My father, a very successful entrepreneur, had a saying about finding business partners as a brand new business: Before you approach people that don’t know you from Adam, check out the people who demonstrate an interest in you, or the type of person you are. Make yourself a going concern, then widen your circle bit by bit.

He had another saying: The people who can get their hands on money easiest are always those who need it least.

When it came to paying for college for my brother and me, my father borrowed against the equity in his house, put that money to work in a vibrant stock market, earned more than the loan finance charge, paid for school, paid the loan back, and took a cut.

This is not the time for that.

It is the time to find the institution that finds your kid attractive. Hard to imagine, I know, but my father assured me that there’s always someone out there who is interested in you. So, after being asked by my college students to write a post about finding student loans, I sat down to do some extensive research. I know why my students asked. They wanted a secret weapon, something other than the standard advice about going to their college admissions office and applying for all the financial aid and student loans available. That’s common knowledge.

They wanted more than me telling them to apply for an unsubsidized federal student loan, which, depending on the school year you’re entering, could make you eligible for $5,500 (freshmen) to $7,500 (seniors). Not all students are eligible for the full amount, but all students can apply regardless of financial status. Nope. None of the standard advice seemed good enough for this economy, when promises for more student money are still outpacing the actual writing of loan checks. Even with the unsubsidized federal loans, you can’t cover the cost of many tuitions, public or private.

Then I found it: the marketing campaign that proves Dad’s law of attraction. Credit Unions, it turns out, are now actively looking to establish lifelong relationships with Generation Y. It’s a perfect time of course, in the wake of TARP, because disillusionment with banks is at an all time high, and even my students have tuned in to the news.

What do you need to offer to win over Generation Y and their budding financial lives? You got it. Student loans.

There is an initiative of 60 credit unions participating in a program called Credit Union Student Choice. Check out this site, explore this option. Make sure to look at the full list of participating credit unions, but don’t be daunted if your state isn’t listed. Some of the participating credit unions are offering members these loans based on where they live, work, or go to school, so the residency options are fairly wide.

I think even my Dad would have liked this.

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I have to say ever since I heard of the concept of Time Banks, which are community bartering systems, I’ve been intrigued. It sound so European and wise. (It may have something to do with the fact that I was told by a French woman who is involved with my local Time Bank. I’m so impressionable).

The essence of a Time Bank: You join. For every hour you spend doing something for someone in your community, you earn one Time Dollar. Then you have a Time Dollar to spend on having someone do something for you.

The official organization for Time Banks, which is TimeBanks USA has grown enormously. Now there are Time Banks in 29 states, multiple ones in many states. You can even start your own if there isn’t one in your town. The startup kit is on the website. Talk about a fantastic project for your college student, or whole family.

I recommend my local Time Bank to every teen I know. Be aware that there may be some age restrictions within certain Time Bank communities—you need to check your local one—so it may be ideal for your offspring who are 18. But after looking at the list of services needed, which include babysitting, elder care, yard work, there are many jobs needed that are suitable for all teens.

What I love about this concept is that parents benefit from it. The whole family does. If your teen logs in some hours, earns some Time Dollars, you can then have your yard work done, or your infirm mother-in-law cared for on some days by someone not genetically related, so maybe she’ll be polite. Sounds better all the time, doesn’t it?

On a more serious and unselfish note (maybe I’ve been spending too much time with my husband, who is thrilled at the prospect of free labor mowing the lawn), I think teens who contribute to a Time Bank can learn an entire spectrum of priceless lessons: the value of work, social conscientiousness, team work, alternative currency during hard economic times. What’s not to love? They’ll meet great people, too, and really understand where they live from a civic perspective.

And they’ll be really proud when they’ve earned enough Time Dollars to have someone come over and fill a family need. It makes them a provider in the household in a way so conducive to teenage quasi socialist thinking. They’ll be earners in their own way, fostering some great independence.

If anyone out there is working at a Time Bank, please share your stories. I do believe that Time Banks are the wave of the future. I wouldn’t be surprised if we started seeing them pop up on college campuses across the country.

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I refuse to give up summer fun just because the bank account is low. And now I know I don’t have to. The other day I was listening to some students making plans, and I noticed something: They don’t use the word vacation. They say travel, trip, going away. Some use experience, place, journey.

