Discuss family finances with your children

Transparency with your children is a difficult thing to achieve, especially in our society where money-related discussions are considered "dirty" or taboo

Circa 2005, the start-up I was heading was passing through turbulent times. Around that time, my son, Akshay, passed his International Baccalaureate (equivalent to HSC) exams and was in the process of choosing a professional course.

Like most of his schoolmates, he was keen to pursue his undergraduate studies overseas. The product design course he wanted to pursue was available in India, but the peer pressure to go overseas was high. The overseas course cost a bomb. Given the state of our (my spouse and mine) personal finances then, we couldn’t afford it.

We realised this issue would have to be handled