American Morning

Tune in at 6am Eastern for all the news you need to start your day.
December 14th, 2010
10:13 AM ET

Kids and Cash: What to teach your kids about money

In these hard economic times, many Americans are considering when and how to teach their children about finances. Meanwhile, the FDIC and the U.S. Department of Education have joined together in an effort to bring the subject of finances to the classroom. Janet Bodnar, Editor and Columnist for "Kiplinger's Personal Finance" and author of "Raising Money Smart Kids", says children's financial literacy is essential. Bodnar spoke with CNN's Kiran Chetry Tuesday.


Filed under: American Morning • Economy
soundoff (One Response)
  1. Howard Lauther

    My only question is, What took them so long? The country is over 200 years old, and the management and investment of money has never been less than No. 1 on the list of survival skills. A student might get a couple of courses of economic THEORY, which is essentially useless, but he'll never be exposed to PRACTICAL ECONOMICS - the kind of stuff that might help him to become financially independent of the whims of others.

    MONEY RULES OUR LIVES. We are forever trying to get it, keep it, or manage it. And yet, from grade school through high school, we are never taught the skills that will help us compete and survive in a moneyed world, which in turn divides us all in hundreds of ways. For example, how many high school graduates can answer these questions? What are the three characteristics of a financial scam? What are the rules of buying? Selling? Saving? Borrowing? Investing? How do you turn one dollar into two, or at least into $1.10? What five laws govern the start-up of a business? How do you read, write, or amend a contract? What are the principle steps for creating and maintaining a budget? How do you determine the “market value” of what you own, including your college major? When is debt acceptable and unacceptable? How do you determine if insurance should be purchased, including when and how much? How do you identify a trend and how can one profit from it? How must a pension be evaluated? How do you create your own cost-of-living index?

    On the contrary, what we teach kids in school is a lot of garbage. The art of language, mathematics, economics, and logic should be required every year. All the rest should fall into the category of electives.

    December 14, 2010 at 3:59 pm |
« Back to main