Parents out there you need to know! Most public high schools do not give your kids a practical financial education. In fact, they’ve been teaching roughly the same subjects for the last 50 years and financial education is not one of them. A lot has changed in 50 years. A little invention called the ‘computer’ or something like that. A global economy, an almost certain massive reduction of social security and pensions — yet they still teach the same subjects.

Young money problems include student credit card debt near record levels and reports showing that over one third of today’s youth will not have any ( $0 ) money saved in a retirement account in 2050. This causes them to have financial worries their entire life.

People that do not pick up a practical financial education could be 100% dependent on other people or the federal government for support. Does anybody still think SSI will even come close to paying the most basic bills when your children retire? Even today’s senior living on SSI can barley make it. Unless young people start to get a practical financial education many of them will have to work in their eighties, nineties, hundreds. They will never have the opportunity to retire let alone retire young.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” Martin Luther King Jr.

By not giving kids a practical financial education in school we are setting them up for the scenario described above. Financial education is the solution that will help a lot of people avoid a retirement money shortages, loosing their home in foreclosure and experiencing runaway student credit card debt. If high school adopted a practical financial education curriculum, it would give today’s youth the ability to get off to the right start financially.

Quiz: Of the group of two sentences what knowledge would you rather possess?

A. The ability to balance the neutrons from the periodic table of the elements.
B. The ability to choose what investment will be best for the future of your family.

A. Memorization of the exact date the French Revolution started.
B. Development of the financial education skills that will allow you to afford what you want now while planning for the future.

A. The ability to solve 1/(1+C)^D= 1-AC/B (1+C)^D + B/ (B-AC)
B. The ability to save thousands of dollars by knowing how to get your credit score above 720

Everyone knows the high school curriculum is not working and it probably will not change soon. I want it to but the system is a big boat and takes a while to change directions. So while I’m trying to motivate decision makers to start the turning process its up to all you parents to make sure you teach your kids about money.

You need to be aware and fully prepare your child for the financial real world. You wouldn’t give your keys to the car to your kids without drivers training. So why in the world would you send them out on their own without a financial education? Vince Shorb