Financial Illiteracy is Not Merely Generational

Financial illiteracy is not just a problem of the Millennial Generation, but it has and will continue to become a problem that the generation will be forced to solve.


http://www.freep.com/article/20081216/OPINION02/812160340/1070/opinion02

There is an intergenerational problem with spending and credit in this country that has contributed to the current financial crisis. Members of the Millennial Generation may not necessarily be "bad with money" or "financially illiterate," but are victims of changed circumstances.

For example, state education is no longer at affordable prices in many states. That used to be one reason many young adults were able to go to college is because education at a state school was so affordable. Now, students are forced to take out thousands of dollars worth of loans or make the decision not to attend college. Further, especially today, stopping at a bachelors's degree does not seem like an option to many, and graduate level education, once again, seems like a "must have" to survive.

One might point out that many people who cannot afford to attend college simply do not go. One may claim they made a financially prudent choice. Yet, many Millennials who do not or will not attend college are also running into credit problems, and are barely able to make ends meet.

Millennials, on the whole, have access to a wider variety of information, both on and offline. Many are fully aware of the risks of taking on high-interest student loans or extending credit lines, but when the decisions of previous generations have left them with their hands tied, it is not always a choice to make perhaps imprudent financial decisions, but a necessity of the times in which we live.

Millennials have inherited financial illiteracy and will have to teach themselves how to overcome it.