Money can be a very tough subject for you and your kids, but you're probably doing something right if you're talking about it with them at all.

To help you start your kids on the right track, we're bringing in Nathan Dungan to help.

Dungan is an author, award-winning speaker and national expert on family finances and the effects of mass marketing on young people.

A top-performing financial advisor and vice president of marketing for a Fortune 500 financial services company, he founded Share-Save-Spend LLC, an organization that helps people of all ages develop and maintain healthy financial habits.

Dungan will offer insight drawn from his highly successful Share-Save-Spend approach to money. "Having a balanced approach to financial matters means aligning what you care about with how you use your money. While this sounds simple enough, it becomes seriously complicated by the compounding pressure on young people to spend, spend, spend, and to reach for an upscale lifestyle," Dungan said.

Each week, Dungan will offer advice on how parents can create financial values in their children.

Dungan will offer a Share-Save-Spend tip, a question to prompt money discussions with your children, and a gotta-have-it-now fact that illustrates the incredible influence mass marketing has on our children.

Here's Dungan's third column.

This year in America young people age 18 and under will spend and influence the spending of more than $1 trillion. So it should come as no surprise that consumer product companies spend billions of dollars each year trying to shape and influence the spending habits of children.

A recent national survey of kids in the U.S. ages 8 to 12 asked the following question: which of the following would you consider an advertisement? The survey gave the kids several examples (TV commercials, billboards, logos on clothing, cartoons based around a toy, etc.) and asked them to agree or disagree that it was some form of advertising. Ninety-one percent of kids said a TV commercial was an advertisement, but less than 50 percent believed a cartoon based around a toy was also some form of advertising.

As a parent, you can counter the advertising onslaught by raising your child’s Marketing IQ. Consider spending time together dissecting the various forms of advertising. By doing so you will help your child understand the messages and techniques companies use to trigger a spending behavior. I feel so strongly about this issue that I devote an entire chapter to it in my book. Remember, it’s easier to help a child develop healthy financial habits than it is to unravel bad ones.

How can you minimize the impact of advertising campaigns that target children?

The Money Talks question is designed to build on the Share-Save-Spend tip for the week and can be used as a springboard for additional conversations with family and friends.

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If you have comments or questions for Dungan, click here.