Financial Literacy Education: It’s a Family Affair!
Financial literacy is crucial to a society’s overall well-being. Especially in families, learning and applying even the most basic personal finance principles can be the difference between generational financial wealth or generational financial poverty.
There can be dire life consequences when there is financial illiteracy! Like the lack of formal education, a lack of personal finance education (in school and at home) can be devastating. Basic money skills need to be a priority. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t have any formal financial literacy education when I was growing up. My parents would give me an allowance (compared to what kids get today is a pittance!), and I would proceed to squander it on candy and other childhood delights.
Saving, investing, giving, and being a wise steward of personal finances was not on my radar! Growing up, I knew my parents had “discussions” about credit card debt. As I became an adult, I knew that I didn’t want to be living from paycheck to paycheck. Yet, saving for the future and budgeting was still a definite gray area for me.
After a divorce that left me in considerable consumer debt, I was blessed to become debt-free. After that, I vowed to NEVER be in consumer debt again! For me, financial literacy education was listening, learning, and taking heed to the informal education and advice of close friends who were financially savvy and reading recommended personal finance books and magazines. One of my dad’s favorite sayings was, “Honey, you can’t spend it twice!”
As an adult services reference librarian in Northern California, I became responsible for the personal finance and small business/entrepreneur sections of my library’s collection. I reviewed personal finance books, databases, and other library resources. Through those materials, I further educated myself (a shout-out to our excellent public libraries!). Eventually, I created and taught personal finance-related classes.
I want to “paint you a picture” of my financial literacy journey so that you and your family will appreciate the importance of it in your life! If you can add, subtract, multiply and divide, you can do a simple budget. Also, the IMPORTANCE of our children learning to appreciate financial stewardship values and obtaining financial literacy education from an early age is especially crucial!
Whether you’re single, married, six or sixty-plus, financial literacy is indeed a family affair! That family can be blood relatives or your “family” of friends. Below are but a few online resources that will teach you and your kids about the positive journey to take on the road to financial literacy:
Provided by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Literacy and Education Commission, this site offers you resources on what’s called “My Money Five” (Earn/Borrow/Save & Invest/Spend/Protect). It has a “ section that addresses Life Events,” such as a new child, home ownership, unplanned events, owning a home, and other topics. Finally, its’ “Tools” section offers you various online calculators, budget worksheets, and checklists.
Tiffany Aliche is an award-winning teacher of financial education and a personal finance expert. Her mission is to empower and provide women with access to the tools and resources needed to create a better life for themselves and their families:
Dave Ramsey is the host of nationally syndicated radio and television programs discussing personal finance topics. He strongly emphasizes reducing, avoiding, and eliminating debt. Dave’s company, Ramsey Solutions, provides a Biblically-based, COMMON SENSE education and empowerment that gives everyone hope- from the financially secure to the economically distressed. He is the author of several best-selling books on the subject.
One of my all-time favorite financial literacy websites, MoneySavvyGeneration focuses on helping kids (pre-K to young adults) be smart about using money. A mission-driven company, their goal is to get out in front of money mishaps through educational tools for different age levels.
There’s a section for educators with a curriculum and a treasure trove of other educational resources. The parents’ section offers something that I bought and gave away to a parent in my library class called “Teaching Your Children About Money.” It’s called “The Money Savvy Pig.” It’s a plastic “piggy” bank with four chambers: Invest/Saving/Donate/Spend. It’s a fun and educational tool for smaller kids to “see” their money allocated and growing! Check out Susan Beacham’s blog ( she’s the owner of MoneySavvyGeneration) to find much more information about teaching kids about the importance of money management.
Created by the American Institute of Certified Public Accounts (AICPA), this site offers a free U.S. certified public accounts program that will help you create a FREE plan unique to your personal finance needs. You can search by various subjects: Credit and Debt, The Work World, Spending and Saving, In Crisis, Retirement Planning, Investor Education, Taxes, and COVID-19. You’ll find helpful, informative articles. There’s a section called “Ask the Money Doctor” where you can submit questions. There are calculators, a “What’s New” section, and videos. Also, you can choose to access the site in Spanish.
Get Rich Slowly is on Forbes magazine’s list as one of the best personal finance bloggers to follow in 2021. Since 2006, GetRichSlowly.com blogger J.D. Roth has written thousands of articles about how to master your finances. This well-organized site is for anyone who wants greater financial freedom, even if you’re a personal finance newbie or a seasoned expert.
I want to see you and your family empowered in your quest for personal financial freedom. Use these tools. Go online to your public library and “checkout” (download) books on personal finance.
I will be recommending some great personal finance books for your road to financial freedom in a future blog post!
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Thank you so much for your positive feedback! Sorry for the delay in responding to you; I had to replace the router to my home.