The lack of money education is my biggest culprit. Neither schools nor parents tend to focus much on teaching money management. What's more, in the case of most university students, the first time you start handling serious sums of money is when you receive your student loan. It's all on credit from the word go -- most students, myself included, had no practical sense of how long it would take to earn and repay that money.

Second culprit is credit brokered by retailers (incl. motor trade, plus the obvious ones such as furnishings retailers, clothes shops...) In other words, when you encounter something you cannot afford, the answer is you can have it today for an enticingly-small-sounding £x.xx per month. 30 years ago the answer might have been "you can put down a deposit and we'll keep it for you while you save the rest", i.e. when you _can_ afford it.

I actually don't think that lifestyle aspirations are the cause of overspending - more the result. Easy credit came first, for things like cars, kitchens and furniture.

I completly agree. A solid grounding in basic finance and the importance of basic financial planning in the school curiculum should be essential.

Many of my friends, do fall into the bracket of just making bad, ill thought out and tragic financial decisions. The importance of not over reaching and the importance of saving is simply not understood by many. A friend of mine was just stitched up on a consolidation loan, that yes, will make him a little better off each month, but its almost doubled his remaining term - and the poor guy didnt even consider the overall amount of interest he will pay back. But regardless, given his financial spending pattern, i suspect he will be back in trouble within 6 months, and then will get into a mess again (even after this, he has just gone out and bought a damn plasma tv !)- I try to help where i can, but its hard offering financial advise to friends.

Even with the credit crunch, money still seems easy to get.. (especially at the retail end)

Overall, i think it all comes back to government... from education and every step through to regulation.

Its tragic..

Agree with your comments. You'll be glad to know that at my local school there is a short course for young kids about money management. This basically includes Loans, interest rates, small print etc etc.

Should be made national curriculum as there are so many banks and instituitions waiting to catch out the uneducated ones!

We are to blame we all want and have too much. I have recently turned to my faith and started going to Church it helped me to realize what was important in my life. The things that have the most value cost nothing my children don't need the lastest game or top brand clothing they needed me and i needed them. I have started selling most my items that i nolonger need and still feel that i've got more than enough if not more with what i have found in the Church and best of all it's completely free and the people are of the best and most giving you could ever wish to meet. For the first time in my life i feel complete and satisfied wanting for nothing. I hope this helps others like me who are out there?

I am 33 and believe that my generation was the first to be groomed from a young age into believing that material things make you the person you are.
I remember coveting the Puma trainers of my peers, pressuring my parents into paying £300 for a computer at christmas, even the latest breakfast cereals that were pushed on me by the coo adverts. We are consumers from the day we watch our first advert and at the age of 2 there is no going back.
Pressure should be put on the goverment to try to save the next generation from our material existence.

Wow that was a good rant.

I too agree with most of the above comments.
I am a teacher and three years ago we introduced the Certificate in Financial Studies run by the IFS in to the sixth form - we currently have 60 out of 630 students learning about financial matters. It is a starting point although I'd prefer to see it as a compulsory course.
Much of this excessive materialism seems to stem from a lack of independence. Youngsters are groomed to be image conscious from an increasingly young age (ugly contestants rarely seem to do well on shows such as X-Factor where voice and stage-presence ought, perhpaps, be more significant) - it is difficult for them to easily dismiss fashion and the incumbent desire to own logo-laden status symbols to boost their confidence and sense of self worth. This slavish need to need to act like sheep prevents youngsters from making rational choices and standing out from the crowd - attitudes which assuredly they take through with them to young adulthood at which point they get suckered in by the "plastic" money which is made so readily available. Around their 18th birthdays many of my students are targeted to receive invitations to take out credit cards - offering them access, potentially, to sums of money they had hitherto dreamed of - it is unscrupulous. Of course firms are loathe for education to play too large a part in promoting alternative, less consumerist attitudes towards spending for fear of reducing long-term demand and the country's economic well-being. Nonetheless, the Japanese economy seems not to have suffered too greatly from an ingrained culture of saving. Ultimately, what is borrowed must be paid back (by someone, somewhere) so the UK economy has enjoyed a sustained period of growth predicated upon excessive levels of consumer borrowing - it must now face up to a possible period of retrenchment as borrowers reduce current consumption to pay back that which they have borrowed - not exactly happy days is it?

I agree totally with preceding comments about how materialistic and acquisitive we have become. The desperate need for a 'designer' label which is anything but is a sad indictment of a society that values people on the strength of their clothes and other acquisitions. But, shops will report high level of sales at Christmas as if it is something to be proud of! Christmas. Rob, I appreciate your sentiments.

I'm 37 and I distinctly remember the marked change in our society, year upon year, during the Eighties. So, whose to blame? Well simple really, Mrs Thatcher and her cronies. They put in place the very foundations that would eventually lead to the chaos that we have today. Mrs Thatcher was obsessed with the American Dream (not to mention Ronald Reagan!) and as a consequence, deliberately pursued policies that would take Britain down a similar path. So is it any wonder, that we are now more like American Society, than perhaps any other nation on the planet. Total materialistic, obsessed with money, judge ourselves and others by possessions and image, fiercely competitive, couldn't give a damn about anybody else, unless they are useful to our own end goals. Unfortunately, the Tories were in for 18 years and by the early nineties, our society had reached a point of no return, as an entire generation had been raised on Thatcherite ideals. Things have only gotten worse under Labour as they perpetuate the Thatcherite legacy, in order to remain electable.

I'm hoping to God that we have finally reached a turning point and that the good people of this country are starting to realise that the American Dream is an empty one. What really matters are the simple things in life; each other, our loved ones, our children, our husbands, our wives, our brothers, our sisters, our parents, our environment and what we contribute to society.

Ask your self this; when you're eventually lying on your death bed, what will you be thinking about? Will you be thinking about the Porsche that you owned, the 5 bed house, the DVD player, the iPod, the LCD TV, the mobile phone? Or will you be thinking about the difference that you made and the people that you loved?

So, how exactly do you want to be remembered? As Mr Credit or Mr Credible?