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Financial management has become a part of the life of each individual. At the onset of the financial crisis, the problems involving retirement savings and income projections are unavoidable for most people around the world. Every day in social media, topics about the lack of money management come on top of the financial crisis and its aftermath. According to the article "It's time for colleges to required mandated financial literacy courses," for example, the data from the "2015 National Financial Capability Study" showed that there are 45% of students between the age of 18 to 34 work very hard while studying to pay the debt that they have loaned for tuition fees (Lusardi). This small research awakes everyone about the importance of financial education in each individual. However, people's feeling about this issue is different. Many people hold on to the belief that education in economics is not essential in solving the dilemma. Having discipline about managing does not always make people brighter in using the money for the right purpose. They expect different methods to be able to settle this issue altogether. Even though there are many alternatives for people to manage their finance very well, low levels of financial literacy cause them great difficulty in achieving the basic concept of economic decision making.
Life is full of unexpected events. Because of that, problems about finance can happen to anyone regardless of ages. When these issues occur, people define this problem as a lack of financial management. During the early age, children do not have many opportunities to get in touch with using the money appropriately. Therefore, they do not have adequate experience to protect their future. From that initiative, the number of young adults who are in massive debt is very high. According to a study about the behavior of young adults in managing their financial status conducted by Sinha and her team stated that there are four periods of the financial crisis: stable, striving, precarious, and at-risk. In the study, they found out that the number of people whose financially at-risk has the highest percentage compared to the others (University of Illinois). From that result, the primary key to this problem relies on their behavior in money control. This issue should be concerned because people rarely try to find a solution for it. They do not usually analyze the problem to discover the reason behind it because they assume that their failure in money management is a misfortune in their life. Therefore, to fix this problem, people should apply financial literacy to their economic decision making.
From making a saving plan for a college education to preparing for retirement, financial literacy is an essential solution that people can get the benefit from it at all stages of life. In past generations, people used cash for most of the daily purchases. However, as technology advanced to another level, the way people shop has changed. Because they use credit cards to buy things, they should have a handful of education about economic management so that they do not get into financial difficulty. In the article, "Schools Should Educate Teens in Financial Literacy," Braun Mincher suggests, "Financial literacy is a fundamental life skill that needs to be properly taught in the school system, alongside traditional math, English, and science" (Mincher). In other words, schools should apply financial education for students as a preparation for them so that they can manage their economic later. Financial literacy considers as the skill that each person controls financial resources effectively overtime. Students at a young age should learn this skill because it will help them to think about how they would use their financial resources when they go further in education. From "Financial education stalls, threatening kids' future economic health," Lusardi also comments, "If you teach children about financial literacy, they don't have to come back to live in your basement after college" (Nova). The author wants to demonstrate that teaching students about personal finance should make them independent with money control.
With knowledge and understanding from financial education to young people, they will receive many benefits. This solution has been proved when the U.S. federal government agreed with the value of financial literacy and established The Office of Financial Education in the U.S. Treasury Department, the National Financial Literacy and Education Commission to promote financial education to everyone (Johnson et al.). Along with the promotion from the government, in "Youth benefit from early financial education," Richard E. Martinez Jr, CEO of Young Americans Center for Financial Education, says, "Providing youth with real-world skills and career development opportunities is essential. This type of education prepares youth to manage their finances, leading to financial independence for individuals and families. Ultimately, a generation of financially-savvy youth will provide strong economic development opportunities for communities" (Martinez). From the author's point of view, he confirmed that education is one of the best solutions to improve financial management for the youth people.
Opponents of financial literacy often claim that this solution would not bring as many positive results to resolve this problem for everyone. They believe that having education in using the money appropriately is not enough to solve the crisis. They blame for the changing of the global economy that occurs so fast. Therefore, people miss the opportunities to follow up with this complex in the economic system. According to the article, "Why Financial Literacy Will Not Save America's Finances," Helaine Olen states, "Instead of educating people about this, why not just make it a legal duty that financial professionals act on behalf of consumers" (Cooper). In her opinion, she suggests that knowledge by itself would not bring people out of trouble. Instead, an advisor for the financial matter should take responsibility to inform the consumer about the concern they would face from their lack of management. Critics also blame that people have a hard time in learning financial systems such as mathematics, statistic. Because those difficulties became an anxiety for the people, it leads them to avoid looking at their management. An alternative method is introduced from "Teaching people about money doesn't seem to make them any smarter about money - here's what might" demonstrate that people can cooperate with a computer system as an automatic advisor for them. These technologies should provide information to people about supervision for their banking as well as recommendations on investment options (Fernbach et al.). However, providing financial literacy is also an essential factor to give people ideas on the reason why finance puts them into crisis. Even though the changing in the economy has pushed them to the chances in absorbing more financial education, literacy on finance should reduce their dependence on professional advisors and technologies that help them with management issues.
When it comes to a problem that requires an immediate solution, it is not accessible to distinguish the best one to solve it entirely. As an essential key for many young adults to fix the mistakes, research and academic journals determined that financial literacy can not be excluded in each individual. Lusardi gave her comment on Cooper's article that it needs the combination of solutions to be able to work this issue out. Still, she continues, "Financial literacy is an essential skill for thriving in today's economy." With her strong determination, she is calling out for immediate action from everyone to support the ones who are struggling with their lives.