The Co-operative Bank in the UK, has released a report saying that the average Brit (please, never let me be average!) spends two years of their life worrying about money, and loses 730 nights sleep.

Good Lord! What are we doing to ourselves? This problem isn’t uniquely British, by any means. I do think, though, that it is a Western disease. People living in poverty don’t usually have sleepless nights worrying about debt – more through empty bellies from lack of food.

From the report:

Undergraduates, recent graduates, and people at an early stage in their careers (18 – 30 yrs) spend almost two days per month worrying about their finances, with nearly half, admitting that they dedicated 10 hours and more each week trying to balance their accounts.

And these are our ‘bright young things’, our hope for the future. When will we start to teach children about money? The answer is that we are teaching them now, just as our parents taught us – by example.

Your children will do as you do and not as you say. Are you giving them healthy, conscious beliefs about money? Let’s start to teach children early. Saving up can be fun, anticipation is a good thing and we don’t have to have it all now.

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