Survey: Teens Lack Financial Literacy

This morning's San Francisco Chronical featured this article Survey: Teens Lack Financial Literacy. This shouldn't come as any great surprise given the level of financial literacy among adults. The survey's "right" answers speak volumes about conventional wisdom in financial matters. There is an underlying assumption that the current bizarre state of the economy will hold true for these kids and is the foundation on which to base their financial literacy.

Only 14.2 percent correctly said that stocks likely would offer the higher growth over 18 years of saving for a child's education. That was down from 17.2 percent who knew the right answer in the 2004 survey. In this year's survey 44.8 percent thought a U.S. savings bond — one of the most conservative investments — would offer the highest growth.