As children spend a lot of time in home, the onus of imparting financial education lays fundamentally with the parents and after that the school teachers. The Real Deal: Playing the buying game , Teach Children to Save from ABC and Financial Fitness for Life are some of the online resources that are available for parents to teach financial education to their children. Non profit organizations like National Council of Economic Education, Jump$tart Coalition, and Operation HOPE are aimed at teaching financial literacy to children and teenagers in a fun and interactive way. Apart from these resources, according to Smart Money there are three top financial products that you could give your teen or tween to learn money management.

Facecard

This is a prepaid debit card. Give it to your child and just like the ATM card or the credit card your child uses the card to withdraw money or buy something. You can track the expenditure online. You can set alerts that will signal low balance in the account to the child. The feature of declined transactions teaches the child that he/she will not be able to get goodies or services if his balance is low. This will put him/her into the habit of maintaining a minimum amount of money in the account. Children can learn to use adult credit cards appropriately by practicing transactions on the FaceCard. Children can be taught the process of money transfers and accepting payments with the FaceCard. Charges on ATM withdrawal are existent. FaceCard is going to be chargeable from the 21st of this month.

Obopay Family Account

Obopay enables you to teach mobile banking to your teenaged children.  You open a joint account with your child through a prepaid debit card. The children get to understand mobile banking technology. They can spend and receive money via their mobile phones and they can track their expenditures through that. Both parents and children can monitor their spending. Though signing up is free, there are charges for certain services and this teaches the child that services come at a cost.

BillMyParents.com

This is a website that your tweenager or teenager can access to buy things. He/she will place the request there in your account and you’ll grant them the request at your discretion. You can also keep a track of the people to whom your child is sending gifts or money and also his/her spending patterns. You are not revealing your credit card number to your child.

Well BillMyParents does give you greater control over your child’s expenditure, but I feel the child will not learn money management perfectly, if he/she is not given greater autonomy. Its only when you give him the freedom to handle his/her money independently that you’ll come to know his financial mindset and behavior. No doubt, from the parent’s point of view Billy’s the option that involves the least risk.

I suggest you use all the three products in a good combination to teach your child money management skills. But before that you’ve got to do some background work. Give them basic lessons in spending, saving and budgeting. Without knowing the ABCs you can’t expect them to learn the DEFs of finance efficiently.

I second clinical Psychologist, Deborah Serani’s opinion on this. According to this New York mental health practitioner “When our financial bedrock is shaken, not only do the numbers dwindle lower, but so, too, does our ability to cope with life issues. Maxed out credit cards, unpaid bills, and mounting cash flow problems shake up our world.” This is so true. Even though I agree that money is not everything, money is definitely ‘almost everything’. In today’s world can you think of a day without monetary transactions? When you don’t have money you feel very insecure, you depend on somebody and you’ve got to barter your freedom and self respect, at times, when you are dependent on someone. Can there be a worse condition than poverty to agonize you mentally? Economic problems can impair your progressive thinking and build up mental and physical conditions in you. High blood pressure, tension headaches, and heart ailments can all result due to the underlying stress that a financial deficit can create.

I always believe the saying that when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. So when there is an economic crisis, how are you going to react to that? It’s easier for me to say that be brave, but I know its going to be tough. So what are you going to do ? Take the words of life-coach, Kathy Caprino, founder & president Ellia Communications Inc.  “Debt will wreak havoc on your physical and emotional health if you continue to beat yourself up over it.” So the most important factor for you to identify is your perception. Nothing is really a problem provided you perceive it in a positive light and deal with it accordingly.

Perception 1: What Has Led Me Into This Bad Financial Health?

Though immediately you might point your finger at the recession and though the real reason is that there might be other factors that might have led you to a financially poor state. You should look into your spending and saving habits, your money management skills and your financial literacy. Try to rectify these areas and you’ll see a lot of difference in your financial status. Take the help of financial advisors or join a money management skills course if required. Stay away from discouraging people.

Perception 2: Bid Farewell to Regressive Thoughts

The recession might be a reason for your bad financial health but don’t let this reason ride on you. Your pay might have been slashed but why should you let that bog you down? Remember, evolutionist Darwin has said that this world is all about the survival of the fittest. Learn to adapt to the changing circumstances and live life to the fullest. Adjust your savings and expenditure according to your new pay and don’t crib. After all nothing is permanent in this world.

Perception 3: Set up Positive Goals and Work towards Them

Be optimistic about your condition. Take a firm resolution that you are going to improve your financial health and set a target for that. Set realistic goals to reach that target in a specific period of time and work towards that goal with determination. You’ll see that success will be yours.

After all, nothing is impossible in this world. The difference between the possible and the impossible is the human mind and nothing else.