As I mentioned on my About page, I received sound financial advice from my parents. I had a middle class upbringing but we never had too much money to spend. My parents didn’t use a budget; instead, they always tried to save a certain percentage of their salary. My dad lost his job in his 50’s and has lived on his savings ever since. Today, I see a lot of people clueless about their money. They blame the system or they blame the government. Any discussion on the economy and finances will invariably lead to statements that the President is at fault.

We fail to notice what we did wrong as individuals. The sooner we figure it out, the better our future will be. One of the ‘sooner’ days will be when you start making your own decisions, in your late teens or early 20s. Earlier, I mentioned teaching kids about money and using garage sales to teach your kids about money, but those are only few basic lessons that parents could impart on their kids. What will a young adult possibly do when he/she has to start making independent financial decisions?