That’s when it hit me: In order to find a rejuvenating, fun, and affordable change of scene this summer, the first thing I needed to do was change my narrow definition. I couldn’t think vacation. Vacation conjures a gentle beach with someone serving me pina coladas while I dig my toes in the sand and read mystery novels. But I don’t have the frequent flier miles, hotel money, etc. etc.

But if I think adventure, try something new, simple change of scene so I’m inspired again, ideas come pouring out. What I really want is to feel rested, happy, and with a new perspective. And better still: to teach the kids that it doesn’t have to be expensive to be fun. Nor does having a relaxing time necessarily mean doing nothing, or be waited on.

So here’s a recession list of things to do during your vacation time that may be life changing. You never know.

1. Swap houses with another family. You can get ambitious here, depending on what you’ve saved up in frequent flier miles. Go online and look for families in Paris. Remember, university professors and teachers have the summer off, so you can Google search on them. Being in another person’s house, in any other location, will give you a new perspective. Also, if you swap houses, then you know the other family has just as much at stake as you do, and you don’t have to spend your time worrying that your house is being trashed.

2. You and your husband/wife leave the house for the weekend, but the kids stay home. Fnd friends who are out of town who would let you use their house or apartment, or go camping, and let your older teens have the house to themselves. Let them throw a party even.

Yes, you guessed it, my husband does in fact think I’ve lost my mind. But it could be summer fun for everyone. Your kids will remember it forever, and if you set up ground rules and they’re not sneaking a party, your house won’t get wrecked. You can even move the breakable knickknacks out of the way.

I am bringing earplugs on my camping trip if we do try this though, because my husband is going to worry obsessively that someone will break his TV.

3. Camping. I truly believe this is always a great idea. It brings out the best and the worst in everyone, but it always makes me feel younger to come home smelling like a campfire after a couple of days. Take the whole family camping. You’ll definitely get to know your kids in a different way. They can take charge of so much. If you have smaller kids and are really tightly budgeted, even for gas money, camp in your yard. The campfire is what’s key. And the point is to get out of your routine.

4. Festival camping. This is camping with a music oriented festival in mind. They’re happening all over the country all summer long. You can research your area online for music festivals nearby. If you want a fun communal experience, it’s the way to go. And your teens will love it. They’ll have freedom, meet lots of people, think you’re cooler than they’ve ever imagined. Even better, you’ll remember what it’s like to go celebrate endless possibilities at a weekend-long concert. These places are usually extremely kid-friendly.

5. House sit. There are ads all the time for wealthy people who need caretakers. It’s like being in a Victorian novel. Could be fun, especially if you cast your net widely for your search.

6. Think about renting someone’s houseboat if you live near water. It could also be a boat with sleeping quarters that’s not really a houseboat. Either way, it can often be far cheaper than hotels, and if you’re a water buff, it could be fun and relaxing.

7. Volunteer to work for a cause that will take you somewhere. It may be on an organic farm, or in a Mexican village. Mind you, this is an adventure, not a relaxing vacation, but the experience of doing something so completely different might give you more energy than you dreamed possible.

Do you have any recession adventures you’d be willing to share? I’d love to hear from teens who first rolled their eyes at some wacky idea their parents had, and ended up having the time of their lives.

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At this point, if your teens don’t have a summer job included in their plans, but you’d really like them to, there’s one place they could learn a lot about how hard it is to make money, and how much is at stake managing it. A fund-raising organization.

The good thing about people who do fund-raising is that they’re everywhere—every town, without exception, needs to raise money for something—and summer can be a big planning time. Actually, there are a lot of good things about fund-raising: They always need help, working in fund-raising is a phenomenal learning experience, and it looks great on a college application or resume.

The job will be a volunteer one, but the money lessons they’ll learn will be well worth it. And it’s not the only thing they’ll learn. They’ll see what devotion and passion to a project is, and how challenging it can be to make dreams come true. The reality that there’s usually a monetary element to anything you want to do is sometimes hard for teens to accept. But they’ll get it after working a summer trying to raise funds during a recession.

So how do you find this illustrious position for your teen? Try these things.

1. First things first, ask their school, even if they’ve just graduated. Every school has fund-raising, and are often most open to student volunteers, or alumni volunteers. I know the school where I’m on the board would welcome student volunteers for any of the fundraisers we do.

2. Ask at nearby colleges. This isn’t just an idea for your college student, or college bound student, but if you live in a college town, a 15-year-old could be a great help and get a feel for college life, and college issues. To find out who at the school does fund-raising, call the student union or student government representatives. If you can’t get through during summer, try the accounting office.

