Thoughts on Financial Literacy Month

By Bruce Nofsinger, Partner/Co-Founder, Topics Education

This past weekend, Tara Siegel Bernard wrote a great piece in the New York Times called “Working Financial Literacy in With the Three R’s.” From the title, you can tell that it focuses on teaching personal financial education in schools. And I bet you can imagine that the article:

·     Makes a compelling case for greater emphasis in schools;
·     Highlights some positive signs that point to greater emphasis (e.g., more states with financial education standards); and
·     Laments the obstacles that impede greater emphasis.

You know ... it spotlights what many of us have been saying for a long time — a mixture of urgency, optimism, and frustration. Well, I hate to admit it, but right now I’m feeling a certain level of cynicism or skepticism. Every April during National Financial Literacy Month, there’s a flurry of attention and activity devoted to youth financial education. I don’t think it’s coincidence that the NYT piece was published this month. And we (as a company) and I (as a passionate individual) enthusiastically trumpet and support financial literacy efforts during April.

But where’s that “mayday mayday!” call on, uh ... May Day?! My concern is that the attention that April brings quickly dissipates even though the needs remain. Our country went through a national teachable moment, yet I think that still not nearly enough people “get it.”

Despite my skeptical cynicism (or would that be cynical skepticism?!), I’m optimistic that we can amplify the conversation and more important, that we can help people (especially youth) become more financially literate. We just need to recognize that it can’t happen in only one month!

Here at Topics we can create meaningful educational resources and outreach/engagement campaigns that create lasting impact and change behaviors. We like working with organizations who “get it”! Call me to discuss how we can help your organization make the most of your financial literacy efforts – to address needs that unfortunately don’t conveniently come and go in April.