It’s a simple calculus, kids and money: From birth until college graduation, children consume dollars like they’re chicken nuggets.

For those of us who aren’t independently wealthy, that puts unrelenting pressure on the family pocketbook. The financial demands of raising a child require that money you otherwise might use to prepare for retirement, or to save for a nicer house, a sportier car or a swankier vacation, must, out of necessity, be earmarked for Lego sets and pediatrician visits and school uniforms and Christmas toys and a college savings account and a minivan and a trip to Disneyland … and lots of, well, chicken nuggets.

I’m not saying this to disparage kids. I have two of my own, and money is nothing in comparison to the happiness they bring me and my wife. Yet happiness does not negate the fact that the moment a child arrives — and, actually, months before the arrival — your role as an adult changes in dramatic, profound ways.

And so, too, does your family’s financial life.

Ryan Snook

Not only are you now on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in costs over the next two decades, you also have a new obligation to teach your children about money so that they grow into adults who are at home in the financial world and who have a healthy relationship with money. You, the parent, are the first and most crucial link in that learning process.

A Lot to Teach

I know that money seems a simple technology and one that wouldn’t seem to require much handholding. After all, you’ve been spending it yourself since you were a kid, and you’ve been earning it at least a few years. What more is there to know about it, really? And what more do you really need to teach your kids that you don’t already know yourself? Well, if statistics are any indicator, a lot.

In measuring how well 12th graders understand the basics of personal finance, the nonprofit Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy found that a measly 10% could satisfactorily answer questions about personal finance. Many had no clue how to balance a checkbook. Over all, about half the students failed a test on basic personal-finance literacy.

Yet life as an adult clearly requires knowledge of personal finance. That doesn’t mean your child needs an M.B.A. in security analysis or that you need to hire a financial adviser to tutor your preschooler. But kids obviously need better information to more effectively manage their own financial resources one day.

Kids have an infinite ability to hear what parents say, even in those moments we’re convinced they haven’t heard a word we uttered. Moreover, the concept you’re pushing might not sink in the first time. Or the third time. Or the eighth time. But there will come a moment when you say what you need to say for the umpteenth time, and the way you phrase it or the mood of the moment or the experience your child just had will cause your lesson, almost miraculously, to suddenly resonate.

Of course, you might not know it at that moment. You will know it, though, when you see or hear your lessons in action.

Driving back from one of my son’s soccer games a year or so ago, a flashy Italian sports car pulled up alongside of us on the freeway and the teammate riding home with us said, “Wow, that guy’s rich.”

My son, engrossed in a handheld videogame, looked up to glance at the roadster and reflexively replied, “It’s not how much money you spend that makes you rich. You don’t know; that guy might have spent all his money just to buy that car and he has nothing else. So he might not be rich at all.”

Here he was casually correcting a teammate about what is and isn’t the definition of wealth, barely having to think about what he was saying. The words were coming out effortlessly. Mom and Dad, he proved, really can make a difference when they set out to instill a bit of financial wisdom in their children.

But my son’s commentary was not based on a one-off lecture I’d given him. The lessons had begun early and his mom and I reiterated them time and again.

Make a First Impression

Kids are far more impressionable when they’re younger and much less likely to have any sort of experiences outside the family cocoon that could shape their thinking before you do. That’s not to say you can’t erase the habits or beliefs they pick up, but by the time they’re hardened teenagers, your messages won’t resonate nearly as strongly.

Ultimately, the aim isn’t to mold children who only care about financial riches.. It’s to raise children who grow into adults who are financially aware and who are comfortable managing the various aspects of money — whether spending, saving, investing or giving back.

Maybe your child does accumulate financial riches. Maybe not. But the true measure of your success in this endeavor is that your child, as an adult, never struggles to understand the basics of personal finance.

By JEFF D. OPDYKE

Reprinted by permisson from WSJ.com

That will prove a far greater legacy than any inheritance you might one day leave behind.

The 2009 Debit Issuer Study conducted by the Pulse Network includes several positive trends for credit union debit card issuers, such as sustained debit transaction growth despite the recession. This study also found that, while the use of PIN debit has increased, fraud loss rates have declined.

Issuers surveyed experienced debit transaction growth of 8 percent in the second half of 2008, composed of 15 percent growth in PIN debit transactions and 4 percent growth in signature debit. Survey participants predicted 7 percent growth each for PIN and signature debit in 2009.

“Although the economy is a challenge for debit card issuers, as it is for everyone, debit transaction growth remains strong,” said Cindy Ballard, PULSE executive vice president. “Debit card use is expected to continue to grow as the economy bottoms out and begins to recover, because consumers use their debit cards for a large portion of necessary everyday expenses.”

The 2009 Debit Issuer Study revealed that more than a quarter of all debit transactions (27 percent) in 2008 were for less than $10. In most cases, these transactions are replacing cash, highlighting a clear consumer preference for electronic payments.

Debit card penetration – the percentage of eligible account holders who have a debit card – remained flat at 73 percent. Using an expanded definition of “active” debit cards, the number of issued cards used actively in 2008 was 66 percent.

PIN debit accounted for 35 percent of debit transactions in 2008, up slightly from 34.2 percent in 2007. The average debit transaction value was $42 for PIN debit and $37 for signature. Both figures have declined by roughly $1 compared to the previous study. In addition, active debit cardholders performed 17.3 point-of-sale transactions per month, on average, compared to 16.6 transactions per month in the 2008 survey.

Debit card fraud losses at the point of use declined in all categories. PIN point-of-sale losses, as measured in dollars per card per year, fell to $0.15 from $0.19. Similarly, ATM losses declined to $0.56 per card per year from $0.61, and signature debit loss rates fell to $1.81 from $1.92. Although losses at all three usage points declined year-over-year, the survey did record an increase in share for ATM losses, to 38 percent of total debit fraud losses in 2008 from 25 percent in 2007.

Despite the challenge of navigating through an economic downturn, the 2009 Debit Issuer Study results support the view that debit cards still have considerable long-term growth potential. As transaction growth remains robust, issuers should see further improvements in the performance of debit card portfolios as a key opportunity in 2009.