3. Call local non-profit organizations. Is there a cause that your teen cares about? Clean water, global warming, homeless people, cruelty to animals, a cure to a disease, supporting the arts? The Chamber of Commerce in your town or city will have a comprehensive list of all non-profits.

One of the benefits of this choice is that if your teen cares about the cause to begin with, there will be less whining about getting started, less concept selling on your part.

4. If your teen has a particular hobby or aspiration, check into related fund-raising. Let’s say your teen wants to be a musician. Find out about music related fund-raising. You could check a local symphony orchestra, music schools, a local chapter of the National Endowment of the arts.

5. Ask your friends. Someone in your circle is probably trying to raise money for something, or knows someone who is. Ask at work, too.

If you do find a fund-raising volunteer position, do prepare your teens for the likelihood that they’ll be doing menial tasks, and perhaps ones that they don’t see the point of doing. Do tell them that being in the environment is what’s important.

And if you have any personal stories about working your way up in a job that started out as menial as it gets, tell it to them. They’ll like be able to relate to you. And please do share them here.

You may want to subsidize your teen with some money for taking on the fund raising job. It depends on your financial situation. You may also decide that learning the value of volunteering and raising money for someone other than themselves is the real value.

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I’ve been dying to write this post for a while. Before I begin, I do need to say that as a journalist I’ve specialized in security, privacy, and identity for many years, particularly as it pertains to financial matters. The result is that I know too much, and it has rendered me careful. Well, I call it careful. Others call me paranoid.

I’m so careful about identity theft and invasion of privacy I won’t even have an online photo album of my family because I fear it makes us vulnerable. I won’t let my husband get EZ Pass because it’s a heavily trafficked online repository that can’t be protected properly. He’s also not allowed to: shop online unless I approve the website, field any telemarketing calls…Wait, there are so many restrictions on him I won’t list them all quite yet. The fact that he could be the poster child for risky consumerism was the inspiration for the checklist below.

But first, the compelling reason you and your kids need to go to such great lengths: If your financial identity gets stolen, it can take years to straighten out, and that is no exaggeration. In the meantime, you could lose your house, your credit, the works.

Your teens and college students are particularly vulnerable because a) They live online; and b) They are tableau rasa in terms of credit. So a hacker with terrible credit, who wants to start over, with no history, might just choose one of your kids. It’s an interesting trend, because it used to be that a hacker with bad credit wanted to steal an established good credit identity, in order to have maximum purchasing power.

But nowadays, a fresh start is just as appealing. It reminds me of the creepy trend in the 1980s—and it’s probably still happening—where criminals would steal the social security numbers of dead people who were never declared dead, and using that number to steal their identity and live their financial lives.

Scared yet? I am. So here’s my identity theft prevention list. Give it to your kids. If they foster good habits, they have the best chance to protect themselves. And please write to me if you can think of more do’s and don’ts.

1. Do not accept telemarketing calls, even it’s a known quantity, like AT&T. Tell them to give you a phone number, and you’ll call them back to verify. If it’s an organization you’ve never heard of, forget. And don’t give them your address over the phone.

2. Pretty much every state has a web site where you declare that you do not want to receive certain junk mail or telemarketing calls. Google it, or call your local Chamber of Commerce to find it. The less your personal profile is circulated, the better.

3. Do due diligence on website shopping. Never buy anything from a site where there’s no phone number to call, or where someone doesn’t answer the phone. Do not buy from a site that doesn’t use security servers, which pop up and tell you it’s secure. (I will do an entire post on safe Internet shopping.)

4. Test the card swiper at ATMs, gas stations, and other stand-alone, unsupervised credit card and debit card kiosks. The swiper should not be wobbly. If it is, its’ a fake, and someone has installed it to read and store all your magnetic stripe data—which means everything, from bank account numbers, PINs, name, address, phone numbers. Hackers then put that data on another card, go to an ATM across town, and wipe you out. Surveillance cameras not only don’t help, but they can be rigged by hackers to see which PIN you enter on the keyboard.

5. Get the extras on cards: Some good news is that student credit cards, pre-paid reloadable cards, and debit card come with offers for credit monitoring and identity theft protection. Pay for any extra security service that sends you alerts about potential fraud. It’s worth it. And where available, get a credit card with your photo on it.

6. Do not use free email to send financial information to anyone. No gmail, aol, etc. They cannot offer the protection of paid email services.

