272: Budgets, Boundaries, and Raising Confident Teens

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:

• How to shift from implicit expectations to explicit financial agreements with your kids
• The monthly categories Tiffany includes in her daughter’s teen budget
• When to let kids fail (on purpose) to teach real-world financial lessons

Real-Life Budgeting Tools: 

• Use Greenlight to simulate a real paycheck cadence
• Separate “mom pays” vs. “teen pays” categories to reduce conflict
• Treat budgeting like a skill-building exercise, not a control mechanism
• Revisit and revise the budget every 90 days with your teen

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:

• Created in partnership with Share Your Genius
• Download the Summer Sanity Toolbox: Start with priorities. Add structure. Make space for joy. Because summer is yours too.
• Check out our Teen Budget Template

Other Episodes in the Summer Sanity Series:

• How to Support a Killer Summer for Your Teens: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-support-a-killer-summer-for-your-teens/id1555762235?i=1000709403154
• Summer Survival Systems for the Whole Family: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/summer-survival-systems-for-the-whole-family/id1555762235?i=1000708565509 
• 5 Tools & Apps To Keep You Aligned This Summer: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/5-tools-apps-to-keep-you-aligned-this-summer/id1555762235?i=1000706783024 
• A Working Parent’s Guide to Navigating Summer: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-working-parents-guide-to-navigating-summer/id1555762235?i=1000705671662
• Less Chaos, More Protein: Tiffany’s Summer Food Game Plan https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/less-chaos-more-protein-tiffanys-summer-food-game-plan/id1555762235?i=1000710405520 
• The One Thing I Stopped Doing That Gave Me My Weekends Back https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-one-thing-i-stopped-doing-that-gave-me-my-weekends-back/id1555762235?i=1000711463300