In The News

Fortunately, materialism can be purposefully altered, as the team discovered in the fourth study—the first ever to use a randomized, controlled design to try to change materialistic beliefs. A group of adolescents from the U.S. joined a program [Share Save Spend's Financial Sanity curriculum] designed to lessen the value they place on materialistic goals, whereas a control group did not receive the intervention. In three sessions [lead by Nathan Dungan] lasting three hours each, participants were taught about consumer culture. They were also encouraged to clarify their intrinsic values (such as self-growth, closeness with friends and family, and contributing to the community) and to make financial decisions based on those values.

We’re spendaholics who live powerless to rein in our spending. Few of us are taught to save as kids, so it never becomes an innate habit, said Nathan Dungan, founder of Share Save Spend, a Minneapolis-based program that teaches families about money strategies. “We have enormous pressures to spend rather than save,” Dungan said. “Spending will always be sexier than saving.”

“It feels like winning the lottery to them,” said Nathan Dungan, founder of ShareSaveSpend, which teaches money strategies to families through books, seminars and a website, Sharesavespend.com. “But on what planet does an 18-year-old know how to handle that?” Dungan finds that families who have previously established guidelines about finances and goal setting are better positioned to handle a sudden influx of cash. But for families less skilled at saving, he sees graduation as an opportunity for parents to deliver a real-life lesson.

"You can start as soon as your kids say 'I want.' Kids prone to immediate gratification have lower self-esteem. Kids who understand money is more than instant gratification have higher self-esteem," says Nathan Dungan, a wealth coach in Minneapolis and author of "Prodigal Sons and Material Girls: How Not to Be Your Child's ATM."

It's tough to raise a genuine, levelheaded kid, full of gratitude and humility and a sense of purpose. It can be even more difficult to raise a kid when there's a trust fund afoot. "Parents have described it to me like looking up at Mount Everest and having no oxygen and no Sherpa," says Nathan Dungan, a private wealth consultant in Minneapolis and founder of Share Save Spend.

Go on a learning journey with your kids,” says Nathan Dungan, founder and president of Share Save Spend, an organization that promotes financial responsibility. “Just talking about money starts to yield benefits.”

The assumption: The adviser's role is purely to help preserve and maximize the client's wealth, for instance by minimizing the impact of taxes on the estate. How to avoid it: Engage clients in discussions about the qualitative—not just the quantitative—aspects of money. Determine what role they want it to play in their lives, and in the lives of future generations. Then plan accordingly. —Nathan Dungan, owner, Share Save Spend, Minneapolis

"From my point of view, allowances should be required. You want kids to get comfortable with money," said Nathan Dungan, president of Share Save Spend, an organization aiming to help people develop healthy financial habits. "It gives a really critical structure and kind of intentional marking point that a child develops to get them comfortable with money."

Mr. Dungan says there are three critical elements to help clients raise an anti-brat. First, parents need to take control of their family's "money narrative," he says. Too many parents fall into the trap of thinking their kids will magically learn about money with little to no effort on their part. As a result, the parents "cede the money narrative" to the culture of consumerism, which has no interest in the child developing healthy money habits, he says.

According to money guru Nathan Dungan, “retail marketing forces whip-up this insane consumer pressure for couples…” He’s all for expressing love, but go counterculture with meaningful low or no-cost gestures.

“Absent an intentional conversation about things, people tend to fill in their own narrative,” said Nathan Dungan, founder of Share Save Spend, a Minneapolis-based company that works with schools, employers and families to encourage healthy money habits. “Rather than trying to surmise about what’s happening, have a discussion about what’s happening.”

With Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) looming, this is the time when many families will start thinking about holiday spending; and after the holidays are over, will once again find themselves wishing they had done things differently, said Nathan Dungan, a national speaker and consultant on financial literacy and founder/president of Share Save Spend. The Thanksgiving holiday provides a good opportunity for kids to learn more about what life was like for their older relatives, even on the topic of holiday gift-giving. Article includes an exercise called "Turn Back the Clock" from the book "Money Sanity Solutions: Linking Money + Meaning," by Nathan Dungan.

Nathan Dungan, president and founder of financial-education firm Share Save Spend, has clients who are paying the mortgage for an adult son and his wife because of a job loss. The younger couple doesn't have a steady income stream, but eats out several times a week. "The parents don't want to be micromanaging, but they are also saying that they are finding a sense of entitlement here," Mr. Dungan says.

With careful planning, loans can be repaid, even if not in the near term. Providing clear terms, including the time period of support, is crucial, experts said. Nathan Dungan, a personal-finance expert who works with young people and adults, said support should be finite. “Not that you want to micro-manage someone who is struggling, but if there’s no discussion about time limits or expectations, there’s a potential slippery slope. Being really honest and open about the parameters of the support early on is really important,” Dungan said.

Parents should also help children deal with the psychological effects of inheriting great wealth, which may require the assistance of a therapist.For many people there's a lot of guilt associated with the inheritance because it wasn't earned, says Nathan Dungan, a wealth coach and president of Share Save Spend.

Why are higher ed costs rising so swiftly? And what are families and students to do about it? We presented a panel on the topic. St. Olaf Financial Aid Director Kathy Ruby is joined by financial planning expert Nathan Dungan and Star Tribune higher ed reporter Jenna Ross

Nathan Dungan worked with a family whose teenage son's eyes glazed over anytime the parents asked about what type of volunteer work he'd like to do. But when their son's friend died, he organized a food drive in the friend's honor to benefit a local shelter. The parents were shocked and thrilled, says Mr. Dungan, the creator of Share Save Spend, a Minneapolis-based educational company created to help families develop healthy financial habits.

At what point does investing in your children go too far? Supporting education, vacations, extracurricular activities is fine, to a point, but when does your spending become enabling, stifling independence? Family-finance counselor Nathan Dungan, founder of Share Save Spend, has advice for parents. Jonathan Burton interviews Nathan.

Be realistic about your teen's maturity, says Nathan Dungan, founder of counseling firm Share Save Spend, which teaches families about money matters. It may be that cash is more appropriate -- it's tangible and if you don't have it, you're out of luck. "It's a big responsibility to put a piece of plastic in a child's hand," Mr. Dungan says. "When a person uses plastic instead of cash, they spend more. Some 12-year-olds are more ready for it than some 15-year-olds."

A greater emphasis on financial education in U.S. schools wouldn't have prevented the current economic crisis, but it would have helped more people avoid debt trouble. Nathan Dungan, president of counseling firm Share Save Spend, infuses his lessons with the idea of money values. MarketWatch's Andrea Coombes visits him as he teaches high-school seniors in Palo Alto, Calif.

One exercise to use, says Nathan Dungan, president of Share Save Spend, a Minneapolis-based firm providing values-based money education, "is when your credit-card bill comes in, go through it line by line, answering...was this a need or was it a want?"