How to Teach Kids Money Matters

The ASPIRE Act was introduced earlier this week, and it has a bill number now H.R. 4682. While there are many reasons that ASPIRE is a good idea (including those laid out by David Newville and Reid Cramer in this paper from December) one of the most widely appreciated is the idea that the ASPIRE Act would create a system that gives all children a stake in their own financial literacy. Financial education has long been a popular idea, but research shows that the traditional forms of financial ed are not very effective.

Children are much more likely to learn if they have a first-hand reason to do so. That’s the premise supported by our Jamie Zimmerman in an opinion piece that ran today on AOL News. Here’s Jamie:

When it comes to financial education, we clearly need less focus on learning by “curriculum” and more focus on learning by “doing.” But learning by doing won’t work well if an increasing majority of our nation’s children have nothing to learn from, and ever fewer hopes of getting the opportunity to become “financially capable” adults.

Read the whole thing.