The article follows the Pemberton family in St. Petersburg, Fla., who have stopped paying their mortgage so they can put their money to more fun use, such as trips to a casino and joyrides in an airboat:

“Instead of the house dragging us down, it’s become a life raft,” said Mr. Pemberton, who stopped paying the mortgage on their house here last summer. “It’s really been a blessing.”

Because of the glut of homes in default in Florida, foreclosure proceedings last an average of 518 days. The Pembertons have yet to be evicted — meaning they will continue to live there rent-free until the bank collects its due.

The people interviewed for the article make the case that the banks should pay the price for the naïve decision to grant them mortgages in the first place, but the justification seems to originate from an ethics-free zone.

And it’s a short-sighted game, to say the least. Once the bank gets around to completing its paperwork, not only will these borrowers lose their homes, but their FICO scores will plummet by up to 280 points. And the foreclosure will stay on their credit reports for 7 years —almost as long as a bankruptcy.

Considering what their credit history means for their future job, housing, and credit prospects, these homeowners need to reconsider whether scamming the bank is worth it in the long run.

If you’re a parent yourself, there are a lot of ways you can put your kids on the path to financial success while they’re still young. Here’s a sampling of ideas:

• Put their allowance on plastic. Teaching them early about how debit and credit cards work will serve them well as adults when it’s their own money they’re spending. Obopay has a product perfect for this.
• Prioritize retirement over college. You can take out a loan for college, but you can’t take out one for retirement. Even if you want to give your child the world by paying for his or her education, make sure you max out your retirement plan before you start making contributions to Junior’s college fund. By getting an early start on retirement saving, you can free up more money down the road for education expenses.
• Live by example. This is the most important one: A University of Arizona study last year found that kids learn their spending habits from mom and dad — not from books or school. Use that influence wisely.

But if you’re saddled with a huge car payment, struggling to pay your rent or mortgage, or throwing money away on high-interest debt, then those savings don’t seem to matter as much to your bottom line.

In other words, if you can’t make ends meet month after month, clipping coupons isn’t going to be enough to bridge that gap.

The solution? Find ways to slash your biggest expenses first — before cutting back on smaller budgetary line items. Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Maximize your tax deductions throughout the year to avoid scrambling to remember them all when it’s time to file your annual return. Keep files on all your charitable donations, deductible interest on student loans, medical care, and other qualifying expenses.
• Aim to spend no more than 30 percent of your income on housing, whether that’s rent or mortgage (and don’t forget to factor in property tax and insurance). If you can spend less on housing and still live in a safe area, do it.
• A rule of thumb: If you have to take out a car loan you can’t pay back in under three years, you can’t afford your ride.
• Most savings accounts right now are paying around 1 percent APR in interest. If you have credit card balances or student loans to pay off, you’re likely paying more than 1 percent on that debt, so your emergency fund is actually costing you money in the long run. Make a dent in it today.

Forget fine-tuning — overhaul your budget to see the biggest savings.

The report, which is highly regarded by most lawmakers and educators and widely used to measure state and national education levels, found that mathematics proficiency among fourth graders has not substantively improved. The New York Times notes:

Scores increased only marginally for eighth graders and not at all for fourth graders, continuing a sluggish six-year trend of slowing achievement growth since passage of the [No Child Left Behind], which requires schools to bring 100 percent of students to reading and math proficiency by 2014.

The need for effective elementary education and strong economic education across the country remains prevalent. Without basic math skills, it can be almost impossible for young adults to acquire financial literacy and learn how to manage their own money. Not to mention scores of other essential skills like knowing how to calculate interest on a loan or budgeting money for the future. In order to make cost-effective choices in their lives, American consumers must first be provided the fundamental tools for financial literacy. We hope that our nation’s schools recognize the need for qualified educators who can effectively teach math and basic skill sets to students.

Obopay offers a service that links your child to your bank account via a prepaid debit card. Essentially an allowance on plastic, the card allows users to withdraw money at ATMs, send money over the phone, or use it as a charge card (both in stores and online). For a $1.95 monthly fee, parents can control access, monitor spending, reload the cards remotely, and see how your children are budgeting their money.

Similarly, MasterCard’s Facecard works like a bank account on a card. Users can send money to other Facecard users — say, to reimburse a friend for buying your movie ticket — and receive as well (perhaps for mowing a neighbor’s lawn). It can be used for purchases wherever MasterCard is accepted. The fees are higher here: The card itself costs $5, and carries a $3 monthly usage fee for balances under $100. ATM withdrawals are an additional $1.50 a pop.

