Arming your kids with basic financial information about budgeting, spending and saving can help them avoid poor choices later in life. Here's how to take your teen's financial understanding to the next level.

Arming your child with basic financial information about budgeting, spending and saving can help them avoid poor choices later in life, explains ASIC MoneySmart senior executive leader Laura Higgins.

“Running up too much debt on a credit card or not insuring their car properly can have a huge impact on a young person,” she says.

Debt is a huge problem. A third of young Australian households are considered “over-indebted”, which means what they owe is three or more times their income, or 75 per cent or more of the value of their assets.