Hey, frugal friends!! Just wanted to let you know that April is Financial Literacy Month and so me and the rest of the personal finance blogging world will be working extra hard to help you go from financial bondage to financial freedom. Financial Literacy Month has a special place in the heart of many bloggers because we all remember what life was like before we had financial literacy.
It’s a shame that personal finance isn’t taught in every single high school, but things are improving in that area. In fact, I recently read a report that will open your eyes to the financial literacy problems in the U.S. Here is some of what I learned.
- Only 17 states require students to take a course on personal finance
- Fewer than 20% of teachers feel competent enough in money skills to teach a personal finance course
- 43% of millennials use costly non-traditional borrowing methods such as payday loans and pawn shops
- More than half of millennials are unable to save any money due to paycheck-to-paycheck living
- More than one in six students in the U.S. does not reach the baseline level of proficiency in financial literacy
- Students from states where a personal finance education was required are more likely to save, more likely to pay off credit cards in full each month and are less likely to be compulsive buyers
No one should have to struggle with money. It’s a stressor that is debilitating and largely avoidable – with the right information and knowledge. Financial literacy does indeed matter, and my friends and I in the personal finance blogging world are eager to help people of all ages have a healthier financial state. Here’s what you can expect from The Frugal Farmer during the month of April.
What To Expect During Financial Literacy Month
Money Mondays
Mondays will focus on a variety of financial topics set up as sort of a map to financial wellness. We’ll start at the beginning for those who haven’t started their path to financial freedom yet, and go from there. We’ve cover the basics like budgeting and spend-tracking (in a really interesting way – I promise!!), getting out of debt, building wealth, saving for kids’ college, saving for retirement and more.
This will be a comprehensive set of posts that will help you to get where you need to be financially, no matter what your current situation.
Tuesday Posts
Because we have so much ground to cover, we’ll be posting on Tuesdays as well, only for the month of April. So expect your Tuesdays to have a Frugal Farmer post in your inbox, and if you haven’t yet signed up to receive our posts automatically, you can do so by filling out your info in the box at the top of the right sidebar. That way you won’t miss a thing.
Prepper Wednesdays
Just for April only, I’ll be focusing on money topics on Prepper Wednesdays. I’ll try and make the posts prepper-relatable if I can for the sake of our prepping friends. 🙂
Round-up Fridays
For the month of April only, I’ll be doing round-up posts of all of the great Financial Literacy month posts that other bloggers are doing. This will be a great stop for those looking for further financial freedom education.
I hope you’ll make the time to join us for each and every valuable post during the month of April. Financial wellness is a gift that every single person should give themselves.
Now it’s your turn, readers: What money topic would you like to see covered during the month of April here on The Frugal Farmer?
That’s awesome Laurie! I always like money mindset topics so if you have any of those…
Good luck and I look forward to getting more educated! And I totally agree that they need to be teaching this stuff in school!
I’ll keep that in mind!! I would LOVE it if they taught this stuff in schools one day.
I’m excited to follow along this month! I hope to glean as much as possible from your blog, Laurie!
Thanks, Daisy!! It’ll be a fun month. 🙂
Awesome! Looking forward to reading your posts 🙂
I agree with you, financial education in the United States is lacking and needs to be looked at. One of my goals is for personal finance to not be taboo to talk about anymore. Who cares if I make $50k and you make $100k. Who cares if I have no debt and you have $10k in debt.
Have a good one.
Yes!!! We need to have a judgment free zone in this area – it would help people feel more comfortable about seeking out help, I think. Thanks, Erik!
Looking froward to the Financial Literacy focus! Such an important topic and we should all do our part to try and spread the message/education for those in need.
Agreed! You are a rock start in this area already, by the way. 🙂
I’m probably the only personal finance blogger who is not optimistic about financial literacy education. But I’ll admit that I can probably be very wrong a lot of the time: maybe more education on these concepts is what we need.
Best of luck this month, Laurie! I certainly do wish…that… I knew what I know, when I was younger.
I think growing up so very poor and then struggling with money for so much of my adulthood, I’ve experienced first hand the pain and suffering a lack of financial education can bring. I just want others to learn the lessons I learned much later than I should have.
Financial literacy is so important. I’m excited to see what you have lined up for April.
Thanks, Gary!!! It’ll be a fun month. 🙂
Wow Laurie, it is nice to see that you are doubling down on personal finance literacy. I am sure all of us would benefit from your hard work.
Thanks, Michael! Yes, love working with everyone during this next month to help spread the word about financial literacy!!
This is going to be a great series!
I have no doubt. 🙂
Awsome! I am looking forward to following along. I often look back to my high school and college education and am shocked that I never learned any personal finance skills.
I know – it’s amazing!!! Hoping things will change soon in that arena, Katy – for everyone’s sake!
This is exciting! I just reread back through some of your prepper posts last month, so that makes me happy too!
🙂 Thanks, Kat! More coming tomorrow. 🙂
Laurie – looking forward to the prepper series! I get a lot of value out of this, and you provide actionable ideas! Keep up the great work!
Thanks, Charlie!! Have a great day!
I knew some of these stats but not all of them. It does surprise that so many Millennials use pawn shops, etc. In our small town of 15,000 we have several title companies & pawn shops so it’s probably more than just those older than 35 that use them.
Wow – that is a lot per capita, Josh! I should check out the stats on that stuff here.
Looking forward to following along for the month. Thanks for all your efforts!
Thanks, Mrs. Groovy!!!
You know what would be interesting: a lot of bloggers interview other bloggers about their journey to FI. You should interview some of your friends about how they handle their finances (of course keep the names hidden). It gives a perspective on the financial lives on everyday folks.
I would do that, Troy, but that idea is already being used by a few other bloggers. They beat me to it. 😉 Check out http://www.enwealthen.com and http://www.debtdiscipline.com.