Why the dash for fast cash is a bad habit

Ken Krause, who teaches business and marketing at a high school in the United States, regularly asks his pupils whether they would take $100 now or wait a year to double their money and receive $200. As would many adults, many pupils opt for the fast cash.

This story illustrates one of the challenges of managing money: the basic urge to grab what you can while you can and not manage too far into the future.

Jennifer Wallace, an outreach manager at the Michigan Education Trust, said many people want what they want now. Wallace told how she went ‘‘way down on the list of grandmas’’ when she bought her newborn grand- child a prepaid contract to cover college tuition. The baby’s parents didn’t want savings for down the road; they wanted baby furniture now. But furniture won’t pay for an education in the future.