Competency in managing money appears to be a skill that doesn’t come naturally to eve ryone. Unless a person is exposed to the practice of money management, he/she is less likely to understand how it works and its long-term benefits. It is easy to develop poor spending and financial habits resulting in significant negative consequences such as a poor credit rating, denial of credit, rejection for a checking account and bankruptcy, to name a few. Early financial literacy is the best way to pre vent such consequences.

Financial institutions have a vested interest in supporting or providing financial literacy programs. Rrlative to cost, financial literacy provides both immediate and long-term returns. The most obvious is brand recognition and market share. Financial literacy offers an excellent opportunity to personalize ones institution among consumers who have myriad options in selecting financial service providers. Consumers who understand the merits of responsibly managing their financial resources are more likely to effectively and profitably utilize the services of a traditional financial institution.

Financial literacy is a good way to teach consumers about the benefits of having a relationship with a financial institution. Among these are economical access to funds and credit, the ability to establish a positive financial history, consumer protection and perhaps most important, a higher propensity towards savings, which increases net worth. Financial literacy can also break the cycle of poverty, which is often associated with the unbanked. Individuals who have experience handling a bank account and an awareness of other effective money management/asset building techniques are more likely to pass these on to their children.

Providing financial literacy training is not a one-size-fits-all effort . Financial literacy is most clearly divided into four categories: early intervention, basic literacy, credit rehabilitation and long-term planning or asset building.

Introduction at the earliest stage can often eliminate the need for corrective intervention at later stages. Given the breadth and variety of materials available, it may be useful to first determine your institution’s purpose and objectives for undertaking financial literacy training. This will assist you in specifying the audience you would like to reach and in identifying the most appropriate materials.

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My grandmother recently, and reluctantly, asked if I could give her some money.

There’s no question my wife, Amy, and I will give her the funds; she raised me and is, by and large, the woman I consider my mom. She has always been kind to Amy. If we have the discretionary cash that can make my grandmother’s life happy, shouldn’t we hand it over?

Yet the request has caused us a lot of angst.

Part of our concern is where this will lead. Although my grandmother isn’t asking for a lot of money — just a few hundred dollars — when you open your wallet to family members, the first time is rarely the last. We don’t want to get in the position of becoming my grandmother’s ATM.

But it’s more than that. Amy and I have worked hard to earn this money, and it’s frustrating to have somebody want to tap into our account. What’s more, my grandmother will no doubt use the money for things that we’d never buy ourselves. We don’t want to feel like suckers for funding a lifestyle that we might consider indulgent.

So that leads us to the question we’ve been grappling with: When providing financial assistance to a family member, is it fair to say the money comes with constraints on how it is spent? Or, is financial assistance an exercise in unconditional love?

* * *

Let me say it at the outset: I don’t believe children bear an obligation to their parents as a cost of having been raised by those parents. Bringing a child into the world is a parent’s choice, not the child’s. Thus, the obligations that do exist run from parent to child, not in reverse.

That said, I certainly feel a desire to assist my grandmother out of a sense of love and caring. She also has always been careful with money — in terms of both spending and saving. And she and my grandfather obviously weren’t my birth parents, but they did choose to raise me.

Still, loving and understanding don’t necessarily erase the questions that inevitably arise when family members seek funding. In particular: Why do you need this money? And how are you spending the money you do have?

If you, the giver, don’t agree with how the person spends his or her money, do you have a right to impose your restrictions? Do you have a right to tell someone to change his or her spending habits in order to get any money from you?

One of my longtime friends, who’s providing financial support for her two sisters, says no.

She’s helping one sister pay off thousands of dollars of credit-card debt. “I’ve talked to her about managing her money,” my friend says, “and the need to stop relying on credit, but I would never tell her how to spend her money.”

With the other sister, my friend is paying more than $200 a month for cable and Internet access, cellphone charges and a cleaning service. She’s also considering sending her a few hundred dollars each month for spending money, again with no stipulations about how the cash is spent.

In both cases, my friend says that the offerings are acts of love, and that while she may not necessarily agree with how the money is ultimately spent, each sister “obviously has different spending priorities.” Moreover, she adds, using that money to shop, go to lunch or spend on a friend “are really positive things in a personal life, and I would never deny my sisters that just because their choices may not mirror my own spending priorities.”

“Giving money,” she concludes, “doesn’t give me the right to impose my views on how it’s spent.”

