I am beginning to believe that one of the major reasons that the world is in the financial mess that it’s in is the very fact that most people have no clue how to manage their money. I’ve probably insulted a few of you by saying this, but quite frankly being ignorant about money has led us to the biggest financial disaster since the Great Depression.

Who is to blame? The financial industry has done a great job of feeding us doublespeak that most of us didn’t understand. We have been brought up to believe that financial institutions, and financial planners had our best interests at heart. Unfortunately, we failed to understand that the gooblygook that was being spouted by them was meant to make us believe that they knew what they were talking about. Boy did we ever get snookered!

Let me make something very clear – financial institutions are in the business to make money. A financial institution is nothing more than a store that offers financial products. The employee’s job is to sell you a product that may or may not fit your needs. Too many people are intimidated by this process and fail to understand what they are buying. This has been going on for ages. Most of us were never taught money management in school and most of our children will not be taught it either. It doesn’t surprise me that schools don’t teach students to be financially literate – most teachers that I have met are financially illiterate, so having them teach our kids would be like the blind leading the blind. I don’t trust most bankers or financial planners to teach our kids, because they see whoever is in front of them as a potential client – they just see dollar signs when they have a warm body in front of them (hmmmm….seems to be that this is one of the factors that led to the mortgage crisis in the USA; some brokers would arrange deals for clients as long as they could fog a mirror).

So who do you turn to? Parents you have to do your research. Find an organization that teaches basic money skills without pushing financial products.

My two cents worth…

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