When you’re twenty-something, you don't have a clue about how quickly you get to be 40, and how the choices you make while you're young can have a powerful and long-lasting influence on your chances for financial success.

These days, easy access to credit and escalating costs for higher education are leading many young people to take on unprecedented and worrisome levels of debt. At the same time, economic trends and global competition are working against them as they strive to reach the standard of living enjoyed by their parents’ generation. So they need all the financial education they can get.

Yet, in spite of the high stakes, most high school and college students receive little or no practical preparation for crucial financial decisions that can affect the rest of their lives. This recent Associated Press (AP) headline summarizes the situation all too well: "High School Seniors' Financial Know-How Goes From Bad to Worse." See Article.

The Challenge of Improving Financial Literacy

Financial knowledge is critically important in our everyday lives, yet few Americans at any age receive adequate financial education unless they specialize in a financial field.

Young adults, in particular, often don’t have the knowledge and skills they need to make good spending decisions, use credit wisely, or work toward financial security by saving and investing. As consumers, they are no match for credit card companies, car dealers and hordes of unscrupulous marketers that use every trick in the book to separate them from their money and saddle them with debt.

Learning from your mistakes is one way to get a financial education, but the school of hard knocks can exact a very heavy price.That painful lesson is now becoming real to millions of Americans who are in danger of losing their homes and having their credit destroyed because they failed to understand the dangers of adjustable rate mortgages...or believed that real estate prices can only go higher.

Of course, there's no shortage of books and magazines on personal finance, money management, and investing. But how many young people are motivated to educate themselves about personal finance? And how would they know where to start?

MONEYSCHOOL is working on innovative ways to introduce some basic financial education into the busy lives of young adults. Check back in the future for more information.