Should Teens Learn About Money Management?

High school education devote years teaching English, Science and Math, but some spend a maximum of just one semester for Financial Management. A lot of adults actually think that financial literacy is the most important thing in a person’s life, compared to any other subject or course offered in high school. Could grammar really teach you how to save up for the future? Will Science give you information about the proper retirement fund to take? No and no.

Statistics also back this up. According to a study from the National Financial Educators Council, over 50 percent of Americans they surveyed in at least three studies think that money management is important than most high school subjects. The question was: “What high school-level course would benefit your life the most?” Those surveyed were aged 18 and 24. The respondents chose Math as a distant second with around 18 percent of respondents choosing it as the most important subject taught in high school. Ranking third is Science with 17 percent.

Good thing high schools are now getting caught up with the study. According to the Council for Economic Education’s annual survey, 17 states in the US are now requiring public high school students to take up personal finance classes before graduating. Hopefully, other states will follow suit. But 17 states is already an improvement considering that just 20 years ago, only the state of Illinois require financial literacy courses.

It’s also a nice indication that some demands come from the students themselves. In the case of Rhode Island, high school students have said that financial literacy classes have been more important to them than the various Math lessons they have received. They themselves asked that money management should become a requirement before they graduate high school. They think it’s a crucial subject in their everyday lives especially when they achieve legal status. Everything else taught in school can be googled on their phones. But knowing how to spend money and how to manage it is something entirely different and one that cannot be searched online.

Every adult knows that money management is hard, especially when there is not a lot of money to manage. This is why it is important that we start our children young. As soon as our children understand the concept of money, they should be allowed to learn about money. The teenage years are probably the best time to incorporate fiscal literacy in their knowledge. This way, they have a more mature understanding of the concept. Also, a lot of high school students have their own jobs, which makes it all the more important for them to know about fiscal management.

Since college education is very expensive in the US, it is also a nice touch that high school students will be given an option on how to pay for their college education. The easiest way and the more popular procedure is to take out a loan, of course. But if high school students are taught about money management, they would have the foresight to manage their money to make student loan payments easier in the future. Not only that, the biggest money issue in the US right now is on retirement funds. Do American seniors have enough money when they retire? Well, if they managed their money right when they were younger, then they certainly will have enough.