Forbes – Mayra Rodriguez Valladares
The pandemic has exposed many vulnerabilities and challenges that the United States needs to confront immediately. On a daily basis, I see those vulnerabilities in the area of financial literacy, that is, knowledge about earnings, expenditures, savings, investments, and long-term financial planning. According to studies compiled by the U.S. Financial Literacy and Education Commission, only one-third of adults could answer at least four of five financial literacy questions on fundamental concepts such as mortgages, interest rates, inflation and risk. About 40% of Americans turn to family, friends, or coworkers when they have a question about finances; to my knowledge there has not been a study about those individuals’ expertise about financial matters; moreover, over 20% of Americans polled by the National Financial Educators Council did not feel they had anyone they trusted when they had a question about finance.