"Buy a lottery ticket..." Seriously!?!?

I may be old school, but I'm fine with it - I don't really like the new school, particularly when it comes to finances.  I heard a radio advertisement recently and I about drove my truck into a tree it made me so mad.  It was about two guys that were about to go back to college and they didn't have any money because they wasted their summer playing too much. I admit that it was funny and I laughed at first.  Then they announced the recommendation to the two slackers that would solve all of their financial problems: "Go buy lottery tickets".  Are you kidding me? And we wonder why our younger generation doesn't understand how to be successful financially. 

What happened to working hard and saving money? Where did we go wrong in allowing our newest generation to believe that they should have whatever they want, and have it now?  I want my kids to dream big and believe they can do anything they want with their lives. But I think there's a difference between believing big and working hard with realistic expectations. Real success is only going to come if both are combined. But this radio ad was just another reminder of the message our young people are consistently getting – and that is why the average age of our first time homebuyers continues to climb.  They don’t know how to save money and they exit college anchored down by school debt and completely clueless about personal finance.

We have to teach our kids, and their kids, a new measurement for success when it comes to finance.  There is nothing wrong with getting a good education (albeit one that is incredibly deficient in educating them on personal finance) and buying nice things such as clothes, a car or even a house.  But that can’t come at the cost of sabotaging their futures by not understanding the right way to go about obtaining those things and keeping debt in the proper perspective -  basically not having any other than for a personal business or an appreciating asset.  We have to be intentional about it, because if we are not, the message they will be getting everywhere else they turn will lead them in the wrong direction.

OK, I’ll get off of my soapbox now….