Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
Issue link: https://wellesleywestonmagazine.epubxp.com/i/78488
living with kids relationships parenting life lessons family matters emotional growth teenage years growing up Does Your Young Adult Have What It Takes? LISA LESLIE HENDERSON writer as this year'scollege seniors head off for their final year of school, their parents are no doubt hoping that the education their chil- dren have been receiving has prepared their young adults for both the current job market and for real life. One of the most important skills that they will need throughout their lives they may not have learned in school, however. That skill is handling money. "The impact our finances have on us through- out our lives is so large that parents need to begin to teach children about money early," explains Marcel Quiroga, Chief Relationship Officer at Capital Formation Group, an invest- ment management firm in Wellesley. "The cost of financial literacy is high; without experience, young adults will often mismanage their money through no fault of their own." Marcel should know. As a financial planner, she has observed what has worked and what has not across multi- ple families and generations. Teaching kids about money is certainly a loaded subject. An informal survey of practices of families throughout Wellesley and Weston reveals a variety of different approaches and plenty of mixed feelings among parents about whether they have done that job well. Some parents, recognizing the pace of kids' lives today and the expectations upon them from their schools and for getting into college, do not want their children to think about money at this stage of their 150 WellesleyWeston Magazine | fall 2012 MEDIA BAKER Y