Millennials struggle with financial literacy

...Obviously a chart like this doesn’t predict how any particular individual is going to do later in life. But this is the kind of chart parents should be talking about with their high school and college age kids. Many of the students I meet don’t have any idea what kind of income they can hope to earn right after college. They don’t know what it costs to live — to pay rent, pay utility bills, eat, run a car and so on. They don’t know how much money the government takes out of your paycheck (hint, kids: it is more than you think, more maybe than you can conceive), and they have no idea what their monthly student loan repayment bills will look like or how those costs will affect the rest of their budgets.
Many college professors try to give students some ideas about these facts of life, but really this is something best taught by parents. When I was a kid, sex was the subject that parents rarely discussed with their kids, but money was something you had to understand. These days, the subjects seem to have flipped: students are much more likely to come to college with an abundance and perhaps even a surfeit of knowledge about sex. About money on the other hand… not so much.
Money shouldn’t be the only thing you think about when choosing a college major or a career, but neither is it the only thing you should know nothing about and blindly ignore. As parents and students around the country sit around the kitchen table and ponder their college decisions this year, a look at the Chronicle chart might help focus the conversation.

Charge it and forget it!

Millennials struggle with financial literacy [usatoday.com]

"Studies show that a majority of young people in the United States have poor financial literacy, a trend that has been consistent over the past decade and shows few signs of improving. This at a time when young adults face a difficult job market and more personal debt, and yet must take greater responsibility for their financial future."

"Today's twentysomethings hold an average debt of about $45,000, which includes everything from cars to credit cards to student loans to mortgages, according to a PNC financial independence survey released last month."

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Take the quiz if you get a chance, it's painfully simple.

Really, managing finances is just simple math. Creating a budget is no more than laying out future expected income and expenses. When I was in HS, which wasn't long ago, we did take a "HomeEc" type class which involved budgeting, but it was frankly stupid, and budgeting is just common sense. It doesn't require a class. "If I get paid $300 a week, and I have a $1000/month rent, can I really afford that $100 cell phone bill?" Really people?

The irony of this particular story is that the "cover girl" is using an ipad to look up a recipe in a niche deli while complaining that she doesn't have the capacity to add and subtract.

I personally think this has a lot to do with it.

Times are considerably easier now than they were say back in the 50s. A lot more kids these days get a lot more things than I did when I was young so IMO they have an opinion that money is easy to come by when for most it isn't. I was taught at a young age that if I wanted something to go work and get it. As a result I had a job since I was 12 years old. As a teenager in the summer working around 80 hrs a week, etc. I knew money wasn't easy to come by but having it was fun, not to mention I generally had fun well paying jobs! I didn't know what lobster tasted like until college, among other things. Up until I could drive I thought a "steak" was a larger hamburger patty next to some mashed potatoes. These days a lot of kids seem to get a lot more "luxurious" things than previous generations. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I'd want the best for my kid too, but not at the expense of teaching them the value of $$.

Do you take better care of something that seems to come easy or hard???

I distinctly recall valuing items in terms of hours worked when I was in HS or college. For example if a new bike was $300, that was at least 1 week's worth of work. On the smaller scale, stuff like McD's could be 2-3 hours of work (take home). That really put a lot in perspective.

I personally think this has a lot to do with it.

Times are considerably easier now than they were say back in the 50s. A lot more kids these days get a lot more things than I did when I was young so IMO they have an opinion that money is easy to come by when for most it isn't. I was taught at a young age that if I wanted something to go work and get it. As a result I had a job since I was 12 years old. As a teenager in the summer working around 80 hrs a week, etc. I knew money wasn't easy to come by but having it was fun, not to mention I generally had fun well paying jobs! I didn't know what lobster tasted like until college, among other things. Up until I could drive I thought a "steak" was a larger hamburger patty next to some mashed potatoes. These days a lot of kids seem to get a lot more "luxurious" things than previous generations. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I'd want the best for my kid too, but not at the expense of teaching them the value of $$.

Do you take better care of something that seems to come easy or hard???