What You Don't Know Won't Hurt You | Teen Ink

What You Don't Know Won't Hurt You

May 22, 2018
By Anonymous

“If knowledge is power, Then what you don’t know can hurt you”, The current lack of financial literacy in the United States is causing many different problems for people to live out their life, and retire not needing to worry about money.This is also reinforced by the fact that around 33% of all americans don’t pay their bills on time, the 39% of all americans that carry credit card debt, and the 38 million americans living paycheck to paycheck.I personally think the lack of financial literacy, and the current economic problems currently found in America is a direct correspondence, it’s a trap, but would you fall for it if you saw it?
  

Why the lack of financial literacy inside the U.S is currently increasing with generations, but the problem has not been properly addressed in years.The problem is overlooked by many other and more emotional topics, more current topics instead of a more long lasting and a more strongly emotion topic.How could you address a problem you don’t even know about?The reason this economic problem is highly overlooked is because
Currently economics is a subject people want to avoid, money is something people work for in order to live, we depend on money inside our community, most people boast or most people say nothing 
The lack of financial literacy is more of a independent problem, the causes of it are your own personal choices, there is not a solution to help everyone with it.


Financial literacy has no value to people and when they find out about how important it is, it is already too late for them to do anything about it in order to improve their current standpoint in the community
Parents most likely have never sat down with their kids and talked about this topic towards them, most likely due to the fact that, it is actually very unlikely for parents to do so, due to the amount of work or the amount of overall things they have on their bucket list.
   

The problem is more complicated than actually presented.The Lack of financial literacy, is basically walking in a forest blind, alone trying to find your way out, sure you can use your hands or just go straight but most people never get out.The lack of financial literacy is behind
Why people can’t retire, due to the fact that they didn’t understand how to handle their money
Why people are currently wasting years of their lives trying to pay of debt, most commonly mortgage
Why in America, one of the biggest and economically strongest nation, is currently dealing with an addressed problem, the lack of financial literacy, inside it’s walls
The reason we need to understand this is because of these reasons
Money will never come to anyone normally, only by work or connections
Company pensions and social security aren’t as reliable anymore, due to 401K.
The government will tax you for the rest of your life, after reaching college or getting to live on your own
Most debt starts with student loans, car loans, credit card loans, and mortgage, which comes
    My solution to the problem,The answer i want to present is a class entirely dedicated to financial literacy, as a elective to people that are between the ages of 12 to 18, from middle school to high school.
The reasoning behind this is simple
At this age most people normally don’t have to worry about debt, due to the fact that they’re still living with their parents so they can actually have a great start in life
The younger generation could teach the generations to come, this would also cause better overall choices in teens
The younger generation are currently growing, the amount of stress and the amount of work they have to do is close to nothing unless you’re counting TPSP or homework
The effects this will have on them will stay with them if they decide to use the information, this class is also going to help the younger generation have better discipline over money and what they could and would do with it
 

Why my solution would work, The solution i’ve provided is even further reinforced by a study that did a very similar event.


A study performed during march of 2015 showed, or recorded the results of financial literacy classes in separate states texas, georgia, and Idaho. The effects of these classes were phenomenal.They recorded the credit scores of all the students currently taking the classes and they found out that Georgia with a 10.89 point increase, Idaho with a 16.19 point increase, and texas with a 31.71 point increase. They also recorded the decrease of 90 day delinquencies the results are presented below, Georgia with a 9.9% decrease, Idaho with a 15.6% decrease
Texas with a 32.6% decrease.
 

The Lack of financial literacy  is more contrasted and is currently growing to this day, the lack of financial literacy causes problems for basically everyone who doesn't understand it or do not have a clue on what it is in general.

 


The answer is still simple in my eyes presented with the situation, the fact that we could overall better the american people with some class that could be taken for about a semester while you're still at a young age could change how your life goes.The fact that the new generation could live a debt free life, and retire at a young age is highly impacting towards me, that's why i think we should have a class teaching financial literacy, so they don’t have to fall in the same hole that the people before us did.



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