Seven things every young person must know about money

MBOMBELA – Today South Africans remember the Soweto uprising of 1976. It was about education and equality for the youth, the future and lifeblood of any economy.

In celebration of the day, African Bank wants to help teach youths to take care of themselves.

“Building and empowering money savvy teens is an important start in creating responsible young adults,” said Alfred Ramosedi, African Bank Group executive of sales and marketing.

Here are some money saving tips even teens can use:

1. Pay attention

To always have money, you have to pay attention to it. If you don’t, it’s gone quicker than the checkout person can say, “Is that cash or credit?”

Try and keep track of your spending for a week or two and you will soon work out whether you spend lots of money infrequently, spend it mindlessly in little amounts often, or spend a little here and a little

there, often agonizing over every purchase.

“If you’re one of the first two, you are definitely a spender and you might find that you are out of money more often than you’d like. If you’re the third type, you’re probably a natural ‘saver’ and savers almost always have money for the things they need or want. This is a good thing.”

• You may also be interested in: Watch: Lowveld Media asked youths what they think unites us as South Africans

2. Track your spending

Most teens use debit cards to purchase their goods and lose track of just how much they are spending. Keeping a record you can refer to often acts as a good handbrake and puts a check on unhealthy spending patterns before they become a problem. Find the tracking mechanism that works best for you.

3. Develop financial discipline

It is often assumed that if you don’t have cash, you won’t spend it. However, the truth is you’ll actually spend more when you’re using your debit card or a credit card.

Decide how much cash is safe to carry in your wallet. When you want to buy something, ask yourself, “Can I do without it today?” If you can, don’t buy it.

4. Pay attention to your minutes and texts

Know your phone plan. If you are the one who’s responsible for your cell phone bill, and especially if you’re not, watch your minutes and texts. You do not want to experience the shock of a higher than expected phone bill.

Keeping tabs on your minutes and texts help keep your phone bill in line each month and helps keep you in line with your parents too!

5. Pack your own lunch

Taking your own lunch from home is a lot healthier and a whole lot less expensive than spending it all at the tuckshop. Adults in financial trouble quickly admit that eating out is often their biggest mistake financially.

Once they stop eating out all of the time, it’s amazing at how easy it is to pay their other expenses and have a little money to save and invest each month. If you start this money-saving habit now, you’ll be a lot less stressed later.

6. Teach yourself

You’ve probably learnt a little about money, saving and investing, creating businesses in school or at home. But if you really want to be financially successful in life, it’s up to you to teach yourself about these important topics and practice them in the real world.

7. Make your own money

Making money is different to earning money. When you earn it, you are trading your time and energy for money. You work an hour and get paid for an hour.

When you make it, you’re working lots of hours building businesses and then getting paid over and over and over again for that same hour. There’s nothing sweeter than learning how to write your own pay check when you’re young. By doing this, you’ll always be the CEO of your own life and you’ll never be dependent on a job.