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How to Teach Your Kids About Money

At what age should my children get a debit card?

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Janet Bodnar
Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine
www.kiplinger.com  

Janet Bodnar is deputy editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, for which she has written articles on a wide range of topics, including investing, money management and the economy.

Bodnar is a nationally recognized expert in the field of children's and family finances. Her latest book is Money Smart Women: Everything You Need to Know to Achieve a Lifetime of Financial Security (Kaplan). She speaks frequently on the subject of women and money.

Bodnar's "Money-Smart Kids" column appears regularly in Kiplinger's magazine and at <a>www.kiplinger.com/columns/kids</a>. It was chosen by Moneysmartz.com as one of the top financial columns online. Bodnar is also the kids and money coach on the AOL Coaches site.

Her book Raising Money Smart Kids (Kaplan Publishing) was a finalist in the personal finance category of the Books for a Better Life awards, honoring the best self-improvement books of 2005. It was also a selection of the Washington Post's Color of Money book club.

Bodnar has appeared on Oprah, Today, Good Morning America, The Early Show on CBS, Fox, CNN and PBS. She has done hundreds of radio and TV interviews and appears regularly on WUSA, the CBS-TV affiliate in Washington, D.C., and WTOP, the major all-news radio station in Washington. She is a popular speaker and has been quoted in publications ranging from The Wall Street Journal and Institutional Investor to Parents and Glamour.

Bodnar has been recognized by American University for excellence in personal finance reporting, and by the National Council on Family Relations for her televised reports on children and money. The audio version of her book (read by the author) received three "best of" awards, from Publishers Weekly (business category), Library Journal (nonfiction) and the Audio Publishers Association (educational category).

Prior to joining Kiplinger's, Bodnar worked for The Providence Journal and The Washington Post. She received her master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, where she was also a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business and Economics Journalism.

Married, she is the mother of three children.

At what age should my children get a debit card?

In this video, Deputy Editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance and author Janet Bodnar answers questions on the many issues surrounding what kids should know about money.

This series: 35,479 views

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Host: At what age should my children get a debit card?

Janet Bodnar: It's very important to teach kids of all ages to manage cash but for teenagers the next step in actually managing a cash allowance is getting some sort of a debit card. So, for example what I would recommend first is that they might have an ATM card, a regular ATM card that is perhaps tied to their savings account. This would be maybe younger teenagers 13 or 14 maybe before they have a job of their own.

But the point is they do have access to their own account so that they can put money in with the ATM card and they can take money out. It's not a full fledged debit card so they cannot make actual purchases with it. But they can get access to their money and certainly, if they do start working at the age of 13 or 14 as my son did when he was a freshman in high school again, he could deposit his own money and he could take his money out. Then as they get a little bit older say 16 or 17 maybe now, they really do a have real job they can then have check in account of their own, you may have to cosign with it because they are still minors and the bank may want you to do that but it is not a really big problem. Again, they can have access to the account and they could potentially get a debit card. Again, some banks don't allow kids to have a full fledged debit card until the kids are 18, but if you cosign the account, the check in account the kids can get it earlier.

The debit card itself is the next step, baby steps, first there is the cash allowance then there is the ATM card then there is the actual debit card which gives them the ability to make actual purchases at point of sale but again, as you can see you are doing this incrementally, they are getting experience managing cash so that hopefully by the time they get the debit card they are not going to overdraw the check in account. As it is their money and they are going to know the money is gone and they are going to get hit potentially with a big over the limit charge which you don't want to have happen either nor do they.

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