GREENSBORO, N.C. — The students who graduated high school in NC this past spring, the class of 2024, were the first class in North Carolina to be required to take a personal finance class.
This course of study is gaining traction around the US. Check out this map by VisualCapitalist.com. The states in light green show the states that have nearly 100% compliance in students taking personal finance classes. A big jump in states requiring personal finance happened in 2020.
On the list of topics in the NC course:
The cost of credit
Credit cards
Borrowing money
Home mortgages
Credit scoring and reports
Postsecondary education
The state of Michigan recently put personal finance as a requirement and one of the school superintendents in talking about how social media plays in and how this class can no longer be seen as an elective.
"They have money that they can spend right now they don't have a house payment they don't have a car payment many of them so if they have a job or they have any money, it's easy in easy out. There's not a long-term responsibility and people know that these ads are marketers they know that so they target our kids. And so it sets up poor financial decisions and so that's why this personal finance is so important to protect them," said Applegate/Niles Community Schools Superintendent
I talked to a parent-turned-app developer. He says he used it to teach his kids how to work for something they wanted.
"They worked for two weeks scooping dog poop and washing the car to buy the toy they want or the shoes they want and now they understand it. It's not what I call OPM other people's money. It's easy to spend OPM all day long but when it's yours and you have to work for it..it changes the way you think about things," said Gregg Mursett, developer of BusyKidapp.
Murset created the BusyKid app to help parents and kids get on the same page with money.
You can pay the kids on the app, you can even load that money on a debit card so the kids can learn how to manage it and spend it.