Justin Chan

Economics

A Financially Illiterate NationOver the years, I’ve been collecting and hoarding approximately 40%~50% of the money I received

for presents, gifts, and the occasional award. Now, money is a very versatile and perhaps controversial

object. It can buy services, goods, needs, and gradually knowledge or skills. But does the money you

have measure the amount of hard work you’ve done to earn it? If children take their parent’s money,

what does that mean? The symbolism of money may be unclear, but the uses of it isn’t, at least it seems

that way to me. Money is involved in everything you do, whether it be waking up to an alarm, or driving

to the store. It’s everywhere.

One day during economics class, we were introduced to something called “Financial Literacy” which was

basically the knowledge of dealing with financial situations and your money. I never gave money much

thought other than that it was good if you earned it, and you were rewarded by working hard and saving

smart. With this in mind, all I did was save portions of my money and put it in the bank. Actually,

I didn’t even put it in the bank, I gave it to my Mom and asked her to do it for me. I honestly didn’t

know if it went to the checking or savings accounts, if at all. That class I realized, I know nothing! Not

to sound condescending or conceited, but some (keyword here is some) may think of me as an above

average kid or smart kid. But this topic alone I know very little about, so what about those around me?

Am I alone?

As the class went on, I thought about anything I knew that actually mattered in terms of financial matters.

Credit cards, banks, money... It all came back to money, but there are larger forces at work with what

happens to it. I knew that credit card companies were out to get your money, but if you paid more than

the minimum, and on time, everything was all good right? My parents never actually taught me anything,

nothing new in the regards. I couldn’t blame them for my financial illiteracy, if one wants to gain

knowledge, one must seek it.

During the period, we were given statistics and a news article pertaining to Financial Literacy Month.

One of the opening sentences of the news article said that you’re not alone if you’re a parent that hasn’t

talked to their children about the financial issues of life. In fact, “surveys indicate that parents are less

likely to discuss financial matters with their children than other, seemingly more difficult topics such as

drugs and sexual behavior.” I’ve never actually talked to my parents about either of those, nor have I

dabbled in them, but to not talk about a very serious matter of life that affects you no matter who you are,

what you are, less than those awkward situations seems pretty crazy.

I’m not the extreme philosophical guy to dabble on certain topics for more than a 5 minutes, so I decided

to learn more next class. But of course, during Algebra class, where our teacher gives the kids in class

some inside info on what’s what in the form of a slight rant, tells us that our financial education/literacy

class is being cut next year. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t even know we had one. But it did pertain to

me in the way that I knew very little, and that class was a wealth of information that was being buried and

cut off from me as well as other students. The class was apparently going to be spread apart to the math

department, as if they didn’t have enough classes to teach...

The students need to learn to be financially literate, just like reading. Two different things, but the same

concept altogether. The world runs on money, just like it runs on reading. And writing. Research shows

that teaching financial skills to students at an early age leads to money-management skills that “well into

adulthood”. It would be absolutely foolish to brush aside a topic so important. Yes, dumping a necessary

class on to a full department is considered brushing it aside. Some of the more basic but still very good

things that people do as a result of financial literacy is having fewer maxed out credit cards, having higher

savings, and paying debt on time.

In a survey in 2011, approximately 41% of Moms wanted to be more financially literate in order to pass

the knowledge onto their children. This statistic shows that even adults don’t know the ins and outs of

the financial world. Having a job, managing a budget, or having been or currently in a tough spot helps

alleviate the situation of being financially illiterate, perhaps to the point where they are in a healthy

situation. But there are still 53% of teens who want to learn more about managing money. Financial

literacy shouldn’t be a chore, it should be a way of thinking that is critical. The task falls on the hands

of parents at home, and teachers at school. A study shows that HALF of Americans are in debt. I don’t

know about you, but I’d rather learn now, in high school where I can, rather than later when it really

matters.