Financial Literacy is still declining among High School seniors according to Jump$tart Coalition 2008 Survey. In the Jump$tart Coalition's biennial survey, funded by the Merrill Lynch Foundation, high school seniors correctly answered only 48.3% of the questions - a decrease from those posted by the senior class of 2006, which correctly answered 52.4% of the questions.
"The survey demonstrates that graduating high school seniors continue to struggle with financial literacy basics," said Lewis Mandell, Ph.D., professor of finance and managerial economics at SUNY Buffalo School.
In short, our kids are failing. The 31-question survey revealed that high school seniors have a lot to learn about important financial concepts.Among the findings in the survey:
48% correctly said that a credit card holder who only pays the minimum amount on monthly card balances will pay more in annual finance charges than a card holder who pays their balance in full;
17% correctly answered that stocks are likely to yield higher returns than savings bonds, savings accounts and checking accounts over the next 18 years even though there has never been an 18-year period where this wasn't true; and
40% correctly answered that they could lose their health insurance if their parents become unemployed
36% think a house financed with a fixed-rate mortgage is a good hedge against a sudden increase in inflation, compared with 45 percent in 2006.