Financial Literacy Argument Essay

In today’s age of widespread internet usage and abundance of resources, one would expect that young people would grow up to be financially literate citizens. However, that is not the case. In fact, 41% of adults grade themselves with a C, D, or F when it comes to their own personal financial knowledge according to Junior Achievement. More disturbingly, one in four Americans have less than $1,000 saved for retirement. Despite this financial illiteracy crisis, my resolve is stronger than ever. From my perspective, being financially literate is not some definition one could find online when they search up “financial literacy” on Google; it is much more. Knowing how to manage one’s money for short and long term goals is the key to financial empowerment. The rising student loan crisis makes financial empowerment of the nation’s youth much more imperative. For all these reasons, I found it necessary to take it upon myself to educate the youth to become financially literate citizens.

Targeting different groups in my community, I developed a curriculum from scratch that would be used to educate the youth. At a local middle school last October, I taught two eighth-grade classes for 90 minutes each. From economics, income management, budgeting, managing credit, using debit and credit cards, and more, the curriculum was designed to empower the students. Students also worked on a budget first-hand, complete with a budget template, value of expenditures, and necessary funds to achieve short and long term goals. As a result of this experience, I felt a deep level of satisfaction of being a stepping stone in these students’ lives into becoming financially literate – even with trivial matters like filling out a