Q: "I need help teaching my 16-year-old grandson how to manage money."

-- A grandmother in Lake Crescent, Wash.

A: In a new world of credit cards for kids, old-school lessons make the most sense.

Look in your local library for a back-to-basics book that's nearly a decade old, "Real World Math: Money & Other Numbers in Your Life" (The Millbrook Press, 1998). Authors Donna Guthrie and Jan Stiles focus on the "math of money management" -- how to balance a checkbook, figure out discounts, how much a skateboard on credit really costs, how to purchase a car.

Understanding money means first understanding how your own money comes in and how it goes out, according to John E. Whitcomb, in his book "The Sink or Swim Money Program: The 6-Step Plan for Teaching Your Teens Financial Responsibility" (Viking, 2001).

Keeping track of all expenses is a smart way to start planning a budget, Whitcomb writes. Get a three-column ledger from an office-supply store. On page one, for example, write clothes. For six months, have your teenager keep every receipt for any type of clothing and write the amounts in the ledger. The potential skills to learn: How to pay attention to budget details for six months, and then get a big picture of how everything adds up.

One mother who plans to use the "sink-or-swim program" for her homeschooled son and daughter says: "I like the idea of kids making mistakes at home, before they get out into the world and are confronted with real issues."

Those "real issues" are starting earlier and earlier, says the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. About a third of high-school seniors already have credit cards and have accumulated debt. And about half of the nation's seniors in high school lack basic money-management skills. Many seniors are unable to balance a checkbook and lack insight about earning, spending, saving and investing.

A mother in Chapel Hill, N.C., who has two sons in college and a daughter at home, says her kids began learning money management when they were in middle school.

"We gave the children a monthly allowance that they had to manage. Any clothes, movie tickets, going out to eat with friends would come out of that money," the mother says. "Even their lunch money came out of it, and they learned quickly to take their lunch. Money management is so crucial to teach our children."

Beginning a habit of saving while your kids are young will help them throughout their lives, according to the Cash Management Connection, a program based in Chapel Hill, N.C., that publishes cash-management workbooks for children, teens, college students and adults. For more information, the company's Web site is www. kidscashmanagement.com. The company's tips include:

• Don't get your kids started on credit cards or debit cards. It's the biggest mistake you can make.
• Be honest about your own money mistakes, and figure out how to let your kids learn from your errors.
• Get your children in the habit of managing their money, whether it's a computer program or just a tablet with lines on it.

David Owen, author of "The First National Bank of Dad: The Best Way to Teach Kids About Money" (Simon & Schuster, $19.95, 2003), started teaching his two children by setting up a "bank" at home for them, with an attractive rate of return on their money to get them to be "eager savers and rational spenders." Later, Owen created a stock market and money-market fund for his kids.

A book for more tips is "Raising Money Smart Kids: What They Need to Know about Money and How to Tell Them" (Kaplan Publishing, $17.95, 2005), by Janet Bodnar, executive editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance.

Other tips from parents:

• Take advantage of teachable moments. While shopping, use coupons and talk about how to make comparisons to find deals.
• Engage your teenager in your budgeting and bill-paying.
• Set up a custodial checking account that the parent or guardian has control over.
• Let your child buy a share or a few shares of a company he can relate to and watch, such as a home improvement or computer company.
• Use three money jars as a way to save. One is for the child's short-term buys, another for long-term purchases, and the third is for charity.

Can you help?

Q: "My 2¹₂-year-old grandson knows how to work puzzles, but when adults are around, he pretends like he does not know how. It's as if he wants to make the adults feel needed. What is the rationale behind this?"

-- A grandmother in Schenectady, N.Y.

If you have tips or a question, please call our toll-free hotline any time at (800) 827-1092 or e-mail us at p2ptips@att.net. Betsy Flagler, a journalist based in Davidson, N.C., teaches preschool and is the mother of a teenage son.