"Academic qualifications are important and so is financial Education. They're are both important and schools are forgetting one of them." - Robert Kiyosaki

When Johnny was in the third grade, talking with his teachers about what his future education would look like. Social agents such as teachers, parents, peers and the media can influence financial behavior.

His teacher told him about middle school, high school, and then eventually College; College sounded really fun to Johnny, and he couldn’t wait to go home to talk to his parents about it. Although offering personal finance content in schools is an important first step in expanding access to financial education, the most effective and efficient way to reach youths is to make personal finance topics a part of standard elementary, middle, and secondary school curriculums.

When he talked with his parents later that day, one of the biggest things his parents told him about was that unlike middle school and high school, college has to be paid for directly, instead of just being paid through taxes. Almost 77% of the students turned towards and relied on their parents to provide them with the information on financial knowledge and proficiency.

Johnny was not very familiar with the concept of money, saving, or anything having to do with investments other than what he had heard on the television, or overheard adults talking about, as far as he was concerned, anything having to do with money was only something that adults had to be concerned about.

He brought this up to his family, and they explained the importance of having an open communication about money with children, and how it greatly increases relative financial literacy when they grow up. Parents are the primary sources for how youth learn about money. Several studies have found that parents affect their children’s financial attitudes and behavior in direct and indirect ways.

Because it was getting late, they decided that they would schedule some time next week to talk about money and good spending/saving habits, in the meantime they would make dinner, and Johnny would go to bed.

The next day at school Johnny ran into one of his friends Sally, who said that she had a similar conversation with her parents the night before, but that they had told her not to worry about money and personal finances until she was older. Females who lack independence, do not manage money by themselves and are dependent on their parents.

Johnny thought that it was a little strange that his parents decided to talk to him about this kind of stuff, but he shrugged it off and went on his way. "Family financial socialization is a more powerful determinant of financial behavior than formal financial education and that the quality of family relationships also influences children’s financial behavior."

When the time came for Johnny to talk with his parents about money, he was very excited. They talked about saving money instead of spending it, how to invest wisely, and since Johnny was interested in talking about college, they also talked the risks of taking student loans 

Johnny’s mother had taken out student loans to get her bachelor's degree, and she was still paying them off. Johnny’s father had earned a scholarship, and lived at home, meaning that he didn’t have to take out loans. "Family background, such as income level, parental experiences associated with credit card usage, education level of parents and single-parent-headed households, may play a role in young adults’ attitudes and behaviors towards their money management."

They also talked about the importance of giving away money in the form of charitable donations, but that you have to be careful who you give money to, because some organizations only give a small percentage of your donation towards the actual cause. "The odds of US children saving for future education were one and a half times greater when their parents talked to them about making charitable donations. "

They decided that Johnny was old enough now that he could start earning an allowance, and that it could be a good tool to use to help teach Johnny about spending and saving wisely. They made a chore chart and hung it up on the front of their fridge, and Johnny was given a $5 allowance every week.

As the weeks went by Johnny was able to do all of the chores, and receive his allowance, and his parents taught him to always save at least one dollar of what he earned. He had the remaining four dollars left over that he would use throughout the week if he wanted to buy something at the local toy store.

Johnny also saw Sally through these weeks, and noticed that whenever a new toy came out, she seemed to always have it in the next couple days, this annoyed Johnny a little bit, but he remembered that he had a little bit of money saved up at this point that he might be able to buy one of the new video games that had come out, and that would be a lot more fun than most of the toys that he had bought. 

The lessons that his parents had taught Johnny stuck with him for a long time, and when he was in high school he was able to get a job and establish a savings account in one of his local banks. Many youths have bank accounts, and most report some saving. For example, 80 percent of youths in the 1999 ASEC survey had savings accounts, and 57 percent had checking accounts. Forty-nine percent said they always saved some money when they got paid or received an allowance, and 41 percent said they saved some, sometimes.

In high school he once more saw Sally, at this point it seemed like her parents were still buying her whatever she wanted. Johnny thought that she didn’t really understand the value of money, because she never worked and was very spoiled.

When it came time for college Johnny had saved up a sizable amount of money, and his work experience qualified him for multiple third party scholarships, and the school offered some tuition based scholarships that helped to ease the burden. In the end Johnny didn’t have to take out loans for his four years at college.