A Degree in Home Ec

It's August in Oklahoma. Now that we don't keep our kids in the fields until way down in the fall, it's time to put the offspring on the bus and send them back to the classroom.

So, while the kids are getting their first dose of the three Rs in three months, you're at home celebrating the silence that has erupted in your home by breaking your no-drinks-before-5pm rule.

Before you top off your tasty adult beverage, consider this: According to a Charles Schwab Young Adults and Money Survey out earlier this year, 43 percent of young adults feel poorly prepared to invest their money appropriately, with 40 percent feeling unsure how to best decide how to save for the future.

Just 25 percent of survey respondents said they felt well prepared to use debt wisely while 29 percent knew how to maintain adequate insurance. Only 32 percent felt they knew enough about personal finance to live within their means.

Just one third of these kids pay off their credit card debt each month. One in four still lives at home with the 'rents.

Sobering, isn't it? Especially since 60 percent of those young adults attribute what they know about money to their parents--you know, the generation that, with their inability to make wise decisions about debt and to spend less than they brought home on their paychecks, helped to create one of the most disastrous financial crises in American history.

Young adults are thirsty for more information on how not to get their generation in a similar financial mess. According to the Schwab survey, young adults believe that making better choices about managing money is the single most important issue facing individual Americans today. Screw your health, this generation said in the survey; these kids are changing the old-as-dirt adage to something more like, "If you don't have financial peace, you don't have anything at all."

As schoolhouse doors swing open across Green Country, the staff of Junior Achievement of Eastern Oklahoma Inc. is getting area principals on the phone to schedule in-class financial literacy programs. Their programs are still in demand, said VP of programs Belynda Clandon, despite that the state's 2007 passage of the Passport to Financial Literacy Act of 2007, which requires a testable level of money know-how from Okie junior high and high school grads.

Junior Achievement offers programs ranging from in-class, age-appropriate lessons on everything from budgeting to understanding insurance to JA BizTown, a make-believe city kids run by assuming jobs and heading households, thus connecting the dots between what they learn in the classroom and what they'll face in the real world. The group looks to empower Oklahoma students in grades K-12 by bringing the business world to the classroom through hands-on learning experiences.

"We see the value of mentors coming into the classroom; that's powerful. But, there are lots of things parents can do at home to teach their kids about money," Clanton said.

For starters, hop on the nearest computer and point the browser to BizKids.com. Another resource is JA.org, where parents can stockpile lesson supplements as their kids scope out the how-to videos on their site.

While everyone's huddled around the computer screen together, check out SchwabMoneyWise.com, from the folks who drew up that survey I was telling you about earlier in this story. Make a point to read the article, "What Young Adults Need to Know: Five Priorities for Financially Fit Young Adults." Then, start with Priority No. 1: Help your child draw up a budget (that is, if you, Mom or Dad, know how).

Parents can share their in their kids' back-to-school jitters by heading back to the classroom themselves.

According to the State Farm Foundation, university administrators lose more students to credit card debt than to academic failure. As a true-to-life example of this sad phenomenon, I had a 3.5 GPA my freshman year but had to hit the trail back home to TCC for a year to recover from the crappy financial decisions I'd made; I could have used a lesson from old man John Rockefeller.

The oil tycoon kept three jars for his children's allowances in his family kitchen. Each jar represented one of the three main aspects of good money management: Saving, spending and charitable giving.

Here in Tulsa, YMCA teens teach elementary school-aged kids about money using a Seattle-based curriculum called Moonjars to bring those same concepts of spending, saving and sharing to children and families. All it takes is three little jars to incorporate strong financial values and practices into their daily lives.

If you don't have a kid in your life to share Web sites and BizTown and Moonjars with, you should. That is, as long as you're allowed to be within 500 feet of a school. Find a mentoring program and get involved. Because kids today represent the face of our community tomorrow, we all share the responsibility of modeling good examples for financial wisdom for Tulsa's kids.