Financial Literacy

The recent government shutdown made something very apparent. Too many Americans are one, maybe two, paychecks away from losing their homes. The relentless interviews of distressed, crying people on news shows did more than make us all upset. It showed the average American’s financial life is too close to the edge.

Perhaps I am overly passionate about the work that you all do, but I think it’s the responsibility of the financial services industry to provide the financial education each citizen requires. I speak to millennials who are starting their first jobs and although they have enormous debt, they don’t understand compound interest, they have no idea how to calculate a mortgage, PMI, insurance and taxes, and most of them can’t fathom home ownership. They already have the huge cost of their education on their backs.

I believe the gap in America’s basic education is lacking the subject that falls onto your shoulders.

Some companies are starting organized programs on financial literacy training. I know because the advisors and managers ask me how to contact different groups - whether it be businesses, schools or community based organizations - to offer free workshops. Everyone should be doing this. It’s not just because you will acquire clients from these efforts. It’s because you will be doing the educational work that other professional groups do in order to serve the citizens of our country.

Doctors publicly push for vaccinations. They discuss cancer screening tests that save lives. They talk about healthy lifestyle changes to reduce obesity and diabetes. 

So why aren’t we out there talking about financial literacy? In droves.

If we don’t do this, who will?

Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.  Howard Zinn