Lessons to Teach Your Kids for Financial Literacy Month

Finance is, in fact, a critical part of life. So much of the intangibles we care about -- whether it’s family or health -- are directly correlated to our financial flexibility and our having emergency funds. —Ryan Caldwell, CEO, MX 

As we celebrate Financial Literacy Month (#FinancialLiteracyMonth, #FinHealthMatters), this is a wonderful opportunity to pause and focus on the rising generation. As the ability to understand and earn money, save money, and budget and use it wisely is so important to our happiness in life, it's worth focusing this month on what we're doing to teach children, teens and young adults wise financial best practices.

Here are a few tips for talking about finances with kids from a recent article by Maryalene LaPonsie for U.S. News & World Report.

'Financially educated high school students are more likely to have a savings account with regular savings, fewer overdrafts and more likely to pay off their credit card balances,' according to the entry on 'personal finance' in Wikipedia.

What can you do today? Talk to your child, grandchild, niece, nephew or relative. Volunteer at a school. Donate to a fund. Read an article and make a commitment to act. And in some small way help the next generation enjoy the financial freedom -- and avoid some of the pitfalls -- you have experienced in your life.