Why Personal Finance Education Matters

To help you celebrate this Financial Literacy Month, we’re featuring two blog posts about personal finance education. The first post focused on teaching about insurance.

People make personal finance decisions every day—whether it’s paying bills, saving for the future or managing debt. Yet many people make these choices without a strong foundation in personal finance. Some people assume it’s just common sense, or math, but it’s not; it’s about making informed choices that can help shape a person’s future.

Personal finance education provides practical skills that everyone needs, from budgeting and saving to understanding credit and investments. When people learn how to make sound financial decisions, the benefits extend beyond the “personal.” Good economic decision-making at the individual level scales up to strengthen communities and the broader economy.

The Growing Trend toward Personal Finance

While managing personal finances involves lifelong learning, a solid foundation can be laid in high school when students take a course in economics or personal finance that emphasizes strong economic decision-making. In fact, there is a growing trend toward states requiring that students learn personal finance.

Currently, 48 states include personal finance education in their standards, and 35 states require students to take a personal finance course to graduate high school, according to the Council for Economic Education’s 2024 Survey of the States (PDF). Specifically, 20 states require that students complete a stand-alone course in personal finance and 15 others require that personal finance coursework be integrated into another course, such as an economics course. And the trend has picked up in recent years: Of those 35 states, nine were added in 2023.

In fact, there is wide agreement about the importance of personal finance. A 2022 survey conducted on behalf of the National Endowment for Financial Education (PDF) found that 88% of U.S. adults agreed their state should require a personal finance course for high school graduation. Additionally, 80% said they wish they had been required to take at least one semester of personal finance to graduate from high school.

St. Louis Fed Resources on Personal Finance

The St. Louis Fed offers a wide variety of lessons, videos and articles on personal finance. For teachers, we have lessons for elementary school students that incorporate personal finance into readings of popular children’s literature, such as “Less Than Zero” or “Isabel’s Car Wash.”

St. Louis Fed economic education resources include lessons, videos and articles for teachers, parents and consumers.

Or parents may want to watch a video with their children and discuss the importance of saving using “How Daniel Got What He Wanted” or “Saving and Savings Goals.” We also have lessons for high school teachers to use in their classrooms, such as the popular Making Personal Finance Decisions curriculum unit or “No-Frills Money Skills” video series.

So whether you’re a teacher looking to add personal finance content to your instruction or a consumer looking to learn more about budgeting or paying down debt, you’ll find something in our collection.