It's probably safe to say that most of us wished we were a little bit smarter about how we spent our money. Money smarts aren't genetic and they can't be developed overnight. Money smarts are a combination of beliefs, attitudes, habits and discipline that are built gradually with great care and patience.

You don't have to wait for money smarts week to start learning about money. With financial literacy education, you can develop the skills and cultivate the behaviors you need to turn pick up practical financial matters. It won't happen overnight, but with time, patience and discipline you can use a good financial literacy education program to build your tool box for financially responsible living.

Check out this financial education event that takes a MTV award show style approach to empowering youth with money smarts.

Take a look at any newspaper's current financial headlines and you'll see that the money smarts of previous generations --  thrift, prudence, conservatism -- have not been passed down to us or our children. People are spending more than they make to buy things that they don't need to impress folks they don't really like. The savings rate in America is practically zero, and too many people are living paycheck to paycheck. This behavior needs to stop with us, and we need to start setting better examples for our children regarding financial responsibility.

Kids get their earliest money lessons from their parents. In the past, those lessons included saving money in a piggy bank and getting a small allowance for helping out around the house. Today, the lesson most kids are getting is to run everything up on the credit card and mortgage the house to the hilt. This is a bad financial example and it will result in disaster later on without appropriate financial literacy education.

To put it bluntly, adults do a grave disservice to the younger generation when they don't give them a solid financial literacy education. Kids need to know about money, how it works and what to do with it, and they need to hear these lessons as early as possible.

To ensure that our kids make better decisions with money than us, we need to start passing on some money smarts. This means changing our behavior and also getting them into a solid financial literacy curriculum that will teach them the money management skills they need.

Starting early is key to teaching your children money smarts. By teaching your children money lessons at a young age, you'll get them practicing good financial habits early and avoid letting them fall into bad habits. The key to developing your kids money smarts is finding a good financial literacy curriculum.

A solid financial literacy education will do the following:

1.) Address the why: Kids will always question why a lesson is necessary, and "because I said so" isn't always the right answer. When teaching your kids money smarts be sure to explain why they should be learning what you're teaching. Lessons about balancing checkbooks and interest rates can be dull, so make sure you give your kids a double dose of relevance in their financial literacy curriculum.

2.) Give real world examples: Kids know whether you're being real with them or not. Make sure you give lots of examples about how your lessons will impact their lives. Talk about your own personal budget and how you make money decisions in your house. By being honest and leveling with your kids, you can ensure that they get a proper financial literacy education.

3.) Don't forget why you're doing it: The average college student leaves school more than $20,000 in debt. This is simply unacceptable and can be financially crippling for years to come, making important life events like getting married or buying a first home difficult. Teaching them good spending and budgeting habits can help keep them out of the hole.

4.) Lead by example: Whether you're teaching a class or instructing your own kids money smarts, what you do is as important as what you say. Lead a financially prudent lifestyle and your kids will see that you're being serious. Kids can easily sniff out hypocrisy. Don't preach water and drink wine, set the example that you want your students to follow.

5.) Envision -- You should get students to look ahead to the future and make serious plans. Find out what your kids dreams are and work with them on how they can bring them to fruition. Don't ever stop thinking about tomorrow.

2.) Volunteerism -- Many campaigns are drafting volunteers from all over to help get the message of financial responsibility to today's youth. A variety of national financial literacy movements, such as StandUp for Financial Literacy, are tailor-made to teach real world money skills to as many people as possible. Standup for Financial Literacy is one of the pre-eminent public-private partnerships aimed at promoting financial education events and general financial literacy.

Part of the mission is to encourage the youth to sponsor their own financial education events in April. Kids are more likely to listen to their peers, so getting them onboard is important. Companies and organizations such as the National Youth Financial Educators Council help the youth put on these events which can go a long way to promoting better money skills.

If you want to host a financial education event, you need to get in touch with a local financial institution, university or advocacy group. They'll be able to provide you with the tools and logistical support you need to host a successful financial literacy event.

Any good financial education event will cover a few basics:

Getting a good financial literacy curriculum will help your kids get the money smarts they need to get their spending habits under control and learn that money doesn't grow on trees, it grows from the seeds of hard work and thrift.  Check out the National Youth Financial Educators Council’s Money Smarts Course for Students at http://www.MoneySmartsCourse.com.  Here's a few topics that any good financial literacy course will cover:

1.) Saving, saving, saving. This is perhaps the most important financial lesson you'll teach. If you can get this one across, you'll have done your job. Getting kids to realize that they don't need to spend more than they make is an incredibly powerful lesson and is the keystone of all other money smarts.

2.) Credit. Understanding lines of credit, interest rates and credit scores are key to future financial success. Teach your kids that credit is like fire, it can be very useful if handled properly and very destructive if used in an improper way.

3.) Investing. Once students have a stable income and manageable debt burden, they will want to build their wealth by investing. Make sure your kids get the money smarts they need to become wise and savvy investors.

Making your kids money smart can have a huge impact on their lives. Our current financial crisis was caused by too many people borrowing too much money that they couldn't afford to borrow. To stave off future financial meltdowns, it's imperative that children be taught a solid financial literacy curriculum at an early age. By building good habits now you can avoid bad habits later and turn your kids into winners with money. Check out this site for more hints and tips.