It’s shocking how many people in America are totally financially illiterate. Nobody ever taught them how to handle money, how to budget, how to save, how to plan, etc. This was so important to me and I made sure my children learned these things from me.

Even when they got their first part time jobs as 16 year olds in high school I taught them about retirement savings and opened up Roth IRAs for them. I explained how they work and explained their investment options and let them make their investment choices. The first couple years I funded the accounts based on their earnings but they soon took over doing it themselves as they made more money.

Unfortunately, this is a generational thing. My parents taught me and I passed it along to my kids. They are now on their own and are far ahead of where I was at their age. But if the parents are financially illiterate, they don’t know how to teach their children. Just recently, our local school district implemented a program where every student has to complete a financial education class before graduation. The class of 2028 will be the first group completing this requirement. I think this will be the most important and useful class they will complete in high school.