Financing Your Stepkids’ Teen Years: Protect Yourself—and Your Savings—From the Teenage Money Pit by Mary T. Kelly, MA
Teens have been known, throughout the ages, to be reckless and careless with their possessions, their lives and those of other people. Some 2,300 years ago, Aristotle wisely said: “The young are heated by Nature, as drunken men by wine.” He should have added that their antics could end up costing a hell of a lot of money.
Teenagers have also been known to wreck cars, hold parties when the adults aren’t home, lose their cell phones (time and time again), be issued citations for underage drinking and so on. Anticipating these possibilities before your stepkids become teens is ideal.
If you’re in the throes of these years, now is the time to act. Your teen stepkids aren’t your responsibility. The money it costs to raise them isn’t either. If you want to protect yourself, when it comes to the potential damage they can do, you must ensure that you have zero liability.
Sit down and make a list of what those might be. I’ve listed a few here to get you started. …To read the rest of this article and learn more about teen stepkids and money, log in to your account and download the January 2017 issue. Don’t have an account? Click here to subscribe.