Reading, Writing, and Personal Finance

Tim Ranzetta is cofounder of Next Gen Personal Finance, a nonprofit that has developed a personal finance curriculum used by more than 60,000 high school and middle school teachers. 

The pandemic has been an accelerant because it highlighted the precarious nature of family finances. In addition, state education departments are evaluating the skills students need to thrive in the 21st century,, manage credit cards, manage a FICO score or invest for retirement. If you show students the impact of compounding, they’re more likely to save earlier because they can see the benefits. The pace of change in financial services is accelerating, and we had better arm students with the critical thinking skills to assess strategies that online retailers use to get us to buy more. A recent research report of 76 different financial education experiments found that financial education improves financial knowledge and behaviors, especially when it comes to budgeting, saving and credit.