Kathy is in her second year at university and a whiz at physics and math. But she doesn’t have a clue how to budget the allowance her parents send her every month.

She’s always broke. She’s either borrowing money or using her emergency credit card toward the month end while impatiently waiting for the next tranche of cash from her parents. Her credit card debt is piling up slowly, and she’s not sure her parents are going to bail her out again.

Luckily her roommate told her about a credit company offering to help by giving her a cash advance. She’s unsure what the interest rate is, but she can worry about that later. Right now, she needs to pay for the upcoming class trip to Paris that she’s been so looking forward to but neglected to save up for.

Over 15 years of schooling and Kathy hasn’t had a single class on saving, budgeting, spending choices, or on choosing a credit card, much less how to use one prudently. She’s had courses on economics and business studies, but that’s not the same thing – they don’t cover any topics on personal finance.

Letting our kids go out into the world without teaching them about money management skills is akin to dropping them in the middle of the ocean without teaching them to swim.

It makes no sense that we let them learn the hard way when there’s an easier and safer way to learn. We let them risk their happiness and future when we can easily equip them with the skills to make sound financial decisions.

Our money management program gives them just that – the knowledge and the resulting confidence to make conscious, intelligent money decisions. With lessons on saving, budgeting, investing and much more, we teach them how to be more financially aware.

This skill isn’t just a nice-to-have option – it’s critical-to-know.

So, throw your kids a lifeline – make sure they learn about money now!

By Marilyn L Pinto