In this episode of Life of And, Tiffany gets candid about the real cost of raising financially literate kids — and why teaching your teen how to budget might be the best parenting move you make this year.
Tiffany shares how she and her husband JR are navigating financial literacy with their daughters, including the system they built to give her agency over her money without removing support. They talk about creating explicit agreements (not unspoken expectations), designing budgets based on real-life categories, and the emotional tug-of-war that comes with watching your kids make their own money mistakes. You'll hear how Tiffany is using tools like Greenlight to simulate real-world pay cycles and how she's building in monthly “money meetings” to instill habits that will serve her daughters long after they leave home.
Whether you’re trying to stop handing out $20s on demand, or want to set your teen up for financial success, this episode breaks it down with honesty, humor, and a whole lot of practical takeaways.
What You’ll Learn:
Real-Life Budgeting Tools:
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(01:06) Why financial literacy is a non-negotiable life skill
(03:00) Remodeling vs. moving — the real cost of family decisions
(06:15) The mailbox letter experiment and its surprising result
(10:54) Building a teen budget with intention (not punishment)
(13:49) Collaborating with your kids instead of controlling the process
(16:04) How Tiffany mimics real pay cycles through biweekly allowance
(19:36) The power of written financial agreements
(21:10) What her daughter pays for — and what she doesn’t
(22:58) Reconciling budgets and developing spending awareness
(24:31) Preparing teens for adult expenses — one category at a time
(28:18) A real story about interest, cupcake sales, and a Brandy Melville skirt
(33:01) Final reflections and parenting through financial personality types
Check out the apps and sponsor of this episode:
Other Episodes in the Summer Sanity Series: