A parent said to me, "My kid is too young to worry about money. I don’t want to burden them with money just yet." I bit my tongue and thought, 'Wow is that child headed down a rough financial road.'

Money isn't a burden or a worry unless you don’t have it, and for that reason the sooner a child understands the value of money the better. We all know that your habits, beliefs and attitudes start in childhood. So why don’t we teach children about money and create good habits as early as possible?

We introduce concepts in kindergarten like sharing, ABCs and 123s, so why introduce the concepts of money? Children have the greatest gift of all: Time + Money + Compound Interest = an MBA, or Massive Bank Account!

We can show our children from an early age the more you learn about money, the more you earn. Use any online calculator and you will see that one dollar a day invested at 10% grows into $1,948,552.07 by age 65.

With that in mind, start an online savings account the day your child is born, or as soon as possible. My favorite is ING DIRECT’s Orange Savings Account. Based on the figure above take $30 a month and automatically have it transferred from your checking account to your child’s savings account monthly.

At the same time open an online investing account. I have Sharebuilder accounts for the kids and myself. This is a great way to start investing with small amounts of money. You can take the $30 from above and divide that into $15 for savings and $15 for investing. You can invest the $15 in any stock you would like. Remember there is a small fee to buy a share of stock. Sharebuilder has many articles to help you get started. If you start investing the day your child is born and enlist the help of your family and friends in the process, you will be amazed on how fast your baby’s investments will grow.

Ask the grandparents and family members to help you in securing your child's financial future, instead of buying your child gifts, toys and clothing. If they insist on a purchase, then ask them to split it and buy a smaller item and give you the rest to invest!

Then once your child is old enough to start learning about money -- which can be as young as two years old for understanding savings and five years old for investing -- you can sit with your kids and show them their accounts online. Kids get excited when they see their money growing. Then your child will understand that saving and investing is just what you do with a portion of your money.

If you spend the first 18 years of their life teaching them how to manage, understand and grow money, you will have taught your child one of the most important life lessons they will ever learn. This will truly set your children on the road to success and wealth, and secure their financial future.