WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO TEACH FINANCIAL LITERACY TO YOUR CHILDREN BEFORE COLLEGE
One of the most valuable lessons a child or teenager can receive is instruction on how to handle their finances – not just for today, but for decades to come. The key to making smart financial decisions stems from knowledge and experience, and many young adults lack both.
Educating our youth in financial literacy is a key challenge for parents, teachers, and the education system in general. Despite its importance in a teen’s future, financial literacy doesn’t get the attention it deserves. As teens prepare for college, many of them haven’t learned the necessary financial basics. Why is that?
There Is a Vacuum in Financial Literacy Education
While awareness has increased recently, financial literacy is still an underserved education topic in middle schools, high schools, and even at home.
To put it in perspective, the United States ranked 7 out of 15 countries who participated in an international financial literacy test for high school students. The Treasury Department claimed less than a third of adults were ever offered a financial literacy course through high school and college. A 2012-13 financial literacy exam revealed that young adults scored an average 58% with only about a quarter of participants scoring over a 70%.
Furthermore, some studies show that parents neglect to talk about money matters such as paying bills, saving money, budgeting, and more with their kids. One report showed that 69% of parents were reluctant to discuss money with their children. The same report indicated that only 23% of kids reported talking to their parents about money often.
Why Is It Such a Big Deal?
Experience is the best teacher, right? It normally would be if the consequences weren’t so severe and far-reaching. When a teenager turns 18, the world opens to them, and so does the potential for disastrous financial decisions.
New environments, such as a college dorm or their first apartment, can lead to poor choices when they aren’t educated about money matters. They may apply for credit cards and use them irresponsibly. Not to mention, many young adults take out student loans without much thought to paying them later. Many neglect to build a savings account.
According to the Financial Educators Council, 39% of adults don’t have any non-retirement savings. 56% of adults don’t have a budget, and tellingly, 76% of college students wanted more help preparing for their financial futures. At the same time,
Some of those early money mistakes
could be avoided if teens knew more about financial matters when they began
their adult life. A few bad mistakes could lead to bad credit or a huge amount
of debt that could take them years to clean up.
Get It Right
Early On
It pays to get it right the first time. The earlier referenced Treasure Department report also claimed that adults who were offered financial education also had greater net worth, higher rates of saving, and larger regular retirement account contributions.
Financial literacy education doesn’t need to be complicated, and covering the basics is a good place to start. Here are just a few general habits to discuss.
Proper Credit Building Habits
Teens should learn the basics of credit cards, credit score, and credit building. They should understand how a credit card works and why you need to spend with it. They should know how to pay off a credit card balance and what happens when missing a payment. And they need to know how interest rates increase their expenses. All these lessons can be applied to other forms of debt.
Furthermore, understanding how debt levels, regular payments, and missed payments impact their credit score. On top of that, explain what a credit score means and how it impacts decisions for the future.
Basic Budgeting and Savings Skills
Knowing what a credit score is important, but it’s equally important to build finance management skills in general. These skills include learning how to cut expenses, saving money to pay bills on time, and how to manage multiple obligations. It can give your child the motivation to stay within their budget because they’ll know that overspending can lead them into serious debt over time.
Learning
how to save money goes together with budgeting. This starts with opening a bank
account and devoting a percentage of a paycheck or allowance to it. Learning
about the importance of saving money is also a stepping block to understanding
retirement accounts, emergency savings, and more.
Building a Future of Knowledge
Unlike some subjects in college and high school, financial literacy education instills lifelong skills to be used throughout your career. A foundation of financial knowledge will help young adults avoid making costly, derailing mistakes and instead make constructive, proactive decisions for the future. A little education now could also be a springboard for further curiosity. It could inspire your child to keep self-educating themselves about finances in the years to come.
Andrew is a Content Associate for LendEDU – a website that helps consumers, college graduates, high school students, small business owners, and more with their finances.
Balancing the Pressures of Life as an Adult College Student and Parent
Leaving the Stress at School
College is a lot of work. With classes to attend, papers to write, homework to complete, and notes to write, it can be more stressful than a full time job. Being a parent is also a full time job. You must feed your children, keep them clean, teach them about the world around them, and pay attention to them. When you combine the pressures of college with the stresses of parenting, you end up with what sometimes seems like an unbearable amount of stress.
