When it's gone it's gone

Lets face it, you are not going to bother to learn about money if you can't see the relevance of how it affects yours or your family's life, now or in the future.
In New Zealand, 43 per cent of people aged 18-24 have a negative net worth. People are spending $1.14 for every dollar they earn (sourced from the New Zealand Department of Statistics). If you know of people in this age group then nearly half of them owe more than they own. Commonsense says this can't continue.
Times have changed over the past few years in the way we handle money. We have gone from a predominantly cash-using society to a cashless society. When I was a child my Dad would give my Mum some cash to spend on food and we learned when the money was gone it was gone. I learned I had to wait for things until we had saved cash to pay for them.
When I first got a job, I was paid in cash. I saved money in the bank and paid everything else with cash.
Nowadays things happen in reverse and this is why children are growing up with poor cash-handling skills. Our earnings are paid into the bank (so our children don't see the cash) and we spend most of our money by electronic means and we save what is left (often nothing).
Your belief systems about money and everything else develop from infancy in four ways. From the things you see, from the things you hear, from the individual events you experience in your lives, and finally from the influences in your life - your parents, friends, society, culture, teachers and the media.
This is the same for your children, they are developing their belief systems about money in this way, too. They are continually being infected with "social stories" that they must be this way or that way or have this or that thing to be happy. Some children are growing up thinking money comes from a hole in the wall, or if you want to buy something you just use some magic swipe card.
So ask yourself, what are my children learning about money from what I do? Are they learning to overspend or borrow for things that depreciate, or to save and spend wisely? Are they learning that investing in assets will keep them financially well or that buying liabilities will make them financially sick? It's not chance but choice that determines your financial future.
Sylvia Bowden is the author of the book Parents: How to Stop Your Kids From Going Broke!, written to help parents teach their children money and life skills. Her book is available from her website www.silbo.co.nz and some Paper Plus stores.