Along with a car comes responsibility.  At 16, Nathan was fully aware of this in theory but in the few weeks he’s owned his own car he’s experienced the hands-on side.

First came the need to keep the gas tank full.  If he wants to go anywhere.  Although he researched a car with decent gas mileage, his gets an average of 22 mpg, when the money is coming from his wallet, the desire to drive all over town was no longer that important.  He actually car-pooled to a baseball game with a friend’s family in order to save on gas money.

Then there’s the interest in finding extra money to help pay for things like gas.  Nathan has always been a hard worker and has never turned down the opportunity to make a few extra dollars.  But now that he’s paying for his own gas he’s been seeking out ways to earn even more money.  He has added on to his soccer reffing schedule and has made sure that Tom, our neighbor, is aware that he’s available for hire.  Tom pays $15/hour.  That’s good money to a teen.

Next came the unexpected circumstance.  This is the hard one to teach in advance.  Telling your teen that he needs to keep an emergency fund for…anything, is like telling them that you’ve decided to plant petunias in the front yard.  It’s irrelevant to their life and not very interesting.  Until they need to pay for four new tires because the ones that came with their car are balding.

$379.65  later and a greater appreciation for that emergency fund, Nathan is, as I write, raking leaves for Tom.