"Instilling the value of education and linking school work to future goals is what middle school students need to excel in school, more than parents' helping with homework or showing up at school."

This quote came from Nancy E. Hill, PhD, of Harvard University who examined 50 studies of more than 50,000 students over a 26-year period. She was interested in seeing what kinds of parental involvement resulted in academic achievement. What she discovered was parents who helped their kids make the connections between educational goals and occupational aspirations did better academically and had higher rates of continuing their education after high school. These connections begin with a conversation.

It goes without saying that all parents want their kids to have healthy relationships, fulfilling careers, and an enjoyment for life. The conversations we have with them when they're young can greatly influence the choices they make that lead to this life. An important topic for these conversations is getting kids to think about their future goals and dreams. What are your interests? How can we turn your interests into a career? What kind of lifestyle do you want? What kind of people would you like to surround yourself with? How old do you want to be when you get your first car? Do you want to own a home? This also gives them the opportunity to make the connections between the decisions they make now and the potential future results.

Of course, the answers to the questions will change over time. That's okay. Having a starting point is what's important.

The money connection: Part of living a healthy, productive, and happy life involves money. No, money does not buy happiness. But it does allow us a sense of security. And this sense of security is part of the foundation for this healthy, productive, and happy life.

So having the conversation with our kids about money is just as important as the conversation about their future aspirations. In fact, the two conversations work in tandem; if you want to get your first car when you're 16, you're going to need to save the money to buy it.

And what is this money conversation all about? First of all, it's on-going. Many, many years on-going. That's because kids need to practice money while you're talking about it. They need to get money (allowance/jobs), learn how to make spending decisions, make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, learn how to be a good consumer, learn how to save money, learn how money grows over time, begin investing... All of this teaches them how to effectively manage money which can help them live the life they want.

Our KidsMoneyConnexions tools offers parents two exercises that can help get kids to think about their future goals and create a money game plan to help them get there.

"The future depends on what we do in the present." Mahatma Gandhi