* * *

I admit that I am not as reflexively selfless as my friend. When my grandmother asked for money, I immediately started thinking about her spending that I consider wasteful. She regularly pays for brunch for herself and friends, and frequently hosts parties for friends. If she didn’t do these things, I thought, she wouldn’t need my money. And while I don’t mind paying for my grandmother’s brunch, I don’t particularly want to treat her friends.

But as I talked to a friend about it, I realized that a grandson’s idea of waste is a grandmother’s idea of pleasure. Who am I to consider her parties wasteful, any more than somebody else might consider my dining out or trips to a casino wasteful? Unless the spending is egregious, it seems unfair to impose my standards on someone else’s life.

On top of that, giving her the money with the stipulation that she only use it on herself would rob her of a big piece of her happiness. And what’s the point of giving her money if it only reminds her of what she cannot do?

So, after much thought, here’s where I am: I can’t deny that the dollars I will give to my grandmother will be tossed away on expenses that will make me cringe. I can’t deny that if the money requests continue, things might change.

But for the moment, at least, my grandmother’s happiness wins out. I will give her the money and say nothing.

Jeff Opdyke covers personal finance for The Wall Street Journal.

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Grandma Needs Money. Now What?

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Perfect Business by Robert T Kiyosaki author of Rich Dad

Transferring your credit card balance, or balances, to a lower interest rate card can save you money.

The process is a tricky one — there are a lot of possible fees, penalties and ‘catches’ to beware of lest this move actually end up costing you money.

It is also getting harder to do. Credit card companies are try to stop losing customers, and they are also trying not to gain customers who are only there to take advantage of introductory rates before they move on again.

This is one credit card move that absolutely demands you read — and understand — all of the fine print. Different card companies handle it in different ways and have a wide range of fine print containing a myriad of rules.

But just because hopping from one card company to another is harder than it used to be rates for balance transfers, but there are low fixed rates offered for balance transfers (that’s the card company’s way of getting you to bring your balance and stay).

Key numbers

If you do not transfer to a fixed rate (or even if you do because fixed — the rate you are getting, how long it lasts and what it jumps to when that rate is over. With a fixed rate you may not know when it will change, but there will at least be a guaranteed period before it can change.

After you have those numbers, check out all of the related costs:

• Does either company charge a fee for moving the balance?
• Is that fee a flat sum or a percentage?
• Does your old card company charge you another fee for terminating your account?
• What fees and rates does the new company charge for new customers?
• Will both card companies notify you when the transfer is done?
• Under what circumstances can the new company change the introductory rate it gives you for your balance transfer?

Beware of ‘tiered’ arrangements. These will let you transfer a balance and give you some sort of interest amnesty or super low rate for a period, and then there may be another rate or arrangement for some more time, then a third (or even a fourth) rate. The trap here is that you may start with a great arrangement and slowly find your deal getting worse and worse.

Different rates

There may also be different rates for purchases you make with your new card. For example you may transfer with no interest for three months on your transferred balance and any new purchases. Then for three months you may have different, but not too bad, rates for what’s left of the balance but a higher rate for new purchases In the third and sometimes fourth tiers both rates could rise to the point where you don’t have a good deal any more.

So make sure you know how you intend to pay off your transferred debt.

If you are sure you can pay it off during that interest payment holiday or super teaser rate it may be a good deal. If you’re not sure, think again. If you know it won’t happen, go to your calculator and work on different scenarios. You may find that if you haven’t paid off enough of the transferred balance in, say a year, you’re actually moving into a worse deal.

Some card company’s limit how much you can transfer or how many times you can transfer a balance. Make sure you use your calculator because the more complex the transfer arrangements the more chances the movement might not be as beneficial as your at first thought.

One thing is surprisingly commonly overlooked in balance transfers — are there fees? Not only might the new card company charge you, but your old one might charge you a fee for the transfer and even a penalty fee for closing the account. They may also charge you more money to manage any money you leave behind with them if you don’t transfer your total balance. Check it out, be sure!

Also be clear just how long the whole process will take, when you stop paying on the old card and start paying on the new. You don’t want to find you’re paying for a balance in two places at the same time, however briefly.

Make very sure too that you know under what circumstances your new card company can change the rate your transfer is being charged. Sometimes a late payment, or maybe some other obscure transgression, will automatically end your deal and bounce you into a stratospheric rate. Know every circumstance under which they can do this.

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Balance Transfers