If one good thing has come out of 2022, it’s that a growing number of states are making personal finance/financial literacy classes a requirement for kids to graduate from high school. One could make the argument that personal finance will be the single most important class they ever take.
Just imagine a world where students learn things like budgeting instead of ancient French literature. Crazy, I know!
States with recently passed personal finance legislation
Georgia recently passed legislation mandating that all high school students take a financial literacy course in order to graduate high school. Currently, they are the 13th state to do so.
They join Florida, Nebraska, Rhode Island, and Ohio, who have all passed similar legislation in the past year. Several other states have also begun drafting legislation aiming to improve financial literacy among high school students.
The fight for financial literacy continues
According to the Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) Annual State of Financial Education report, 22.7% of students will be offered a standalone personal finance course in 2022, with an estimate of 32.5% in the near future. This is up from 16.4% nationwide in 2018, amounting to almost a 100% increase.
This work is far from over. The data shows that nearly 8 out of 10 students receive no standalone personal finance class at any point in high school, currently. This is simply unacceptable, and can clearly be linked as a contributing factor for the student loan crisis. We must do better.
You don’t need a state mandate
The best part of personal finance is that you can easily become self-taught. There are so many resources that are completely free. While we’re not huge proponents of Dave Ramsey here at the Wealthy Idiots, you certainly can’t go wrong with some of his debt payoff and budgeting advice.
There are also various YouTube channels on a wide variety of personal finance topics. My personal favorite being bogleheads.org. This is the site that really opened my eyes to personal finance. I owe a lot to their great contributors, and you’ll see me mention it often. I hope Wealthy Idiots can change lives similar to how they have.
