78 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT Whether it is salaries and taxes, estimating both real costs and opportunity costs of their choices, or knowing how to differentiate between needs and wants, many fall short. Most of the teens I work with cannot really distinguish between the value of $1,000 and $10,000, and cannot connect either value to the labor, effort, or working hours represented by that amount. So, other than sending them into the marketplace of adulthood with a mentality that credit cards can pay for anything and that money is magically deposited into their account each month, what are some things you can teach your teens now to set them up for life after high school? Managing Spending At one point, perhaps in despair that I hadn’t yet learned this lesson, my mother began to give me an allowance to cover not just my wants but also my needs. Other than meals that were shared as a family, I would have to use my allowance to pay for breakfast, school lunches, personal care items, clothing—essentially everything they wouldn’t be paying for if I didn’t live in the house. Allowance for my own Foreign Service family now is more complex as we navigate local payment apps, local banking requirements, cash conversions, bank app age restrictions, etc. To help my teens see their spending, we track their income and expenditures in an app so they can follow the flow of their finances, even if they can’t always pay for things with their own account. Don’t forget: Teens will still need to know how to use an actual paper checkbook. (Continued on page 82)
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