Is your piggy bank empty or full?

Vocabulary: money 詞匯: 錢

Are you good with money? I learnt to be careful with it during my childhood. My father would give me some pocket money and tell me it should last for a whole week. So, I learnt I had to save some if I didn't want to run out of cash quickly. No surprise there: my dad was an accountant!

It's never too early to become money savvy. That's what British personal finances expert Martin Lewis thinks. He was part of a successful campaign to include financial education on the school curriculum in England. It will be embedded in maths and citizenship education. This includes children from 5 to 16 years old.

Lewis says: "We desperately need to break the cycle of financial illiteracy in the UK - one of the causes of our current economic crisis and a huge contributor to continued misselling epidemics."

Being careful with money pays off. Banks in Britain recently found themselves having to compensate a large number of people who were persuaded to part with their cash and buy insurance policies they didn't need. Many wasted their money on investments which were not for them. Few have the patience to read the small print.

The British say 'take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves'. It means you have to watch your daily expenses and not just the big purchases in your life such as houses.

Martin Lewis has made millions from his website which advises people to be thrifty and refuses any suggestion that he is tight. The expert says in an interview with the English newspaper the Daily Express: "the better you are with your cash, the better your life can be. People think I am telling them to stop spending money but I am simply telling them to spend it wisely."

What about you: Are you money savvy?