Young Americans and money make an interesting combination.  According to the 1999 Youth & Money Survey recently released by the American Savings Education Council (ASEC), The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), and Mathew Greenwald & Associates, most high school and college students don’t know as much about personal finance as they think.

The vast majority of students ages 16 to 22 have never taken a class in personal finance, two-thirds admit they could use a few more lessons on money management, and nine percent of all students are rolling over credit card debt each month.  The survey, underwritten by the TIAA-CREF Institute, found that most students feel confident about their understanding of basic financial matters such as saving, investing, credit and budgeting.  Somehow, this knowledge doesn’t translate into real-life attitudes and behavior towards money management.

When students were asked to rate their understanding of basic financial matters and money management skills, most gave themselves a high grade:

--15% said they understand money matters very well
--67% said they understand money matters fairly well
--18% think they do a very good job of managing money
--38% think they do a good job of managing money

Sometimes student behavior confirms this positive self-appraisal, but the survey found that other behavior suggests students need more personal finance education and discipline.

An overwhelming 94 percent of students surveyed say they will turn to their parents for financial information.  By comparison, relatively few students get financial education in school. Seventy-nine percent of high school and college students have never taken a course on personal finance, even though the majority said their current or prior school has offered financial education courses.

Alarmingly, even those who took financial education courses did not necessarily improve their financial behavior.  Students taking a personal finance course felt more knowledgeable, but were no more likely than non-attendees to think it is important to save money on a regular basis, or to actually save money that they receive from jobs and/or allowances. They were no more likely to budget their income and expenditures or to do comparison pricing.  Only 54 percent of those surveyed felt it very important to save money on a regular basis, and just 23 percent actually make a budget and stick to it.  However, 80 percent of students own a savings account, and 57 percent own a checking account.

The study, conducted during January and February 1999 with 1,000 students between the ages of 16 and 22 responding, reports data on such topics as:

**Attitudes
**Gender Issues
**Benefit Priorities
**Information Resources
**Credit Cards
**Savings Goals
**Financial Products
**Work

The American Savings Education Council is a coalition of private- and public-sector institutions that undertakes to raise public awareness about what is needed to ensure long-term personal financial independence. It provides extensive detail concerning the 1999 Youth & Money Survey on the Web site, www.asec.org. The bottom line is that the youth of America needs to get in touch with the realities of the financial world, and how it will affect their future.