The findings appear to lend credence to the suspicion that too many Thais go through life without ever learning about financial discipline or saving for unforeseen emergencies, let alone building a nest egg for retirement. Savings and financial independence are never an issue for many people because they know they can always borrow from parents, siblings or relatives, not only to get by but also to indulge in overspending and conspicuous consumption.

Indeed, the poll also confirms this, saying that 43 per cent of people with cash-flow problems usually borrow from relatives and friends, while the rest take out personal loans from commercial banks, borrow through cash advances from credit-card companies or turn to loan sharks. This financial interdependence is characteristic of many households in this country, regardless of their economic or social standing.

This lack of financial discipline has been so widespread that it is considered commonplace. It must be one of the enduring legacies of the traditional extended family, which is fast becoming a thing of the past as it is increasingly being replaced by the typical single family of today.

In the past, the traditional extended family served as a sort of social safety net for family members in need of quick cash or financial support. But that was before the ravaging forces of modernisation and urbanisation transformed the country, both economically and socially.

Because of its small size, the nuclear family's ability to serve as the lender of last resort, as it has in the past, is now limited. Each family unit has to take care of its own members.

Responsible parents in each family have to make sure their children get the best start in life, and continue to have access to good opportunities, including a positive environment to grow up in as well as quality education, until they can become financially independent. They also have to make provisions for their retirement years.

In the aftermath of the 1997 economic crisis, the family's role as a safety net has become even more limited.

But it seems that old habits die hard.

Although a lack of financial discipline can negatively affect people in all age- and income-groups, lower-income earners tend to suffer the most because they have little cash and fewer assets as well as lower earning potential to start off with. For them, a failure to balance their books could mean financial ruin that would subject family members to destitution. It is well known among social workers that the majority of social problems, from broken homes to crime and poverty, start out innocuously enough as occasional money problems, which, if left unattended, could escalate into chronic indebtedness, and add to the stresses of everyday life. Once household debt is allowed to accrue it could condemn a poor, undisciplined family and its members to a poverty trap from which they may never recover.

Families can avoid this fate by getting help in the form of financial planning counselling, such as those that some government agencies, including the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, have introduced over the past few years. These programmes were designed to provide training in personal finances particularly to those in the lower-income brackets, as part of the effort to encourage saving, reduce indebtedness and ensure financial stability.

These programmes teach people the basics of personal financial planning - including budgeting, savings, investing, retirement, and insurance - which when used widely should lead to financial security that will bring about peace of mind, promote better relationships among family members of the household as well as strengthen familial bonds. If the family is considered the most basic building block of the society, improving a household's financial security will help strengthen the country's economic fundamentals and the happiness of untold millions. Money cannot buy happiness, but lack of money worries will make the pursuit much easier.