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The surveys carried out within the framework of the projects on finance education for students have shown surprising things about how Vietnamese students spend money, and pointed out that parents still keep puzzled in managing their children’s spending.

Spending money to show the upper classes in the society A lot of families complain that they do not have enough time to take care for their children. A lot of parents decide to make up for this by giving more money to children, so that they can find amusement activities themselves. The “money abundance” and the lack of strict management are the main reasons that make a part of students fall into social evils.

From now to June 2012, the HCM City Education and Training Department, together with Save the Children, Citi Foundation, will bring the projects on finance education to the students of 50 high schools in HCM City. The surveys conducted within the framework of the projects can show surprising figures about the high spending level of a part of students and the embarrassment of parents in
managing their children’s spending.

The surveys have found out that, students receive 50,000-300,000 dong on average as pocket money a week. Especially, a group of students from rich families of some international schools, Le Quy Don, Marie Curie receives more. 36 percent of students spend 3-5 million dong a month, while 25 percent spend 500,000 dong per day.

One third of students say the money parents give is not enough for them; therefore, they do not have money for urgent needs. Many of them decide to borrow from relatives and friends to satisfy their needs.

44 percent of students from rich families use their pocket money to buy fashionable clothes, 35 percent on amusement activities, while only 21 percent spend money on the things that serve their studies.

Students spend most of their money to upgrade their appearance (to buy clothes, cosmetics), to attend parties and entertainment activities at luxurious places, because they believe that this is the way of spending of rich people, which can show their high positions in the society.

An 11th grade female student said that when she was small, she used the clothes bought by the mother. However, nowadays, she chooses clothes for herself. She only wears well branded clothes, or she feels diffident before the friends.

Therefore, though receiving 400,000 dong per week from parents, the student is always short of money, and she always asks for more money.

Parents give money and forget to manage it

According to a survey of Save the Children, the parents of Marie Curie and Nguyen Du School gave money to children based on the estimates about their children’s spending. However, they did not check if the children used the money for the right purposes.

Though all the parents affirmed the importance of educating children about the value of money and labor, they do not care what their children spend money for.

According to Tran Thi Hue from Save the Children, there are two contradictory tendencies in parents’ thoughts about giving money to children. Some parents keep a strict control over the spending of the children, because they believe that the children are still too small to spend money. Meanwhile, other parents simply give money to children and do not know what the children do with the money.

Only 31 percent of students once discussed with parents about how to spend money, while 2/3 of students never consult with parents about how to manage their budgets, and they do not want to explain their spending.

A lot of students said that their parents are too busy to spend time to learn about how the children spend money. Therefore, they simply spend money and never ask themselves where the money comes from. .They simply ask for the money from parents when they need money.