If your child is a gamer but you are (understandably) reluctant to hand over your credit card, BillMyParents.com is a way for you to exercise oversight as they pay to play. When a child enters his or her account number during checkout, parents receive an email to accept or deny the charge. It also works at affiliate shops on Amazon.com. The drawback: It might encourage kids to overspend, so make sure they discuss purchases with you first.

According to People magazine, Los Angeles County records show she owes more than $1.1 million to creditors:

According to the documents, five different construction companies have filed liens against her home, the largest being $674,043 for “labor and materials … to remodel main house, construct swimming pool, construct foundations for guest house.”

She also owes $252,360.39 in back state taxes and penalties for 2007.

With that, she joins the illustrious ranks of celebrities who have displayed disastrous financial-management skills. Just because you make a lot of it doesn’t mean you’re good with money.

Pam should remember the immortal words of the Notorious B.I.G.: “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.”

Callie Rogers was 16 when she won a jackpot of £1.9 million in Britain’s lottery (equivalent to about $3.1 million in USD). Now she is 22 and has virtually nothing left:

Her winnings have been spent on expensive cars, gifts, loans to family members, four houses she bought and furnished for herself and family members, luxury vacations, plastic surgery, clothing, and partying, as well as a trust fund for her children. “I won’t lie, I’ve blown most of it,” she said. “But do you know what? I don’t care. Because all that money has brought me is heartache.”

Rogers said she had £20,000 in a bank account and “that’s about it.”

A child trust fund set up for her son was “raided” by [her ex-boyfriend], but around £15,000 is left.

Rogers also reports spending an estimated £250,000 ($406,000) on cocaine and says she is seeking therapy for depression.

Had Rogers known that sound planning — not wealth — is the biggest determinant of feeling financially stable, she might be in a better position today. And since we at Econ4U are fascinated by how many lottery winners end up broke, we offer these tips on how not to blow your good fortune should you ever be in such a lucky position.

Want more visualizations? MightyBargainHunters.com has even more ways to wrap your head around that many zeroes:

• $10 trillion in Lincoln cents would make a solid cube over half a mile on a side. This dwarfs the tallest structures in the world.
• $10 trillion in one-dollar bills taped end to end stretch almost 970 million miles. This is five round-trips to the Sun. It takes light almost an hour and a half to travel this distance.
• $10 trillion accumulates over $1 billion in interest per day at 4%.  It accumulates in four seconds more than the average US worker makes in a year.
• $10 trillion would last Montgomery Brewster over 27,000 years, and you could pay off a hundred Dr. Evils with it.

So why is it important to know just how much a trillion dollars is? Because the U.S. National Debt is currently closing in on $12 trillion. Time to begin work on another penny cube!

Some of the tips are obvious: Don’t buy a new car or brand-name groceries, turn off your lights when you leave the room, cancel your cable to save money, etc. And sometimes it seems like a requirement among personal-finance columnists to mention the $4 latte.

Just about everybody already knows these things. But what are some of the more insidious money pits? We offer these from our archives:

• Credit cards that offer rewards frequently mean an annual fee and higher interest rates than cards that do not — and if you carry a balance, you’re probably spending more than you’re receiving back in perks.
• If you wait until your 30s to open that retirement account, you’re losing out on potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in compounded interest. That’s a lot of lattes you could be drinking in retirement.
• Having a baby is expensive. Having 14 babies is really expensive. Be sure you’re financially stable before you start a family.
• Living in a state with a huge budget shortfall inevitably means you’ll pay higher taxes than if you choose to live elsewhere. (Here’s looking at you, California and New York.)
• Taking on student loans that exceed 15 percent of your gross earnings is a recipe for long-term debt. Something to consider before you pursue that MFA.

In Missouri, the Boys and Girls Club of West Central Missouri puts financial lessons into practice with its “club bucks” program.

The members get “club bucks” for attending different programs throughout the week, then receive an itemized paycheck. To cash the checks, they must fill out a deposit slip at the club’s bank, and may then spend the bucks at the club store, open once a week, or buy time on a computer or play the Nintendo Wii.

The program coordinator noted that the teens in the program are at “a very impressionable age.” Some teens participating in the program said that it was difficult to save the “club bucks” and that the program is teaching them what they will have to do when they are older.

As we have reminded readers time and time again, it’s never too late to talk to kids about learning how to manage money. Kudos to the educational institutions and community groups across the U.S. who are giving kids a head start for their future finances!