15/07/2026
Parents, a question: does your teenager know what F**A is?
Mine didn't either, the first time he asked. Most adults couldn't tell you the first time they saw it on a paycheck.
California is finally catching up to this gap. High schools have to offer a personal finance course by 2027-28, and it becomes a graduation requirement for the class of 2030-31. That's a real, overdue win. But if your kid graduates before then, or your state hasn't passed anything similar, the timeline for them learning this is entirely up to you.
I've been a financial advisor for 28 years, and 15 years ago, I started teaching teenagers directly - walking them through their first paycheck, their first credit card offer, their first "should I save this or spend it" decision.
Here's what I'd tell you to cover at your kitchen table before the school system gets around to it:
Show them an actual paycheck. Gross pay, then every deduction, line by line, down to net pay. Once they see the math, taxes stop being a mystery and start being a number they can plan around.
Talk about credit before they get an offer in the mail. A $100 purchase left on a card at today's average rate turns into real money in a year. Better they hear that from you today than a credit card statement is 6 years.
Teach them the beauty of compounding. $6,000 a year starting at 18 instead of 28 is a different retirement. It doesn't need to be dramatic - it needs to be repeated.
Give them a habit, not a rule. Two accounts, one for spending and one for saving. Money moves to savings the day it arrives, before it can be spent. That single habit will outlast anything you lecture them about.
None of this is complicated. It's just usually skipped. We can fix this for the next generation - in the meantime, the best financial literacy course your teenager will take might just be one you teach them yourself.
