Eagle Scouts’ Secrets to Budgeting

What can Eagle Scouts teach you about money management?

In this unique episode of Coffee with Waymark, Brendan interviews four Eagle Scouts at summer camp, fresh off earning their Personal Management merit badge. Their takeaways on budgeting, small expenses, and financial awareness offer timely reminders for investors of all ages.

Watch how a week at camp turned into a conversation about conscious spending and financial clarity.

Find out:

• What a 13-week budget taught teens about mindful spending

• Why small purchases like coffee and gum can quietly sabotage a budget

• How financial habits relate to fitness goals

• Why writing down expenses creates stronger financial awareness

 Hey, welcome to another episode of Coffee with Waymark. Today we're gonna do it a little bit differently. As you can see, I'm in my Boy Scout uniform because I am at camp. This is my week of summer camp each and every year, and I thought that maybe this year what we would do is actually do a video at camp and actually interview a couple of the scouts that I'm spending the week with and get their take on some financial management questions and answers.

So one of the merit badges that every Eagle Scout is required to take is a merit badge called personal management. And in personal management, you learn about budgeting and setting goals and creating schedules and just being a lot more diligent and deliberate with your money. So what I'm gonna do is shortly after I turn the video around, I am going to interview a couple of the scouts and see what they learn from personal management and hopefully some of those things that these 14 to 18-year-old kids can actually tell you, will actually resonate with yourself and maybe help you with your own personal finance journey. So here it goes.

 Okay, so I have four New Eagle Scouts, all of whom have taken the Personal Management Merit badge, and they have some life lessons for my clients here. 

So first question, in the personal management merit badge where you learned about budgeting and money and stocks and bonds and things like that, what was the biggest thing that you learned?

I think the biggest thing that I learned is that money really is a limited resource that you have to use in the most efficient way possible to get benefits from it. It's in the name of the Merit badge, personal management, to find the best way to manage that money to live your best life.

Got it. I think that's a great way of looking at it, is that money is a finite resource. 

What are some things that you learned and what are some of the things that you were surprised by with the 13 week budget?

Well, during the 13 weeks, I realized that I spent a lot of money on Starbucks–and that I have to cut back on some of my spending somewhere else so that I can spend that money without wasting too much on other things. 

One of the things I talk to a lot of my clients about is that it's almost like weight loss. When you lose weight, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to stop eating. It's just you have to be a lot more conscious about where you're spending your calories. 

And I know for Jackson, you're a health nut. So, can you relate to that part?

Yeah, definitely. I think that, for me, one of the things I noticed the most is that I spend a lot of money on little things, and you don't really know that it's all building up. You can say the same thing when you're trying to lose weight. If you're snacking all the time, having a handful of like, Cheetos here and there and like, it's like I'm putting peanut butter on this and that and like, you don't really know that this has a lot of calories. Like, you don't know you're actually spending a lot of money like going, buying packs of gums at the store. 

Yeah, all those morning coffees add up. 

Morning coffees, they do add up, don't they? And for some people stuff like that is important. Especially with calories, if you really like chocolate, then you still wanna eat your chocolate, but then cut back in other places so you can still have your morning coffee. You just have to know that you're actually spending money when you’re spending money. You can't just be like, it's a dollar. Those do add up.

Okay. How did budgeting change the way you thought about money? 

The biggest thing that I learned when I was budgeting is actually writing down what I was spending money on helped me realize that I was really spending money. Sometimes nowadays we don't use cash as often. I think really giving out your card, tapping it, it's just a number on a screen nowadays. And budgeting really helped me realize, this is real money. This isn't just a number. 

All great information. Thanks guys.

 So there you have it, some really wise advice from some really young people, and I think that's one of the cool things about Boy Scouts or now scouting America that it really teaches some of these kids some life lessons that a lot of people, and a lot of my clients say, I wish I had learned some of these things earlier, but things like personal management, merit badge.

If you do want me to send you the requirements of that merit badge, I'm more than happy to share it with you and maybe you can share it with some of your kids. So , by the time you get this, I'll be back in the office out  of my Boy Scout uniform, but at least for the time being, I'll say farewell from Camp Yawgoog and Rhode Island and remember to be well and do good.

Brendan is the Managing Director for Waymark Wealth Management. He has extensive experience in comprehensive wealth management. His focus includes retirement planning, behavioral finance, investment portfolio construction, education funding, insurance & risk management, taxes, charitable giving, and estate planning. Brendan has an ability to take clients' complex visions and distill them down to simple action plans, helping them move from where they are today to where they want to be tomorrow.

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The opinions voiced in this video are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.