READY TO CHARGE?
By Tom Hartwell, The Vicksburg Post
[03/26/08]
Some teens prepared to use plastic, some not
Felicia Jacobson said alarm bells rang when a student came into her office one day elated: she had just gotten a credit card.
“She said, ‘Ms. Jacobson, Ms. Jacobson! Guess what?’”
Jacobson, director of Vicksburg High School’s career center, said she was troubled to learn the student celebrated getting her new credit card by going on a small spending spree with her boyfriend.
“I said, ‘OK, do you know how that credit card works? And she really didn’t.’”
Worried that other students had a weak grasp on the concept of credit, Jacobson contacted bankers and credit workers and asked them to speak to the school’s seniors about good credit management and the dangers of getting into debt.
“We’re into the age where we want instant gratification and instant everything,” Jacobson said.
As teens prepare to enter the working world or go off to college, parents must think about how to steer them into financial independence.
Read more: http://www.vicksburgpost.com/articles/2008/03/26/news/schyth01.txt
