My 10-year-old niece left for camp yesterday. It is an overnight camp run by the YWCA. She has been attending it each summer since she was 8-years-old. (Personally, I thought that was kind of young for a child to be going to sleep-away camp, but she loved it and hasn’t looked back since.) My niece’s camp is your typical summer camp. She’ll be swimming, canoeing, doing crafts, and making s’mores. Your kids may be attending a summer camp as well. Nowadays there are a seemingly endless amount of camp choices–from Space Camps and Fitness Camps to Bible Camps and Foreign Language Camps. Recently, I discovered a fairly new type of summer camp that is making headlines and gaining popularity among parents of teens.
It’s called “Money Camp” and instead of kayaking and making birdhouses from Popsicle sticks, kids learn about saving and investing money–sort of a Personal Finance 101. Campers also learn how to write a check, budget, save, buy a house and a car, and start their own business. They are also schooled on the differences between a debit card and a credit card. Advanced “Money Camps” also teach campers about investing money, which includes seminars in buying stocks and purchasing mutual funds.
Laura Levine of Jump$tart Coalition, a financial literacy organization, recently wrote: “Money camps are growing in popularity.” Parents have several camps to choose from. For example there are business camps, entrepreneurship camps, and general money management camps. Levine says that these camps are beneficial because many schools don’t cover the topic.
And she may be right. According to a recent survey, teens have a lot to learn when it comes to financial issues. In one survey, less than half of high school students correctly answered questions about saving, budgeting and retirement.
Here’s an example of a popular “Money Camp” located in Colorado:
Money $ense is a day camp operated by the nonprofit Young Americans Center for Financial Education (www.yacenter.org), in Denver. The center offers a “Be Your Own Boss Camp” for budding entrepreneurs. It also offers two five-day finance camps: one for children who have finished sixth or seventh grade and covers budgeting, investing, credit and taxes. The other, called “Junior Money Matters,” is designed for youngsters just out of second or third grade. The camp gives children the opportunity to learn the history of money and play games, such as banking bingo. Campers also spend time running the center’s mock town.
You can find a complete list of finance camps at www.mysummercamps.com.