My Net Worth

Just where do children learn their financial skills? And what are their parents teaching their kids?

TIAA-CREF conducted two (not so recent) surveys on these topics:

2001 Parents, Children and Money Survey

1999 Youth and Money Survey

The general gist I get from both of these surveys is a disconnect between how people view themselves versus what they are actually doing. My setiments also coincide with the general conclusions of both surveys.

Generally, parents and their kids think they understand money matters and believe they manage their money well. However, disconnects are noted by the surveys:

• Parent's who view themselves as knowledgeable, nearly half of the respondants don't always pay off their credit cards each month
• Children indicated that while they think they should know more about money matters, only a handful took financial education classes offered to them at their schools.

In my previous post "Mandatory Viewing for My Children" marketers and media companies are becoming more scientific in their approach. With the adults not fulling understanding the basics about their credit cards, is it any wonder that credit card debt continues to grow as well as bankruptcy filings?

I recommend reading the Executive Summaries of both reports.