It is that time of the year in Minnesota. Weekend late afternoons and evenings have been filled with high school and college graduation parties.
On some weekends this month, your attendance has been requested at back-to-back graduation parties. You never realized how popular you are!
I have a son who graduated high school last month. My daughter will be a high school senior next fall. There is not a day that goes by without college conversation.
All these college conversations have me thinking about how to improve the level of financial education that young adults receive as they enter their career building years.
It costs tens of thousands of dollars to go to college. Parents and students make years of financial sacrifice. The stakes are high to get a good return on your education investment.
The objective of college is to get a good job. That job pays a college graduate tens of thousands of dollars per year.
A job allows a young adult to save money. In a few years, young adults have tens of thousands of dollars of their own money that require investment management decisions. The most obvious example of this fact is a company 401(k) retirement plan account.
With all the money at stake in order to get a college degree and a good job, why is there no training available to young adults on how to make better investment management decisions?
Young adults are not prepared to make the investment management decisions that they spend tens of thousands of dollars to put themselves into a position to make. This fact makes no sense to me.
The same education and experience standards that high schools and colleges require to graduate should also apply to improving the investment management decisions of the young adults in their care.
The stock and bond markets are some of the most sophisticated and technologically advanced markets in the world. We owe our young adults an education system that eventually prepares them to navigate their personal finances in a few short years.
I am going to insist that both my kids take personal financial management courses in college. I hope that these courses are available to them.
Ric Lager
Lager & Company, Inc.
