Today’s teens are highly motivated to save for a wealthy future — but they’re looking for guidance. Here’s how parents can help

The summer before she started Grade 9, Maia MacDonald wasn’t obsessing over what to wear on the first day of high school — she was too busy creating her resume. As soon as she discovered she could get a part time job when she turned 14, she asked her dad, Mike, to help her with some applications.

Within days of her birthday, she was hired at a sandwich shop. “She's very responsible,” says Maia’s mom, Rachel. Maia, who makes the student minimum wage of $15.60 per hour, stashes 60 per cent of every paycheque in a savings account. Rachel credits Mike with teaching their three young kids about from an early age.

Maia is proof that gen Z is much more money minded than and gen X ever were. recently found that four in five Canadian teens (aged 13 to 17) are highly motivated to become financially independent, with 64 per cent already saving for their future. What sets this generation apart is its increased awareness of the cost of living, as well as , says Gary Rabbior, president of the Canadian Foundation for Economic Education (CFEE).

“I paid for university with a summer job,” he says. “You’d have to have one heck of a job now to be able to pay for that.” Young people are also more plugged in than ever before, says Yakos Spiliotopoulos, founder and chairman of Extra Ed, a Toronto based social enterprise that provides financial literacy courses for students of all ages.

“The more they plug in, the more they want things and become consumers at early ages.” Noah Booth, 18, a Halifax based student and author of "A Rich Future," adds that targeted advertising and make it tempting for teens to spend money. “Kids spend so much time on their phones and there's a lot of pressure to consume,” he says.

It just takes a few clicks to spend $100 and have a product shipped right to your doorstep. Although 90 per cent of teens say they’re being proactive, according to the RBC report, when it comes to learning financial management, they’re looking for help. The BMO Real Financial Progress Index shows that gen Z is looking for advice on how to make money and invest.

Rabbior says that a survey of 6,000 Canadian students recently conducted by CFEE found that young people are frustrated that they don't learn more about finances. When asked where they want to learn about the subject, they pointed to home and school. It's natural that a lot of parents don’t know where to start.

Rabbior says some parents are hesitant because of their own financial slip ups, but they can still use their experiences to teach their children valuable lessons. “Help your kids to not make the same mistakes you did,” Rabbior says. Rabbior says young people are also really keen to learn about investing.

“They're sophisticated enough to know that they have to keep money aside and invest it wisely, and they realize you have to put your money to work,” he says. Some may think teens are too young to learn about these kind of financial topics, but Spiliotopoulos says we need to give kids more credit.

Extra Ed is educational partners with the Toronto District School Board, which teaches financial literacy to students in grades 4 through 12. “Our program introduces kids to the importance of knowing about money and how it's not really that confusing after all,” Spiliotopoulos says. “They can learn it.

And the earlier they do, the better off they’ll be. They won't become financial victims, they'll become leaders.” Yakos has taught kids as young as nine about topics like credit card debt and the consequences of not paying it off. “They're really savvy and knowledgeable.” Booth’s parents started giving him at a young age, gifting him a copy of Dave Chilton’s "The Wealthy Barber" when he was just 10 years old.

“It's written for an older audience, but I managed to struggle through it,” he says. “I took away some key concepts about earning, saving and growing money.” Inspired, Booth started taking on odd jobs, mowing neighbours’ lawns in the summer and shovelling driveways in the winter. At 14, he decided to write his own financial advice book for young people and two years later, "A Rich Future" was published.

Booth says the internet provides a lot of opportunities for teens to start and grow their own businesses the way he did in his own neighbourhood. He’s found a lot of satisfaction in saving his money and watching it grow through investments over time. “It's definitely given me opportunities that I might have not had access to otherwise.” Today, Booth is studying science at Dalhousie University and thanks to the savings and investments he made in high school, he lives a pretty comfortable life.

A few times a week, he uses a car rental service to go to the beach and surf. “I'm spending around $30,000 a year, which is a ton of money, but having an idea of what it was going to cost me and a plan has led to a lot less stress.” If your teen is looking for help, or you need some resources to get the conversation started, Rabbior says the Canadian Foundation for Economic Education offers print, video and web based resources free of charge, including a self instructed program called "FinLit 101." Another program called "Talk With Our Kids About Money" gives parents and teachers tools to talk with children aged five to 18 about financial topics.

It even includes suggestions for money themed movies and books along with conversation guides. Booth is grateful he started learning about money at a young age now that he’s legally an adult. “You don’t want to be thrown into having a full time job, being responsible for all your bills, and maybe even supporting a family, without learning some of these concepts beforehand.” Maia is so focused on earning money that she works more shifts than the average teen, Rachel says, and often puts her job before her social life.

But the financial independence is worth it. “When she goes out with her friends, she doesn't ask us for money,” Rachel says. “She can go out to eat with friends and buy her own clothes at thrift stores.” Maia even got herself a subscription to Spotify, so now she doesn't have to listen to ads.

Rachel is impressed with her daughter’s drive to make her own money. “She's more conscientious than I was at her age, and so much more independent. I'm so proud of her.”.