7. Never write down your exact birth date and zip code on the same form. Anyone can get your medical records, and if they can get those, they can get your financial records. Put the month and year, but not the date.

8. Change your passwords frequently.

9. Use cash or debit cards at restaurants wherever possible. One of the top places credit card information is stolen is in restaurants, off signed receipts. If a hacker has your signature on a credit card slip, they can scan it and do some damage.

10. Don’t put personal data on social networking sites.

11. If you receive a strange email that asks you for personal information that is in any way financial, verify the sender by phone before you send it. Talk to the person. This goes for emails that look like they’re coming from a phone company customer service department, or from a friend. A huge hacking scam infesting social networking sites like Facebook right now is called phishing. It’s where an email seems like it’s coming from a friends, but it’s not. And if you click on a link in the email, they can grab your email address, the code associated with it, your password for your email. And if they have that, they have the keys to your kingdom.

12. Many credit unions offer identity theft products for a minimal fee or, in some cases, free. Sign up for them.

13. Do not fill out forms on unsecured websites.

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Let’s leverage the news, shall we? Ask your kids if they know what a budget deficit is. They’ve seen the headlines. Tell them they need to know because it’s the reason the recession is going to take longer to end than anyone would like.

Ask them if they want a personal recession in their own lives, one that follows them around for decades, or would they like to have a harmonious, prosperous relationship to money.

You not only need to teach your college bound kid to create a budget, but your teens need one, too, so by the time they get to college they’ll be ahead of the game—or at least not behind. So if you have both college students and teens in your family, don’t spare anyone.

Summer is the perfect time because you can supervise. (I love supervising.) Here’s the budget making plan to do with your kids.

1. Okay, first things first. The glossary of terms:
Budget deficit: When what you spend is more than what you take in. Bad.
Budget surplus: When what you spend is less than what you take in. Good.
So they know what the goal is: A budget surplus.

And don’t let any of your smarty pants kids tell you that certain economists don’t believe a budget surplus is good for the nation because it holds up lending etc. Tell them a balanced budget is bad for individuals because you’ll never get to buy any of the really good stuff—cars, exceptional electronics, fabulous vacations.

2. Play one round of Budget Surplus Trivia. Ask your kids to guess when the last time was that the U.S. government had a budget surplus. Then have them Google the question. They’ll start reading, find out it was 2000 under Bill Clinton, they’ll read a little more, and then you’ll have them ripe for creating their own budget: Nine years and counting, and no sign of a balanced budget, much less a surplus. The deficit is widening. Tell them if that happened to an individual over such a long period of time, they’d be in so much debt, with no money to pay it off, they’d have to file for bankruptcy, which ruins your financial life. Always a good idea, I think, to bring the news home.

3. Get a simple budget software program, or if your kid’s checking account has an online budget program, they can use that. I do recommend that every kid doing a budget has a checking account with debit card, so they can use the online line item tracking. It makes the whole budget concept come into focus, and stay in focus.

4. Creating the actual budget. First, have the kids write down life expenses. Here’s the list:

1. Tuition
2. Rent
3. Debt
4. Taxes
5. Utilities
6. Phone
7. Insurance
8. Car payments/transportation/gas
9. Food
10. Clothing
11. Health/Fitness/Grooming
12. Entertainment
13. Savings

Now, even though your teen, or even your college student, won’t have all these line items, make them include all them anyway. These expenses are coming for them in life at some point, so knowing the spectrum now is a good thing. Just have them put zeros for the things not applicable. Maybe by the time they’re in the budget habit, they’ll want to keep that Debt number at zero.

Another interesting exercise is to have your kids put them in order of importance. Write down the different items on index cards, place them on the table. Have them order them according to priority. They should, of course, come up with Entertainment at the bottom, and not, say, before Rent.

5. Then have them write down all the sources of income per month. You may well be a source of income, specifically earmarked for certain items. For instance, if their college apartment rent is $200 per month, then you are counted as the source of rental income.

6. Have the kids go at it. First, they have to put the earmarked income next to the appropriate line item, creating a zero balance. Next, the leftover lump of their income—just allowance, allowance and a job, whatever it is—is applied, as they see fit. Most of this will be discretionary income, for entertainment and savings, upgrades to certain line items, such as a cooler cell phone. Explain what discretionary is. That’s your spending money.

Have the kids think of creative ways of using discretionary income to make their money grow. This is where Saving Wisely comes in.

