Released: April 06, 2006

Teens lack financial literacy, says study

Source: By Barbara Hagenbaugh, USA Today

U.S. teenagers are making little headway when it comes to financial literacy, a survey out Wednesday shows.

High school seniors on average answered 52.4% of a 30-question financial survey correctly. That was up from 52.3% when the survey was last conducted two years ago but down from 57% in 1997, the first year for the survey, according to the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy.

“Financial literacy is still a very significant problem. It doesn’t seem to be getting any better,” says Lewis Mandell, a professor at SUNY Buffalo School of Management who oversaw the survey, which was conducted in December and January. It includes topics such as investing and managing personal finances.

He said the lack of knowledge was troubling given that today’s high school seniors likely will be more responsible for their own financial well-being when they retire given trends away from company pension plans and an uncertain future for Social Security benefits.

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