Maintaining our mental and physical health is so important, but this can be difficult to accomplish when you are so busy. If you make healthy lifestyle choices you will have an easier time focusing and putting quality work into the activities in which you partake (as a parent, and a student). One of the most important things you can do for yourself is to find ways to de-stress. In order to give both your studies and your children the quality care and attention they deserve, this article shares some tips on how you can optimize your time and reduce your stress! Your physical, mental, and emotional health must be optimal to ensure that you provide quality care to your child and are still able to fully dedicate yourself to school. Here are some specific ways in which you can ensure that you’re in peak physical and mental condition.
Get Enough Sleep
You can’t mix work and sleep. Don’t do homework or classwork in your bedroom, in other words, you should dedicate that room to rest and relaxation. You should also avoid doing work within an hour before bed. This will help get your mind in a relaxed place ready to “turn off” for the night. Getting a proper amount of sleep is extremely important to ensure that you are healthy and well-rested, if you are exhausted, you won’t be able to focus on your studies.
Establishing a bedtime routine, keeping your sleeping space cleaned, taking cbd oils, or meditating can be a great way to ease yourself to sleep. As a parent, it may be very hard to get enough sleep, as children tend to keep parents up all night. Taking some of these steps to ensure that you get some solid sleep will make a world of difference in how you can perform when you are awake.
Take Time For Yourself
Along with getting a good night’s sleep, it also helps to take time for yourself each day while you are awake. Having a skincare routine, taking baths, and reading are great ways to have time to yourself while also taking a break from the day and being productive at the same time. We all need time without our children that are not spent in the classroom sometimes. Make sure you still carve out time to spend time with friends and family to give you a social outlet too. Having someone else watch your children is good for you, and actually really good for them as it allows them to become familiar and comfortable with other people.
Watch Your Health
On a busy day when you have been in class, driven all over the town and picked up all the kids, it is so easy to grab fast food and forget about exercising. In reality, you so badly need the proper energy to keep up with everything going on in your life. Nutritious foods will keep you full and keep your body working well. Lots of fast foods can weaken your immune system, and you will be more likely to fall ill and miss work, school, and quality time with your children.
On the same hand, you should strive to stay in good shape! There are many online workout routines that you can do right from home, but going to the gym may be a good way to have some alone time. Watching your health will set a good example for your children, and you will teach them from a young age that eating well and exercising properly is important.
Keep Your Children Busy
While you are at school, your children could take part in a sport, music class, or other hobby. It can be really beneficial for them to learn a skill now – one that they may take with them throughout life. Many colleges also offer childcare services, so contact your college to see if they have any such programs. Keeping children busy can help to educate them while you are receiving an education yourself. It’s a win-win situation!
Spend Time with Them
Taking time for yourself should never make you feel guilty, because a g and have enough time to focus on your studies, you can’t miss too much quality time with your children. The relationship that a child has with its parent carries throughout all of their life, and how you and your child interact now can set them up for success in the future. Go to the zoo, take them to the park, and play games with them. Explore new places with them. This will really help your children to get the most out of their childhood, and they will be incredibly grateful for that in the future.
This guest post is contributed by Piper McIntosh. You can reach her at piperlmcintosh@gmail.com.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Gains $5 Million in State Funds
Governor Mike DeWine signed a new State of Ohio budget into law last week, which includes funds to support Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
The budget grants $5 million to support Imagination Library across the state. The funds will cover a portion of the cost of books and mailing. This support helps pave the path for every child under the age of five in Cuyahoga County and the State of Ohio to receive a brand new, age-appropriate book in the mail every month. The program is free for families.
Bob Paponetti, CEO and President of The Literacy Cooperative, spoke with WTAM’s Mike Snyder and Bill Wills Wednesday morning about this important step toward increasing early literacy and promoting a love of reading.
“It’s clear that this is changing what’s happening in the home,” Paponetti said. “Families are reading more together as a result of getting these books.
This is the first time Ohio’s Imagination Library program has had provisions in the state budget.
Listen to the full interview below and sign up for the program here.