Underscoring the importance of Financial Literacy Month, CBA and endorsed strategic partner, EverFi, have released the results a survey on the financial knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of high school students. 

The survey documents that teens feel ill-equipped to handle many of the routine economic challenges they’ll face in the future. Topics like banking, borrowing, bill-paying, taxes and credit management are all too often mysterious concepts for them. This leads to potentially far-reaching implications for both the individuals themselves and more broadly for US economic prosperity.

Among the results, the survey concluded:

• More than a quarter of students believe they will be unprepared to manage their finances upon high school graduation.
• On average, students surveyed believe that a good credit score is about 500 and over a third believe that a good credit score is 300 or less.
• 41 percent of students surveyed think they are entitled to receive all paid taxes back upon filing a federal income tax return, or that they do not have to pay federal income taxes at all.
• 83 percent of students want financial education in schools, yet only four states mandate courses

The survey also validates a broader research study that EverFi conducted among high school students where nearly half of U.S. high school students said they do not know how to establish good credit and more than 25 percent said they will not be prepared to manage their finances upon graduation.

The good news is that students who complete EverFi’s financial literacy platform exhibited a 38 percent increase in knowledge gain as measured through pre and post assessments. 

You can view the full results of the survey here.

For more information on EverFi, please contact Robert Chong at (646) 416-0244 or robert@everfi.com. For more information about the CBA strategic partner program, please contact Stephen Clark, SVP of strategic partnerships at (916) 438-4448 or sclark@calbankers.com.