How To Prepare Children To Be Financially Responsible

Over the past six months Americans have watched the plummet of the stock market, the failure of some of the largest investment banks and financial institutions, the collapse of the real estate market, soaring foreclosure filings, and a record number of individual and corporate bankruptcy filings.

We desperately search for answers as to how the greatest nation in the world and the most powerful democratic government could end up so financially upside down in such a short period of time and apparently without warning, it would seem.

As difficult as these questions are to answer, one question keeps coming to mind, in all of this turmoil: what message are we sending our children. How, as parents, and role models, are we supposed to teach our children the basic fundamentals of finance, economics, and the principles of money, when we have obviously not learned (or perhaps, simply not practiced) what has been taught to us?

As much as we would like to shift the blame to any and every one who could or should have been looking out for our best interest, we must spend some time reflecting and searching within to locate the responsibility that is necessary to ensure that future generations do not face this same fate or, worse yet, that they suffer a fate far worse which would be to never enjoy the financial fruit of our, or our past generations. We can - and must - resume (or begin, depending on your perspective) preparing our children with the rudimentary skills to navigate the rough waters ahead.

With the internet, television, and other media outlets, our children have so many more tools available to them than we ever did. Despite the educational resources, we continue to believe that someone more qualified should be teaching them about financial responsibility. Surely such things are taught to them in school. The truth is it is the responsibility of society - and parents in particular - to teach such nuts and bolts of money management to our children.

While we may very well be learning it with our children, we must seek out programs that offer a model for responsible financial behavior. These programs or resources need to provide parents with age-appropriate techniques on how to teach kids about the value and responsible use of money. In addition, we need to participate in a program that creates an environment for education and learning but is not necessarily product specific. Those are hard to find, or so we tend to think.

Keeping that in mind, how can one go about locating such a program?

There are various non-profit organizations that offer resources to assist such as Junior Achievement (http://www.ja.org/), The Financial Literacy Education Commission (http://www.mymoney/. gov), The Jump Start Coalition for Financial Literacy (http://www.jumpstartcoalition.org/), and the Institute for Financial Literacy (http://www.financiallit.org/);

Speaking with your trusted financial advisors, such as your accountant, attorney, or financial planner who can guide and direct you to materials that you can use to educate yourself and your children that will be appropriate to build on what knowledge you already possess.

originally published: theadvertiser.com