"Mom, I need $10 for a tee shirt for the basketball team at school."

"Dad, I need $20 for the movies this weekend with my friends."

"Mom, I saw these cute boots at ABC store. They're only $120.00, can we get them tomorrow?"

Does any of this sound familiar to you? If it does, you probably have a teenager in your house. Teaching our children about money is often an awkward conversation, but it is a very necessary conversation to have.

Follow up:

Today's teens are exposed to more commercialism than any other generation and often have an attitude of entitlement. As a parent of three teens, one who can drive, I understand this first hand. I'd like to say that my husband and I have been great examples of how to manage money and how to save. Intellectually, I know that we should put money aside from each paycheck to build a savings account and adding to that, we should be paying into college funds for each of our children. However, reality is where we live.

Teaching our children the value of a dollar and a hard work ethic is vital to their overall success in life.

Banks today have made checking accounts available to teens as young as 13 yrs old and with these checking accounts come debit cards. This is  a great time to have a conversation with your child about how to manage money. Knowing how to manage money is a vital lifeskill that we, as parents, are obligated to teach our children to set them up for success in their adult lives.

In today's economy, teenagers are competing for entry level jobs with adults who have more work experience, making it all the more important for teens to develop a strong work ethic, so they are able to keep the job they have for as long as they want or need it.

As teens work and earn a paycheck, they can better understand how long they had to work to be able to buy those $120.00 boots. Once kids get the opportunity to pocket a little cash by cutting grass or bringing in the neighbors' mail while they're on vacation, talk to them about how much they should spend, save, or donate to charity. Have your kids sit down with you every now and then while you write checks for the things they love most -- cable TV, phone service, the car -- so they can see how quickly a few thousand bucks dwindles to the low three digits.

And they need to know, because they burn through money like crazy. According to a study by Teenage Research Unlimited, based in Northbrook, Illinois, teens spend close to $160 billion a year (most of that coming from -- you guessed it -- the Bank of Mom and Dad). Even when teens hold down a job, they tend to spend all their earnings on clothes, cosmetics, electronics, music, and hanging out with friends. One study found that more than half of high-school kids with jobs say they make no contribution to the family's living expenses, and 23 percent say they contribute only a little.

As I'm trying to encourage my son to get himself a job, I hear my dear grandfather in my head, telling me when I was my son's age, "pay your self 10% first from every paycheck so you will always have the money for a back up plan if you ever need one." I can only say one thing...I wish I had listened to my wise grandfather all those years ago. Now, I will be passing that wisdom onto my children.