You know, I think that the key to teaching effective money management isn't just to make good decisions but to explain them. My parents are great with money, but most of the decisions that they made were very opaque. We kids weren't really allowed in on any of the financial discussions - in fact, I was forbidden to inquire about my dad's annual salary until a couple of years ago.

Things like saving money to pay for a car in cash (and still, buying a used car), never spending more than you have, balancing your checkbook daily, and learning to live with less junk were all things that my parents excelled at, but they were never really explicitly explained to us. Perhaps I was a lost cause, but maybe it would have made a difference if we had crunched the numbers early on, as a family.