Start Early

I was at a business development meeting at Shared Vision Network http://www.sharedvisionnetwork.com this morning and was discussing my business with someone I just met. After talking, he and I agreed that financial literacy is simply not appropriately taught. Though the typical working adult is usually my audience the same things can be said about our youth: schools and parents consistently fall short of teaching and passing along the virtues of proper financial management and money stewardship. Many students, for example, continue to graduate college in more credit card debt than ever before. Of course, I blame the credit card companies for their aggressive marketing efforts to this segment of society (it is far too easy for a college student with little to no job history to qualify for credit), but that is for another segment. I encourage all parents to start talking with your children about money and proper money management. Get them involved in handling the day to day payment of bills, share your household budget with them (you do have a budget, right?), let them see how your investment accounts look and experience the stock market first hand. Most of all, help them develop money beliefs and values that foster financial responsibility and empowerment. Teach them how money works as an instrument to further their souls evolution rather than something to be mismanaged and squandered early and they will be more adequately prepared for adulthood. Part of the problem, however, is that most parents have not been taught, or have failed to take the time to learn, the intricacies of proper financial budgeting, planning, saving, and investing. And so, the cycle continues.