Getting a Teenager motivated to work

No real news flash here, but being a parent of a teenager can be expensive. As a recent letter writer to Business Week wrote, if the government gave teenagers the money from the tax rebates, watch out economy! That money would be gone in the blink of the eye. On what? Fast food, electronic devices, games and like everyone else, gas.

Currently we have a 17 year old that needs to get back out working and I think I finally came up with the best incentive yet. (My nagging just wasn't working!) He wanted to go to a Magic card tournament today and first I had him work for part of the money by sweeping the sand from our garage and driveway. Secondly, I then lent him the rest and wrote it down. Yes, I wrote it down, it's now a permanent IOU. When I mentioned there might be jobs at the Hospital in the food services, he actually seemed interested.

The next incentive will be the colleges we will be looking at next week. His brother with great grades is going to our state university, thanks Loyola, but we decided to pass on the 26,000 loan for each year. Second guy knows how we feel and it's up to him to figure out the college options. We tried to save some, but somehow life got in the way. Our retirement fund is much better, because as they say, you can borrow for college, but you can't borrow for retirement.

But there is a part of me that feels badly for all young people right now. The price of gas is beginning to limit other purchases. Can this administration get away with saying we are better off after these 8 years......I don't think so! Younger people will have to learn how to budget their money, there's hope yet for my second. My first is doing really well with limiting purchases and not spending much while at college. Call him cheap, but he won't be facing massive loans.