The Million Dollar Question..........

For those of you who have been reading these weekly posts you will know by now I'm passionate about a few things. One of those is education and learning, specifically around our future. Last week I encouraged you to set yourself some challenges to form new habits instead of a New Years Resolution. This week I am challenging you to ask yourself some hard questions........

I've been asking quite a few people of late "why people spend beyond their means?" The responses have been varied from the fact people don't know what their means are to the issue that credit seems to be easy to obtain in Australia. My response has always been really? Is it really that hard to determine what our *means* are? Is it really that difficult to work out if we earn $50,000 in a whole year buying $20,000 of household goods on a credit card may not be that smart of an idea? I mean after all we have a fantastic education system in Australia. Don't we?

But then the light bulb moment. How do our kids and young adults actually learn to be Financially Savvy? How do our business owners learn to be Financially Savvy? Are we taught in school that we actually have a limit on what we can buy before we start living beyond our means? Are we taught before going into business to budget, to monitor cashflow & to understand the Financial Impacts of everyday decisions we make? Who teaches us this? Is it our Education System, is it our parents? And if it's our parents, and we have a society of overspenders what hope do the next generations have?

Is it rocket science to understand what you spend can't be more than what you earn? Is it rocket science to draw up & stick to a business or household budget? Do you have one & not the other, both or none?

I've included a short 5 question survey as i'm really interested in your thoughts (Survey no longer available - results are shown in Part 2). Next week I'll report back & give you some tips to ensure you are one of the financially Savvy.