All Things Financial Planning Blog

Over the last several years, we’ve heard this slogan numerous times, most famously by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. While the slogan has its positive and negative attributes, there’s one area where we all need to take heed.

If there are any silver linings to the economic downturn, it’s the spotlight that has shown on our society’s embarrassingly lacking understanding of basic personal finance. Our children are encouraged throughout their educational lives to become well rounded, critical thinkers, and that’s certainly important, but at some point, be it at the collegiate, high school or even elementary level, we need to find a few hours to devote to practical conversations about money. If kids were more educated on basic budgeting, banking, credit and investing skills, you probably wouldn’t need a law protecting them from credit card pushers on college campuses. Students should be able to understand that risking their credit score at such a young age isn’t worth a t-shirt or beach towel.

More and more, this discussion is being had all across the country. Some states are taking the admirable step of requiring some personal finance in school curriculums, albeit without a lot of definitive requirements or resources to back the mandate. In addition, private programs have started popping up, encouraging all of us take an active role in educating the next generation on how to avoid these issues in the future.

Where better to start these conversations than at home. Personal finance expert and author Jean Chatzky has teamed up with the Council on Economic Education & American Express to do just that. The result is National Money Talk Night, coming up on September 16, 2010. National Money Talk Night is being promoted all across the nation as an opportunity for parents to sit down with their children, regardless of age and have “the talk”. No, not about the birds and the bees, but about age-appropriate money issues and how to balance the pressures of using money wisely. She’s even created a website with three toolkits for children of middle school, high school and college age.

Check out the website, http://www.moneynighttalk.com and pledge to talk to your kids about money, spread the word via Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter, and encourage your children’s teachers to discuss it in class, assign it as homework or tie it to themes throughout the semester.

The need is clear and it’s time to not let this crisis go by without standing up and doing something to correct some of the behavior that led us here in the first place.

Chip Workman, CFP®, MBA
Lead Advisor
The Asset Advisory Group
Cincinnati, Ohio