Given the constant media barrage of bad news, the stock market uncertainty and our clients' understandable worry about not being able to retire, it's hard to imagine anything positive coming from the most recent economic downturn. But if we look through a different lens, is there anything positive we can take away from this time of turmoil? How can we learn, or better yet, how can we help our kids learn from this? What wisdom can we impart to our children or our clients' children that can help them better prepare for their financial future?

Think back to your past and try to remember how economic times affected you and molded your personality, for better or for worse. I was a first-generation latch-key kid, like many, growing up in the suburbs with my two brothers and sister. We learned how to entertain ourselves, which was a lot of fun, but we also learned to dislike our dinner arrangement—TV dinners. I can still remember the old-fashioned dinners served on segmented metal trays, where the main course was ice cold and the apple pie so hot it left the roof of your mouth burning for days. In fact, we complained so much that my parents decided to give us each one-sixth of the weekly grocery bill during the summer and put us in charge of buying our own food each week.

After spending two weeks eating nothing but chips, soda and Twinkies, we realized it was time to get serious. We learned a lot that summer, like creating a shopping list of items we needed, budgeting, reviewing our bills, cooking, clipping coupons and negotiating with other family members about sharing basic supplies such as milk, juice and cheese. As a result, my mom became an instant celebrity among all the working mothers in our neighborhood. And we learned a lifetime lesson about responsibly taking control of our financial futures.

I'm sure we all have our own stories similar to this one. They show that simple ideas can teach and transfer a generations' worth of financial wisdom. And since neither schools nor libraries teach financial literacy to children, perhaps we can help our clients transfer their own financial wisdom to their children. At the same time, we might create a new generation of responsible investors (or ideal clients!).

It's true that many parents—myself included—don't like to be told how to raise their children. But many parents are also interested in passing along age-appropriate financial knowledge to their children. Children with solid financial skills and a history of discussing financial issues are better prepared to tackle the inevitable challenges they will face in their adult life. Rather than handing children a book and asking them to read it to learn about money management, why not use life circumstances to teach real-time lessons. Here are some ways to help prepare the next generation of ideal clients:

PLAY MONEY

Allowance is the ultimate money management teaching tool. Children are typically ready for an allowance between the ages of five and seven. Take the opportunity to open the discussion when they start to show an interest in performing chores around the house.

Many of your clients will likely have their own biases on how to handle allowances based on how they were raised, but most child development experts tend to agree on a couple of points.First, kids should have an allowance. Parents may worry that their kids will get spoiled, but an allowance provides the best opportunity for them to make budgets, develop spending patterns and learn from small money mistakes. Second, give them their allowance even if they don't do their chores. Rather than connect the money to chores, discipline them separately. If parents tie allowance to chores, it can be difficult to make them do the chores.In addition, they will only do the chores well enough to get paid. The experts prefer to frame chores as part of a child's privilege and responsibility to keep his or her family running well. Allowance is the child's share of the money that your client's family brings in.

When kids are young, parents should consider paying them once a week. When the kids are old enough, parents can stretch that to once every two weeks (12 to 14 years old) and then once a month (16 to 18 years old). This teaches them to budget their spending accordingly.

Of course, it's tempting for parents to bail out their kids to avoid the inevitable, "I hate you dad, all my friends are going to the movies and you won't buy me a ticket." But it's important to stand firm. This is how they learn to save more next time. Encourage clients to sympathize by having them explain a time when they spent beyond the household budget and had to do without something they wanted. While it can be uncomfortable for anyone to talk about their mistakes, this is how kids learn the most.And if your client doesn't rub it in, the children will feel more comfortable confiding in their parents when they make mistakes later on in life, knowing that their parents will listen without judging.