Do you believe that most teenagers fresh out of high school are financially literate?

If not, what are some of the things we can do in order to alleviate this problem?Do you believe that most teenagers fresh out of high school are financially literate?
Not at all. I think all high schoolers should take a personal finance class. Topics in the class could include balancing a checkbook, basic investments, benefits to contributing to a retirement account early, responsible use of credit cards, and the effect that a poor credit score can have on your financial future.Do you believe that most teenagers fresh out of high school are financially literate?
Stop with your contrarian views on credit Bulldog. You speak as if we all came out of high school with a silver spoon in our mouths. How on earth are you supposed to save up money to buy a car (instead of getting a loan) when I need the car to get to work to make money?





How hard is a lender going to laugh in someone's face when they ask to have a loan manually underwritten when the person has zero credit because he's scared of Credit scores like yourself.





We don't all live in 3 story communes like you do hippy. These credit scores are in place for a reason. I'd like to see how long you'd last at a bank manually underwriting 500,000 loans to people off the street.





Teens are massively under-informed when it comes to the topic of personal finance. Back in Bulldog's day the most you'd get out of a Cons. Ed class was how to balance a checkbook. The world of finance has grown into everyday life faster than it has in the classroom.





They should be taught about :


Retirement


Investing


Mortgages


Credit.........take a refresher Bulldog


Common Ratios


Hazards...ie Adjustable Rates for mortgages......Enron debacle
They need to learn how to live on less money than they make and not worship at the alter of the almighty fico (I love debt) score. It will bring nothing but debt.





Banks spend millions brainwashing people into thinking they need to have a high fico score to make it in todays world. That's total hog wash.





Credit cards, along with the fico score was designed by banks to get people into debt and keep them in debt.





You have to borrow money and make payments on time to get a high I love debt score so that you can go out and borrow more money and make more payments on time. You have to keep borrowing money and keep making payments to keep a high score.





Stay away form car payments. you will never get ahead financially with payments. Save up for a good used cash car. Put the money that would have been your payments in the bank for an emergency fund. That way you don't have to borrow money in the event of an emergency.





The only time that you might have to borrow money is for a home. You can do that without a fico score. It's called manual underwriting. It's not a sub prime loan. It's the way home loans were givin' before all the fico score worship. You can get the lowest interest rates out there.
no, goto college
Absolutely not. I think we (as americans) in general shy away from math and it's applications. I think algebra II should integrate some financial aspects, since at the very least the basic formulas of compounding and time value of money should be workable for the students by year end. That way most school's con-ed programs will have some wiggle room to tackle more relevant issues besides such drab and contrite economic fundamentals. Elasticity models and pricing theories really do not teach the children things that will be relevant to many of their lives. I think a more prudent lesson would be how and why they need to begin saving early and how to build and maintain good credit scores would be much more valuable lessons.