While I hope most will be looking forward to meeting new people and enjoying new opportunities in the coming months and years, many are worried about how they will manage their money and not get into trouble. They are right to be worried – our research last year showed almost three quarters of people in their late 20s made money decisions in their early years of adulthood which haunted them for years to come.

What are these money mistakes? For students it could be anything from not knowing how to budget to picking an account with poor graduate terms. New entrants to the job market can often struggle with earning less than they thought they did thanks to tax and national insurance contributions. Both need to navigate the confusing world of credit.  For many, this is the first time they have had any financial responsibility, and that is when mistakes are made.

Seventeen per cent of the population is over-indebted, with young people one of the group’s most likely to be, yet also least likely to seek help. Add all these people up and you’ve got a nation with a big problem on its hands.

At the Money Advice Service, we want to see a population with stronger financial capability skills, who save from an early age and understand how to budget; it is better for the economy and better for society.

There have been advances in recent years. It is now a year since financial education became compulsory in secondary schools in England, following the lead of the other countries in the UK. This was a huge step forward, but it is by no means enough.

Only last month ifs University College, an organisation which provides financial education qualifications, found 59 per cent of 15-16 year olds said they hadn’t received any financial education at school this year.

Financial education in schools doesn’t just need to be delivered for it to work, it also needs to be delivered well. That’s why we have recently set up an evaluation fund with the Education Endowment Foundation to identify what are the best ways to learn about money in the classroom that won’t be forgotten about a few years down the line.

We also cannot rely on secondary schools alone. There is a huge role for all of us to play in terms of making more visible the daily money decisions we all make. The biggest role however is for parents. Financial habits are picked up as early as the age of three. In fact, our research tells us that for children, many of the attitudes and behaviours we have an adult life are actually in place by the time the seven.

Children learn from little things such as saving pennies in a jar for something they want, or being included in the spending decisions parents make for the family shop. Once again though, there is still little evidence out there for parents to develop a better understanding of what works best. That’s why we are starting a pilot project with local organisations in Wales to see whether direct parental interventions can improve our children’s understanding from an early age.

Financial responsibility does not need to mean financial disaster, but only if we actively educate rather than shield the next generation from money and how to manage it.

Kirsty Bowman-Vaughan is young people policy manager at the Money Advice Service