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High School Personal Finance Stat Sheet

  • As a cohort spent over $172 billion in 2001, equal to Mexico's yearly exports.  The average expenditures: $104/week; $5,408/year.
  • Teens surveyed by Teenage Research Unlimited reported spending 98% of their money, rather than saving it.
  • More than 1 in 5 youths ages 12 to 19 have their own credit cards or have access to parents' credit cards, and 14% have debit cards.
  • One in three carry credit cards, even more have an ATM card
  • High School graduates stand to earn over $1 million in adulthood-without adjusting for inflation
  • Nearly half of all high school students nationwide have a part time job
  • Of the 4,000 students who took the Jump$tart personal finance survey in 2002, 68.1 % received failing scores.
  • 50% of high school graduates do not go to college and enter the workplace directly.

College Personal Finance Stat Sheet

  • Persons entering college are offered an average of 8 credit cards the first week of school.
  • 55% of college students acquire their first credit card during their first year of college, and 83% of college students have at least one credit card.
  • 45% of college students are in credit card debt, the average credit card debt being $3,066.
  • Undergraduate students carry an average of three credit cards
  • Graduating students have an average of $20,402 in combined education loan and credit card balances.
  • 20% of graduating college students have $10,000 or more in non-school related credit card debt.
  • An increased number of college student borrowers feel more burdened by their education debt, with about 25% of the borrowers perceiving themselves as having significant problems
  • Students who came from low-income families (defined as Pell Grant recipients) report feeling more burdened by their debt than non-Fell recipients, when controlling for all other factors. This is a change from previous studies when there was no significant difference in attitudes between low-income and non-Fell recipients.
  • 28% of students with a credit card roll over debt each month
  • University administrators state that they lose more students to credit card debt than to academic failure.
  • In 2001, the credit industry issued more than 5 billion solicitations to consumers, including college students.
  • Only 59% of college graduates agree that the benefits of incurring student loans are worth it overall.
  • Students double their average credit card debt-and triple the number of credit cards in their wallets-from the time they arrive on campus until graduation.
  • College students borrowed in the 90s what they borrowed in the 60s, 70s and 80s combined.
  • Credit card companies usually offer credit limits to college students between $500 and $3000, with higher interest rates than non-students, between 18% and 20%.
  • Only 21 % of students between the ages of 16 and 22 say they have taken a personal finance course through school.
  • Only 26% of 13 to 21 year olds reported their parents actively taught them how to manage money.
  • Only 7% of parents say their child understands financial matters well.
  • 94% of students ages 16-22 say they are likely to turn to their parents as a financial information source.
  • 30% of youth report that their parents rarely or never discuss saving and investing with them. 47% say their parents rarely or never discuss household budgeting with them.
  • 61 % of parents say that parents and schools should share the responsibility for teaching children about financial education.
  • Research has shown that as little as 10 hours of personal financial education positively affects students spending and savings habits.
  • The US has recently seen an over 50% increase in bankruptcies among people under age 25 (fastest growing age range for bankruptcies). Bankruptcy filings for this age group were at an all time high in 2000, numbering almost 150,000, which is a tenfold increase in just five years.