concept. Cash only.
• OK, as long as the balance is paid on time each month.
• A useful tool, if used wisely and paid off each month.
• A limitless source of money.