Money advice for young people

Managing Your Money authors Jane Bingham and Holly Bathie explain why it was important to write a friendly, accessible guide to money for young people.

Talking to teenagers and parents, we came across a lot of anxiety about handling money, but no real resources. Although financial knowledge is now included in the UK National Curriculum, most of the resources are very dry – with lots of charts and graphs and technical language.

There was nothing really accessible in the bookshops, so we decided to produce our own teenage-friendly guide to the world of money – something informative but also fun, designed to take the mystery out of managing money.

We checked the National Curriculum – which includes quite a lot of maths – and made sure to include any relevant maths in our book, in a clear and practical way. For example, how to calculate discounts, and recognising the best value options in the supermarket.

The modern financial world – with internet banking, contactless payment and online shopping – can pose all kinds of traps for inexperienced users of money. So Managing Your Money includes very clear advice on how to use bankcards safely, how to avoid being in debt, how to keep your financial details secure, and how to steer clear of gambling.

As well as providing useful information, we wanted to make our book interactive – so a reader of any age could use it to improve their money-managing skills. Managing Your Money starts with a quiz to help you recognize your financial habits, and includes quizzes on planning savings, identifying ‘needs’ and ‘wants’, and making a profit.

The book is designed to be useful for younger children with pocket money, for older teens who have a larger allowance and possibly earnings of their own, and for adults who want a no-nonsense guide to managing their finances.

It includes practical advice on such topics as setting up a budget, earning and saving money and being a smart spender. And it doesn’t just focus on spending money – there are also chapters on giving presents and raising money for charity.

There are easy to follow guides to returns and refunds, understanding pay, and different types of bank account. We know phone contracts are a big issue for parents, so we discuss the range of contracts and suggest ways to keep the costs under control. We also look at the kind of challenges a young person will face in adult life, with chapters on student finance, renting and mortgages, paying bills, investing and insurance.

These later chapters include simple explanations of terms that you often hear bandied around without any explanation, such as credit score and tenancy deposit. Plus there’s a helpful glossary of financial words, so you can easily check the difference between – for example – AER and APR.