Posted on 07/10/2014 10:17:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Score another one for Chinese teenagers, who leave U.S. kids in their dust when it comes to knowing how to handle money. That's the latest anxiety-producing statistic (for American parents, anyway) to emerge out of a newly released international study of the financial habits of roughly 29,000 teens from countries as far flung as Australia, China, Colombia, France, Israel, Russia, Spain, and the U.S.
The goal of this first-ever international study of financial literacy, conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, was to gauge the financial know-how of 15-year-olds worldwide. Many of the teenagers have reached or are nearing the end of their required schooling, and must now decide whether to pursue a job or university education.
The study aims to see if teens are prepared to make such decisions about their financial futures at a time when a middle-class lifestyle no longer seems guaranteed. "Shrinking welfare systems, shifting demographics, and the increased sophistication and expansion of financial services have all contributed to a greater awareness of the importance of ensuring that citizens and consumers of all ages are financially literate," write the study's authors.
The results? Many teens still fall woefully behind in understanding financial instruments, institutions, and the best basic ways to build wealth. Among the study's startling data points:
· Just one in 10 of the students surveyed could answer the toughest financial-literacy questions on the 2012 survey, such as the impact of income-tax brackets on people's finances.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...
NOTE:
* Teenagers in China scored the highest averages on the financial-literacy portion of the test,
* This is followed by kids in Belgium, Estonia, Australia, and New Zealand.
* American teens were firmly in the middle, ranked ninth on the financial-literacy section out of 18 OECD economies and countries.
* They can take small solace in the fact that Russian and Italian kids know even less about managing money than they do.
Is economics taught in high school? It wasn’t when I was a teenager. It was said to be “too depressing.” Little wonder we are a nation of such great indebtedness.
Unfortunately they take their lead from their parents.
Shrinking welfare systems? Where would this be? Certainly not in the US...
Probably their parents are very poor money managers living from paycheck to paycheck with an I Phone for every family member on an expensive monthly plan and an expensive new car payment.
Their parents probably voted for Obama for hope and change and free medical care. They are finding out there is no hope for them, no change left after paying the bills, and they have to pay for Obama care with higher monthly premiums and high deductibles.
Their parents had several years of worthless new math and now the kids get their worthless math from Common Core.
Maybe teens need to attend Ramsey’s Financial Peace University with their parents.
Many churches sponsor this program.
I can think of 535 or so adults that can’t handle money at all
It may not matter very soon. We may not have any real money at all.
He makes two programs specifically for use in school: one for middle school and on for high school. My wife just added it for her high school starting next year.
All anyone needs to know is that kids whose parents allow them to pay $30 grand per year in tuition or whose parents dig into their own retirement to do so , for the kids to attend history or humanities and cone out hungover, despising America, are $50 G in debt and jobless and stupid, continue to do so
Parents still think a kid needs a summer job to learn how to handle
Money. Parents who allow their kids to incur a $50 G college debt
Life guarding for the summer does what for a $38 thousand dollar tuition?
As long as parents continue to pretend that tuition prices are normal and not set by the government and the bill ayers types working together, there will be stupidity passed down
But it most definitely comes from the parents.
Imagine a depression era parent expecting a government school to teach his child about handling money
All parents need to do is tell their child in eighth grade that the child has to pay for his own college as it’s the right way to go about it. And nothing to do with how much money the family has
That kid figures out money how to make it what to do with it very quickly
And they watch closely what the parent does with his own money. The kid doesn’t listen to a word the parent says about money. The kid is not open to hypocrisy. He watches how the parent handles money
So what I get from this headline is parents can’t manage money
Heck. Any young adult who looks at a paycheck knows 25% comes off to pay for these stupid parents who pretend their so generous paying for part of college, not taking care of retirement, watching for the kids to help them in old age
People need to stop dumping on kids and just teach them how to get out of this baby boomer government dependent mess
Now, that’s what I meant to say but it took me 8 paragraphs
Also, is there any political bias in the test? Being that it is from the OECD, is there a bias towards socialism and nationalization where it is possible to give an answer favoring freedom and get counted wrong?
That’s OK. We have new teens flooding across the border everyday.
Their. - they’re
And the 25% comes out for social security that the kid knows they’ll never see
Well, clearly the obvious answer is to spend more of our finances on the public schools.
Since they return a great dividend on investment.
Same here, no economics taught in school although it should be. One thing my wife and I taught our kids: try to not pay interest for anything unless you're making more money by doing so. As a result they're debt free in their thirties owning property with no debt. They buy their cars in cash and no loans. Other kids don't understand that paying interest to others is a sucker's game. We have loaned money to relatives, where they make more in profits from their venture than the interest they pay back to us. Kids need to be taught economics in order to succeed in life.
There is no financial education presently in the public schools. It was replaced sex ed and social engineering.
And just what is an American kid nowadays? Would someone who crosses the border illegally be considered an American kid?
The collective IQ of our nation is declining. So the premise of this article is not surprising. Sad, but true.
Some thing that American parents haven’t complained about since 1950?
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