7. More revenue, less expenses. When they have their budget finished, they’ll see whether they’re at deficit, balance, or surplus. Deficit means parents are supplying the gap, of course, but do explain that without that safety net, they’d be going deeper and deeper into debt, if that choice is even available to them. Credit is harder to get these days.

So the final exercise is to have them see where some expenses could be cut, either to reduce deficit or to increase savings, which is not just for earning more money, but also to buffer emergencies, in case some other revenue is lost, or a new expense comes into play.

And, of course, could they earn more money to enhance the revenue side. This may not be possible, given school load, but do show them that being a good earner goes a long way to peace of mind, but only when you have a smart approach to expenses.

I do guarantee this process will be sobering for them, and make them thoughtful. Some may argue that it’s too much stress for them. I don’t think so. We’ll be lucky if they don’t forget all about it two hours later, knowing the safety net is there. And check out this conversational guide to teen budgeting. It will help shape your process, and theirs. Have teens do the budget for all three months of the summer, and then keep it going.

Any other budget ideas out there?

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Sometimes the worst times make for the best lessons in resourcefulness. Not just for ourselves, either. If we can pass on resourcefulness to our kids, it’s so much more than a money management lesson. It’s a life skill that can help in everything from relationships, to work, to, yes, even parenting.

Over this past week— at end of the college semester parties, and at an award event at the high school where I sit on the Board—there was a lot of talk focused on Fall college tuition and how to come up with it over the summer.

Some folks were worried that even though they have the tuition now, if just one thing changes, they won’t. That change doesn’t necessarily have to be a job loss, maybe just a job reduction. Or for self-employed parents, it could be a big contract that gets put on hold. People were talking and bonding, in an effort to come up with backup plans, to pick each other’s brains for solutions.

I found out that many people don’t know about IRA withdrawals for college tuition. And we all should. There are two big catches—in most cases you need to liquidate the entire IRA, and you will pay some taxes— but as a last resort, it’s a trigger we should be okay with pulling this year. Once I explained it, the stress level in the room shot down, like a hot thermometer run under cold water.

There are some catches, so be clear what they are, but in many circumstances this year, it may be the only option, and even a decent one, especially if your household income has dropped significantly from its norm. Explain this whole following scenario to your kids, too. It will really teach them some essential lessons about how taxation works, and what a zero sum game is.

Here’s the deal: You can always take money out of an IRA for college tuition. You will get taxed on the withdrawal as if it were regular income. But you will not pay the traditional 10% penalty for early withdrawal. You must use the withdrawn money, called a distribution, to pay for school directly. You can’t remove money, for instance, and place it in a 529 college fund. The IRS doesn’t like that. If you reinvest, it is considered a change of investment vehicle, and not condoned. You will be taxed and penalized. And in most cases, you must liquidate the entire IRA, though there are some exceptions.

How to know if you’re the profile who should tap your IRA. You may see yourself in one or more of these characterizations:

1. If you have no other choice, and it’s a matter of your kid going to college, or not.

2. If you’ve already cashed out of investments at a loss in your IRA, and the money is sitting there, dormant, in cash. Many people have done this over the last year. If you’re already in cash, you stand to lose a lot less than those that are still completely invested in the stock market. They may have shares that are deteriorated, but shares can come back. Cash doesn’t.

3. If your income is so deteriorated— and will be for a couple of years—that the tax hit may not actually hit you that hard. This is especially true for people who contribute heavily to IRAs, with a lot more than the annual allowance of $2,000 pre-tax dollars.

Here’s how to figure out if you can wiggle out of the tax bite: First and foremost is whether you have contributed to your IRA with after-tax dollars. If you have not, then you will pay taxes no matter what; you may not offset losses against that money. So, those $2,000 contributions made right before April 15th, which lop the money off your gross income, and lower your taxable income out of the gate—you can’t get out of paying taxes on that money. The IRS doesn’t like giving out double benefits to people. Remember, if it looks like income, and smells income, they’ll tax it. And if you’ve wiggled out of tax on the way in, there’s no wiggling on the way out. You can, however, still take the distribution without the 10% penalty.

But if you have made contributions with after tax dollars, then crunch some numbers. If your income this year is lower than last year—from a job loss, job reduction, losses from stocks or mutual funds you’ve cashed out— or in the red altogether, it will offset that tax liability, at least in part. Remember, the tax they levy is regular income tax. All normal deductions apply.

