Comment by wat10000

I don’t think this is right. Teaching compound interest will help them resist that urge. What it won’t do is guarantee success, but there’s enormous benefit in just helping. This sentence mixes “help” with “stop,” suggesting that either something is useless or it’s bulletproof.

People can and do modify their choices based on their knowledge of the consequences. Yes, even teenagers, sometimes.

But for these examples, I think you also need to teach them that they’re doing battle with people who want them to make bad choices. People who spend their lives studying how to get them to make bad choices. Don’t just teach them about compound interest. Tell them how credit card companies try to trick you into suffering from it. Tell them how car salespeople will focus on the monthly payment and do their best to obfuscate the total cost. Tell them how junk food makers abuse psychology to make you want their product.

Teenagers love being contrary. We should take advantage of this tendency. The other guys certainly are.