When was the last time you learned about anything financial?
April is National Financial Literacy Month – an entire month dedicated to underscoring the importance of learning, establishing and maintaining healthy financial habits.
But ask yourself this: what have you learned about anything financial lately? Do most of your neighbors keep a household budget or save for retirement? Does your cousin live hand-to-mouth? Do you understand compound interest? Or know what the Dow Jones Industrial Average is? Is gold worth its own weight?
Sadly, it is likely that you did not know that money habits of the average American reveal that:
- Only about 40% of adults use a budget and track spending;
- More than three out of four adults live paycheck to paycheck;
- About half of us maintain three months’ expenses in an emergency fund; and
- More than a quarter of us have no savings at all.
Our collective debt best illustrates why we need to increase financial literacy in America. More than a third of U.S. adults worry they won’t save enough by retirement, student-loan debt is measured in the trillions and almost half of American adults say they lack enough money for emergencies.
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The above is an excerpt from FMeX. Distributed by Financial Media Exchange. Full publication available for download.