Teens Lack Financial Knowledge
I read an interesting article in USA Today about teens in American lacking financial knowledge. The findings were actually quite frightening.
Apparently, according to the study, high school seniors could only answer about half of the questions correctly on a 30 question financial survey. Minorities and students from lower income families scored even lower on the test. There was not much of a difference in scores between genders.
The reason this is potentially such a problem is that by the time these teenagers reach retirement, they will most likely be responsible for their own financial stability and won’t have the luxury of relying on Social Security to take care of them. If they know nothing about investing or personal finance, how are they supposed to plan and prepare for the future?
Also, the results of this survey are significant for these teens now, not just when they reach retirement. It is increasingly easy for young people to get credit cards and accumulate debt, and if they don’t understand personal finance, how are they going to make wise decisions that will build a solid financial foundation? With many credit card companies offering attractive deals to first time card holders, it can be easy to slip into debt if you don’t know what you are doing.
This study shows the importance of becoming financially literate. While finances can get incredibly complicated, it isn’t hard to learn the basics of investing, saving, credit cards, taxes, and so forth. Take the time to educate yourself or your children about these issues so that they, and you, can have a successful and secure future!
credit, credit cards, debt, finances, financial survey, personal finance, Personal Finance, retirement credit, credit cards, debt, finances, financial survey, personal finance, Personal Finance, retirement
May 9th, 2006 at 6:35 pm
[…] Today, who holds the responsibility of teaching young adults (and even children) financial preparedness? Is it the public school where your children currently attend or is it you, the parent? Nowadays it seems to me that parents leave it to the public schools to educate their children on academics as well as real life situations. The problem: laziness and lack of teaching your children important principles will leave them looking elsewhere for information. They will pick up common trends and could even be misinformed. Such information could really hurt and leave a negative impact on them later on in life, whether it be emotionally, mentally, or physically. Besides teaching verbally, the best possible way to teach is by being an example. […]