According to a recent investigation and study, 87% of American teenagers do not know how to manage money. In Shanghai, China, 92.8% of middle schooler also have poor financial management skills; they rarely consider saving money in the bank or do any investment. So, what caused this phenomenon? In my opinion, it should be: teenagers was never taught how to manage their money. It’s also because they do not know how difficult it is to earn money and love to spend money without thinking of the future. .
First, whether in the school or at home, few families have actually cared about educating their children the important of money. Most parents will only care about their child's health and academic performance. Even during times when they are facing a finical problem themselves, they would not discuss these things with children. At school, even though students study many variety of courses, there aren’t any special lesson or classes about financial management. Teachers do not have the opportunity to teach them about personal finance skills.
Second, teenagers do not know how difficult it is to make money as their money are given to them as allowance. Teenagers spend most of the time at school every day, they rarely have the chance to contact with society, especially as their parents only focus on their studies instead. They also do not want their children to have a part-time job. Now a day, consider the bad economy, a lot of people had become unemployed, so teenagers would have to experiences the hardship to earning money.
Lastly, teenagers love to spend money. Teenagers like to compare and compete with each other therefore they will spent all their money on newest gadget on the television advertising or name brand clothing without considering if they can actually afford it.
In my opinion, parents and schools teachers all have the responsibility to teach teenagers how to manage their...