ONE recent morning, while her daughter was in her third-grade classroom, Perla Camarillo was in one of the school’s resource rooms with other parents, listening to Melinda Opperman and Beatriz Cortes of Springboard, a national nonprofit consumer credit management organisation.

They were invited by Luz del Sol Family Resource Centre, which serves family needs at two San Diego schools, to do a series of financial workshops for parents.

During little more than an hour, no one was more surprised than Camarillo to learn, for example, that she could opt out of receiving the many credit card offers that arrive in the mail, even though the offers themselves include instructions on doing that.

“I never even read them,” she admitted. “I just threw them out.”

Camarillo also learned that she could – and should – check her credit report periodically to make sure the information about her and her husband, Alfonso, is correct. Opperman and Cortes told the parents gathered that morning about how much debt they should carry, the warning signs of trouble and what to do if they found themselves unable to pay their bills.

“It’s kinda hard sometimes,” Camarillo says of the urge to spend. “There’s a lot of pressure to have what everybody else has. You get caught in the whole deal of sales everywhere, but you have to be realistic. You have to look at all your bills, pay them first.”

Statements like that make Paul Richard smile.

“The most important lesson for adults – and children – is to distinguish the difference between wants and needs,” he says. “And you can’t say it just once. You constantly have to reinforce this.”

Richard is executive director of the San Diego-based Institute of Consumer Financial Education, a nonprofit educational foundation established in 1982.

He says parents can start the process as soon as a toddler reaches for something at the grocery-store checkout counter or asks for something advertised on TV.

“Take every opportunity to talk about money,” he says. “If you’re watching TV together, and you see a commercial that seems too good to be true, ask your child how he thinks that person can do business by offering such deals.”

Richard’s point is that these discussions will teach children the nuances of marketing and hidden agendas. And it can’t help but make the adults do a little thinking, too.

“When you see a ‘buy-one-get-one-free’ offer, think about it,” he urges.

If you have to spend money, Richard says, it’s not free. It’s really two for the price of one.

Richard also cautions parents that they are setting the tone for what their children learn about managing money.

“Your moves are transparent,” he cautions. “Your kids know what’s going on. If they see you at the ATM three times a week, not using coupons, they will be the same way.”

“The last thing I advise is to become a comparison shopper,” he says. “My neighbour, Pete, recently needed four new tires. By calling around to a few places, he saved $92 on those tires.”

Camarillo said she didn’t do too much comparison shopping when she got married 10 years ago, but her husband has helped her to see its benefits, pointing out where she could have purchased something for a lesser price.

That made her mad, and made her start comparing prices, a lesson she passed on to her daughter.

Felicia Baker has done the same thing.

When she and her husband divorced a decade ago, he told her she’d never make it. But she bought her first condo, then a home. She worked her way up the ladder at a Wells Fargo Bank. After 19 years, she is an assistant vice-president and senior trust officer, advising the wealthy how to make the most of their money. She learned everything she could, and educating others became her passion.

In 2000, she created a programme at Mt Moriah Christian Church in San Diego to teach young people how to make the most of their money, no matter how little they have.

It’s not easy teaching teenagers to delay gratification in favour of a larger goal. That was evident on a recent Saturday in a meeting room at the library. The kids meet there, or at a teen centre next door, once a month.

On the agenda that day: allowances. John Crawley, a church member, talked to the teenagers about the importance of getting an allowance.

“You have to tell your parents, if you don’t have any money to manage, any way to make mistakes on a small scale, then you’ll never learn and may end up making big mistakes.”

Camarillo’s daughter doesn’t get an allowance, per se, but she is rewarded for her behaviour and progress at school. At her school, the third-graders earn a “colour” grade. Green is best.

“When she gives me a green, she gets a dollar,” Camarillo says. In essence, her eight-year-old can earn US$5 a week, which she does most weeks.

And she learns about how to manage even that small amount.

Camarillo remembers the time her little girl wanted to buy a video game that cost $30. “She didn’t have the money,” Camarillo said. “I know I can buy it for her. She does, too, but that’s not the point. I told her she would have to save up and come back and get the game.”