Yesterday, Paul Farrell proved that what “bleeds leads” with his story on financial literacy education. He writes that “…even the best-of-intention (financial literacy) programs will never (yes, never) work” because as he puts it “…the human brain (cannot) retrain itself to make rational decisions about investing, finance and budgeting.”

Well, Mr. Farrell is kinda right.  Retraining is a zero sum game in many instances.  Once someone has dug the hole, it’s hard to climb out and over.  (It’s not impossible, Mr. Farrell – that was unnecessarily dramatic, don’t you think?)

But it is true that many financial literacy efforts fail because we reach kids with financial education too darn late – after their bad financial behavior is set in stone.

Every parent knows that IF you teach your child from day “one” behavior that you want to see – like how to use their indoor voice, say please and thank you and to brush their teeth at night before bedtime – they will grow up to behave in the way you have taught them. Most of the time anyway. Continue reading