September 24, 2024

Media contact: National Consumers League – Lisa McDonald, lisam@nclnet.org, 202-207-2829

WASHINGTON, DC – The National Consumers League (NCL), founder of LifeSmarts, one of the premier youth consumer education programs in the country, is sounding the alarm on the urgent need for better financial education. Recent findings of an independent survey by The Harris Poll, recently commissioned by FICO, revealed a starling reality: over 74% of Americans think their current financial situation would improve if they had access to more personal finance resources and education, and 79% percent of Americans believe high schools should offer financial education. See the FICO study here.

“We are deeply concerned that one out of four younger Americans do not consider themselves to be financially literate,” says Sally Greenberg, NCL’s CEO. “We can guarantee any student who experiences the LifeSmarts curriculum and competes at our state and national championships will be better equipped to navigate financial decision-making throughout their adulthood.”

NCL has seen firsthand how concerns about financial stability can be addressed directly through creative programming offered through schools and community organizations, and the private and public sectors can do more to address the financial literacy gap. We literally can’t afford, as a nation, to wait until children become adults to start teaching them how to manage their finances,” says Greenberg. “They need to build their knowledge base, which will give them the power to control and take charge of the many financial decisions they will be called upon to make in adulthood. Our LifeSmarts stands ready to help in any way we can.”

NCL commends FICO for conducting this important research and for its leadership on financial literacy via its Score a Better Future and Score a Better Future Fundamentals program.  Key components of the Fundamentals curriculum have been incorporated into the LifeSmarts program, which serves more than 125,000 students and 3,000 educators around the country each year.

This October, NCL’s LifeSmarts curriculum will focus on credit education, which is one of the most  critical components of financial literacy. The new research finds that while nearly two-thirds of Gen Z adults (61%) believe their credit score is a fair representation of their overall financial health, fewer than half (46%) of young adults have checked their credit score in the past year. Nearly one in four (24%) are not sure where to find this information. A similar percentage (28%) say they lack the tools or knowledge to improve their credit score.

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 About the National Consumers League (NCL) 

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

About LifeSmarts
The National Consumers League’s (NCL) youth consumer education program, LifeSmarts, was established in 1993 and today serves more than 125,000 middle and high school students and 3,000 educators across the country. Through LifeSmarts, students learn about real-life consumer issues in five topic areas: Health & Safety, Consumer Rights & Responsibilities, Personal Finance, Technology & Workforce Preparation, and the Environment. They compete to win prizes and scholarships at the Varsity National LifeSmarts Championships in April each year and the Junior Varsity National LifeSmarts Championship in May. NCL LifeSmarts is active in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

About the FICO survey

This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of FICO from August 27-29, 2024, among 2,092 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. Gen Z respondents were 18-27 years old; Millennials were 28-43 years old; Gen Xers were 44-59 years old; and Baby Boomers were 60-78 years old. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within +/- 2.5 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact press@fico.com.