About 43% of American families spend more than they earn each year, with the average household carrying over $8,000 in credit card debt. With the state of the economy and worries that abound, it may seem overwhelming for most of us to wrap our minds around these figures let alone come up with a plan to manage our very own finances.

Did you know that financial wellbeing is an important aspect of our overall health? Wellbeing starts with choices we make toward improving our quality of life that incorporates eight dimensions on a wellbeing wheel. The others are emotional, environmental, physical, spiritual, social, intellectual, and occupational.

Financial wellbeing is related to every dimension of wellbeing. Stress in the areas of emotional, occupational, and social wellbeing can result if financial wellbeing is imbalanced.

We have become a society of wanting it now and miss out on a great chance to save and look forward to the reward, as opposed to instant gratification. Think back to when you were a child and really wanted something. Just the anticipation of saving, working, and waiting made that reward much more menaningful.

A great way to help kids learn money management early on is through an allowance. Most of us grew up with a weekly allowance for chores completed. If our goal is to teach kids to be good with money, they need practice - a lot of practice. When a child around the age of five starts to get curious about money and begins to want things, this may be the ideal time to start. Learning from either spend it all now on candy or saving up to buy something special provides one our best life lessons. It's a pretty good approach that most of us adults today could practice as well.