There are limits to offsetting investment losses with your qualifying IRA withdrawal gain. You can only take up to $3,000 per year of stock losses against the capital gain of your IRA withdrawn money. But, if you actually have more losses than that on the stock market, you can take $3,000 of those losses in future years.

To explain this concept, do show your kids your original buy-in dollar amount for the equity, or mutual fund, or whatever the investment was. If the original purchase price is higher than your stock cash out price, then you get a loss, which is a deduction against regular income.

So, investment losses are one small advantage. But job loss is the big advantage here. Remember, the IRA withdrawal is added to overall income. So if the IRA is equal in amount to what your salary would have been if you had one this year, you might break even with taxes.

Or, if you have a job now but anticipate that your income will be lower next year—your job is going to come to an end, or be reduced— wait until Jan. 1, 2010, and then take the IRA distribution to pay for college. The game here is to play the tax liability against overall income. You want to calculate your losses in wage, and losses from cashed out investments. Have your kids help you figure out the best timing to come up with a zero sum tax liability.

Withdrawing from your IRA may not be your first choice. But, if you’re so strapped you can’t find another way, it’s definitely an option, no penalty. Do consult an accountant or other tax advisor before pursuing this option. Situations vary.

And please share college tuition backup plans that you have in place.

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To me, summer means teens wanting to borrow the car constantly. They borrow the car and deliver it back with the gas light on. It’s more than annoying. But it’s a chance to sneak in a money lesson for one of their most revered commodities: gas money.

Gas money equals freedom—whether it’s your car or their own— and it’s compartmentalized in the teenage mind: It never occurs to a teenager, or many college students for that matter, that the money they use to go to the mall can also be used to gas up the car. The reason is simple. They know they can finagle a way to talk you into the gas money, especially if it’s your car. But even in their own car, if you want them to do errands, they’ll get the gas money out of you, then fly off to do what they want, that loaf of bread you asked them to go get arriving back at the house at 11 p.m.

So, let’s turn the tables a bit on all that. Gas prices are sneaking up again, and even if it doesn’t seem like it when teens are nickel and diming you for three dollars here, five dollars there, gas money adds up. They need to take some responsibility for it, especially when it translates so directly to their freedom.

I had no idea what to do about fixing the gas guzzler problem, until I happened to be complaining about it to my mechanic, and he said: “Try driving the speed limit.”

First of all, how did he know I have a lead foot? Well, apparently the way my tires are worn tell him the whole story. He’s the Columbo of cars.

But then something occurred to me: Are there really things you can do, like driving the speed limit, that conserve gas? Indeed there are. Here’s my mechanic’s short list: Check tire pressure regularly and make sure you have tires filled to the recommended air pressure. Drive the speed limit. Keep clean oil in your car, and don’t let it run low. Don’t run the air conditioner. Don’t drive in heavy traffic if you can help it, and use less congested roads, with less frequent stopping and starting

So, what I decided to do was give this list to teenagers. The goal: to raise awareness about gas money, and get them to take responsibility for the expense.

Here’s the plan:

1. Tell them to keep track of how much money they spend on gas for two weeks.

2. Then have them do the all the things on the mechanic’s short for the next two weeks, and track gas expenditure again. This time, they have to pay for their own gas. I especially like the speed limit one. It’s such a great way to con them into being safe. The one that might be hard, depending on where you live, is the air conditioner one. And that’s a good thing. Don’t worry about your suffering teen. We need to raise awareness and discomfort does that job very well.

3. If they’ve saved money in the second two weeks, give them a bonus, such as gas money for a week. There’s a real side benefit to giving them a lump sum of money in advance, earmarked for gas, rather than every time they go out. They have to pace themselves for a week, which raises awareness, too. The next time they slip a hand into their jeans pocket, rummaging for a couple of dollars for a slice of pizza, the thought will pop into their little heads: Is this my gas money? The idea that money is money, and there’s an opportunity cost for spending it, is a great lesson.

You may be asking what is the point of giving them gas money as a bonus, if the whole lesson was designed to prevent you from being the gas money ATM? Because if they think they’re going to get free money, they’ll keep being careful and conservative. They’ll decide whether they really need the air conditioning on. Awareness is the first step toward forming a good habit. After a while, the good habits will stick. Plus, the very fact that the cost of gas is their responsibility will be instilled—we can all hope.

If you have any more tips about car care that translates to better gas mileage, please share them.

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