Don't think that you have to wait for life to teach you all the lessons of money education. This could be a long time for you! Instead get yourself enrolled on some evening classes about managing debt and credit cards, or pick up a book on the topic of saving or investing. Attend an event with your local Better Business Bureau or Chamber of Commerce about starting your own business. Use a local business search to connect with small business owners and operators in your neighborhood. Go to a networking evening and let people know about you and what you are interested in. Any of these approaches can be supported through the internet and your local evening college so get hold of a prospectus and see what you courses you might be able to join.
Pick the brains of someone who you consider to be financially sound or even successful in terms of business or money or life experience. Ask them about the mistakes they have made and how they turned the situations around. You will be surprised to learn how often the person you approach will willingly give you some of their time or how they will reveal that for all they have achieved there were so many times when they lost it or had to start over again from scratch.
Is there a friend you can invite out for lunch in order to have some of their time to discuss and consider the way you have been approaching money management?
Handling cash is another great way to learn about money. Given how much you may have become used to using plastic cards to lead your life, the use of cash will be a new experience.
I recommend you start by monitoring your finances for a while until you know what the repeated patterns of earning and spending tend to be.
Once you have done this, take from your bank enough money to last you for one week. This might be the equivalent of your week's salary, or one quarter of what you are paid in a month.
Put the money in a bowl at home and each day take the majority of the cash with you out into the world. When you have to buy something use the cash. Do this at the shops, the fuel station, coffee bars, restaurants, book stores, anywhere you buy something. The physical act of handling the money makes it more real, more present in your life.
An interesting side effect of handling the cash is that you may discover you will spend less on items that you might unconsciously have bought previously and stuck on the credit card. You may discover yourself questioning whether that drink or item of food or clothing is really worth the amount of cash the shop might want you to handover. As a result you save the money for another day, giving yourself greater choice and more financial power.
Keep learning new skills, continue looking for new ways to earn and save the money you have.