Facing a period of economic uncertainty, many Americans admit that their money knowledge isn’t where they’d like to be, finance surveys indicate. According to the Chicago Tribune, 41% of those polled gave themselves a grade of “C” or lower on their knowledge of personal finance. Furthermore, 4/5ths of those questioned indicated that they would benefit from professional advice on every day questions.The results of these finance surveys are counter-intuitive; The number of Americans who indicated they’d like instruction is nearly double the number who gave themselves negative marks. This datum indicates a potential polling bias whereby people are reluctant to give themselves poor marks, regardless of their actual knowledge. The actual proportion of poorly-informed Americans could be much greater.Finance surveys like this indicate the need for more comprehensive school programs that deal with money management. Many high schools — my own included — have no such programs. While many of the causes of the current recession are systemic and outside of the control of any particular person, a large burden has to be put on irresponsible or poorly-conceived spending. Furthermore, navigating an economic downturn can be difficult; the overwhelming majority that indicated in these finance surveys they could use professional help shows how hard the issues can be to understand and interpret.While much of the news from these financial surveys is fairly dire, they do show that (some) Americans are frank about their lack of monetary knowledge, and that most are aware they could easily know more. Simply acknowledging the issue is an important first step towards sustainable reform.

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