New Push To Erase Financial Illiteracy Among Youth

| Oct 20, 2006 | Comments 1

If you are a parent and if this article doesn’t make you uncomfortable – I don’t know what will.  Financial illiteracy among our youth is rampant.  The majority of college seniors have 4 or more credit cards and the average college senior carries a credit card balance of $3000; one in every 10 college students have more than $7000 of debt; and many college students pay more in interest on their credit cards than their student loans. 

If you don’t teach them early – your 22 year commitment to room and board will turn into 30 or 35 years. 

 

Source: Market Watch
by Thomas Kistigen

National Council on Economic Education (NCEE)  surveys show that nearly half of the young people in America don’t understand how to save and invest for retirement nor how to handle credit cards and don’t know the difference between inflation and recession nor how government spending affects them.

If we fail to act now to improve economic literacy in this country, our children will be at risk for crippling personal debt, costly decisions at work and at home, and lack competitive skills in a fast-paced global economy,” NCEE says.  

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Filed Under: Personal Finance 101 • Young Investors

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  • Mike R

    Both parent *and* child need to be in the same class together. The adults don’t seem to know more about a budget than the child.

    I’ll admit though, I had one of the starter credit cards in college. It was sinking feeling realizing that lunch at Wendy’s ended up being paid off 5 years later.