Father's Day - a call to action for personal finance, says counseling service

Father’s Day is the day of the year dedicated to honor fatherhood, and many dads reflect on the life lessons they are teaching their children.

“As a father myself, I want to make sure money is talked about in our home, and teach my son that it takes work to bring it in and what things cost,” said Brian Johnson, a counselor at LSS Financial Counseling Service, a part of Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota.

The 2011 Financial Literacy Survey, released by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), showed that respondents indicated that they learned the most about personal finance from their parents. However, the same survey also revealed that 41 percent of adults gave themselves a grade of C, D or F on their own knowledge of personal finance. Looking at gender, men were four times as likely as women to give themselves failing grades for their personal finance knowledge (8 percent versus 2 percent). What are these dads to do?

“Going to the bank together or creating a family budget and then living by it helps make money seem more real to your kids,” added Johnson. “And, the truth is, we communicate our values when we show our children how we budget our money, to include how much we spend on eating out, saving for the future or giving to causes that are important to us.”

If you want to improve your money management skills, visit a NFCC member agency where you can meet one-to-one with a counselor or participate in group financial education classes.

LSS Financial Counseling Service, a member of the Better Business Bureau and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, helps over 20,000 people every year with free budget and debt counseling and monthly debt management plans.

With nine offices statewide, LSS can work in-person with individuals and families or provide financial counseling by phone or online. For more information or to make an appointment, call 1-888-577-2227 or visit www.lssmn.org/debt.

Tags: news, updates, father, finances, money