How families manage their finances

85 per cent say they take care with their spending. Of those, 46 per cent plan and manage their spending carefully; 39 per cent have a general idea of how they spend their money but may not have a formal plan.

60 per cent say they create and maintain a family budget. Of those, more than half (57 per cent) claim they stick to their budget “fairly well” and 33 per cent per cent stick to it “very well.”

Budgeting drops as income rises: 67 per cent of those with a household income of $25,000 to $40,000 create and maintain a budget, compared with only 50 per cent of families who earn $100,000 or more a year.

In 65 per cent of families, one person manages all the household finances. It’s not a shared responsibility between spouses or partners.

Half of parents discuss money management regularly with their children: 28 per cent do it on a weekly basis and 22 per cent do it monthly.

On average, parents think 10 is the appropriate age to discuss money management with their children.

Just over half of parents (55 per cent) give their children an allowance and 43 per cent don’t. Source: Telephone survey of 1,000 Canadians age 18 and over, Aug. 11- 16, by Environics Research Group on behalf of MasterCard Canada. (Results are considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.)