WHEN PARTS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN toward the end of last year, many Americans went without a paycheck or two. Crisis followed.
In 2015, a study published in the Journal of Human Resources found little evidence that education intended to improve people's financial decision-making is successful."Policies to expand high school financial literacy education ... may be misguided," the researchers concluded. The three richest people in the U.S. — Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett — now own more wealth than the bottom half of the American population. As medical, childcare and college costs take off, wages have sputtered. The median family income, after accounting for inflation, was $59,039 in 2016, little different than in it was in 2000 .
The George Washington University School of Business recently launched an online resource, Fast Lane, which provides certain people, including students and policy makers, specific directions for implementing high-quality financial literacy in their schools. Checkyourschool.org is another new project, by the non-profit Jump$tart Coalition, which invites parents and students to report how their school is faring when it comes to personal finance education.
"If every state in America would spend a little bit of time teaching financial literacy to high school students, we can begin to win a battle we've been losing for the last 40 to 50 years," Todd said.Practical Money Skills, a financial literacy platform created by Visa, includes interactive tools such as Financial Football, a 3D game in which players learn personal finance lessons as they try to score touchdowns.
"People view their future selves like a stranger," said Sarah Raposo, a researcher at the Stanford University's Life-span Development Laboratory."If we could help people understand they're preparing for themselves and caring for themselves, they might be more motivated to learn about financial planning."
"Talking about money gets kind of intimidating and pushes people away," Browning said."I try not to use a lot of jargon.Meet the CNBC Financial Wellness CouncilWomen more likely to leave finances to spousesAs personal finance advice proliferates, it also grows harder for people to pick out what's actually good for them, said Hensley, the president of the National Endowment for Financial Education.
CNBC Moderation is key. Too many people want to live beyond their means.
CNBC Sickening to think that financial literacy gets a longer month than Black History!