How do I teach my kids the difference between wants and needs? The average cost of a senior prom now is $1100. That just blows my mind and so I think that falls in the wants category and not the needs category. And I think the way that we can help our kids with that is we can lay down the law very early on with these kinds of things and reinforce the difference between a want and need, cuz I think there's a lot of kids out there that actually think they need a prom that costs $1100. So you as a parent can literally go to your child and say, "Okay, I know you want to go to the prom and I want you to go, I want you to have fun, I want you to have this experience, and I'm in for $100." Or whatever that number is for you as a parent. And just lay it down early and often. Just say, "I want to contribute, but I'm in for $100." You can use those kinds of situations as a teaching opportunity to teach them the difference between needs and wants. So when it comes to determining what's a need and what's a want, you need to figure that out within your own family. But you need to set some boundaries and give your kids some real clarity on that early on in your conversations.