Are You Financially Ignorant?

Ignorance is not always a personality defect….especially when it comes to finances! Some people don’t intentionally ignore money woes, they just have no way of knowing how to fix them!

Bad money habits are inherited

For instance, how can you be expected to pay your bills on time if you were never taught to pay your bills on time? Being financially responsible is not some innate or God-given talent. I mean, let’s face it — if your rearing didn’t include some form of financial literacy, how will you know to be responsible with credit and money?

I'm not suggesting that parents need to read the Wall Street Journal to their kids every night at the dinner table. But the truth is that children tend to model Mom and Dad’s behavior. The way you were raised plays an intricate part in how you will manage your own money. If your parents had horrible credit, chances are, your credit apple will not fall far from their tree.  If you watched your parents allow the bills to just pile up in the junk drawer, then your junk drawer will probably runneth over will unpaid bills, too. And if the topic of money was a sore subject in your household while you were growing up, then you will probably suffer a little anxiety and embarrassment when the subject of money comes up in your adult years as well. 

Can we get some Money 101, please?

And Heaven forbid some kind of financial literacy be taught in schools. I mean, they don’t place us in the middle of the highway and expect us to know how to drive without offering a driver’s ed course first, do they?! Of course not. Your finances should be given the same respect. Everyone will deal with money at some point in their lives, so we should all get "licensed" to avoid "driving" our credit and other finances straight into a Mack truck.

Financial ignorance hurts

My point is that the relationship you have with your finances is a learned behavior — and not every credit user has a good teacher. That’s very evident by the horrendous credit card debt problem that exists in America today. We have all become addicted to "buying now" and "paying later." However, some people really, really pay in the end. When you are financially ignorant, you learn just how much bad credit can impact your livelihood only after it’s too late.

Ready or not, time to grow up

Having bad financial rearing does not, unfortunately, give you a pass to continue being financially irresponsible. Just like with any other dysfunction suffered in childhood, eventually, we all reach an age where we’re expected to take responsibility for our actions. FICO, for instance, starts holding you responsible for your financial decisions the second you begin to use credit.

At the end of the day, you cannot continue to use your financial ignorance as an excuse. You need to find resources to turn the problem around. That’s the one good thing about your relationship with your money: it may take a little time, but you can always turn it around.

Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxtongue/ / CC BY 2.0