Our oldest son is in Boy Scouts, and he has been avidly working towards being an Eagle Scout.  One of his requirements was to work towards earning the Personal Management Merit Badge. It involved creating a budget, discussing the concepts of personal finances, and working on a written project plan for making a purchase. As an Accredited Financial Counselor, I definitely had an advantage in helping him work towards completing the necessary steps. But, talking to a pre-teen is very different than talking to an adult!

I was able to use a lot of the resources on MilKids through the MilSpouseMoneyMission.org website to open the conversations and try to reach my son where he learned best. Together, we looked at our family goals and values and each took a few of the quizzes like the “Money Personality” and “Financial Readiness.” I was really surprised that he knew more than I thought he did! Of course, my family has always been very open about talking about our finances. We want our boys to feel comfortable asking questions and knowing that we are going to give them an honest answer whether they agree with it or not.