Our grandparents’ generation had it fairly easy when it came to retirement. Oh sure they will complain at how hard they worked and how much more things cost today but our grandparents were part of the generation that worked at the plant, or for the company, for 30 or 40 years and then retired with a pension and social security.
It was pretty much guaranteed to our grandparents that if they put their time in then they would have that retirement income waiting for them. Our parents are in a different kind of situation.
As social security teeters on the brink of bankruptcy and the stock market crashes more often than a NASCAR driver on a Sunday afternoon causing people to lose their complete retirement savings literally overnight, more and more of our parents are finding it very difficult to retire. So what does that say for our generations and the generations to follow? It says that we all better get a personal finance education if we want any hope at all of retiring.
The generation that is just a decade away from becoming grandparents may very well be the last generation to reap the benefits of social security. Our government has effectively depleted social security, and ignored the problem, to the point where the whole system will be bankrupt in the next 15 to 20 years. Even then the volatility of the stock market, and the scandals due to corporate greed, have made saving for retirement almost impossible. With an outlook like that a personal finance education is almost mandatory in this day and age.
Get Smart Before It Is Too Late
There is no such thing as too much personal finance education and the generation that is in high school now is already getting the beginnings of personal finance education in their regular class work. Parents are seeing personal finance education incorporated into their child’s curriculum and it has to be a relief. Having a personal finance education means that children today will appreciate saving and properly investing money when they become adults and that is only going to help them.
So get on board and start getting a personal finance education while there are still personal finances to educate yourself about. With social security on the way out and the stock market eating up retirement nest eggs left and right, a good personal finance education is something everyone needs to survive in these times.