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Teaching Kids About Money

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Submitted By longtimemedic
Words 1366
Pages 6
Teaching Kids about Money
Lionel Z. Gutierrez III
Excelsior College

Introduction
Where has the middle class gone wrong and so far in debt? A constant barrage of ads for products and services, a promise of easy financing, and the "Hollywood" spin on the advertisements all make spending hard to resist. Understandably an individual's attitudes, behaviors, and decisions ultimately affect their financial and social well-being; parents need to take responsibility for providing early instruction on financial literacy and responsibility. Because of gross overconsumption, student loans, and a lack of adequate parental guidance on financial literacy; children are facing a lifetime of debt and little to no understanding of how to handle it.
Overconsumption
Americans have made some progress, since the financial crisis of 2008, which is considered, by some economists, to be the worst since the great depression (Haverman, 2008). Debt is still nearly double than that of 1989 (Editorial Board, 2015) and private debt overshadows government debt by one hundred and fifty percent (Nutting, 2014). American debt is in part due to overconsumption. Our parents were largely one income families. They lived in modest homes, most drove one car and had minimal educations. Today’s upper class is constantly getting bigger and better homes and cars, and taking lavish vacations, and a strong desire for those amenities has driven some in the middle class to incur unreasonably high debt. Thomas Naylor, a professor emeritus of economics at Duke University, believes that a marketing sway of consumer goods and services have a part in this out of hand behavior as well (Billitteri, 2010).

Student Loan Debt
According to New York Federal Reserve Bank research, students with less than $5,000 in loans, sixty-three percent, default within three years as opposed to six years of those with

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