By the time they're 16, kids are encouraged to get a credit card.
And if they're not careful, they can be in serious debt before they know it.
Chad Foster is a financial educator, who has written a book explaining money management to teens.
He spoke to students at Parkersburg Hgh school Wednesday.
Foster says the 2008 recession was as much a result of individuals in credit card debt, as it was problems with the financial system itself.
"It was a bunch of people who made a bunch of really, really bad financial choicesand it was the adults that these yuong people look up to in their role models," Foster said. "We need to teach these young people to go in a different direction and make different decisions."
Foster was a guest of West Virginia Treasurer John Perdue, who said his own college-age daughter almost immediately ran up a $1,000 debt a few years ago, after getting a credit card.
