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When young people complain they never learned in school how to balance a checking account, many of us roll our eyes. But they might be on to something, as a new report by Smartest Dollar indicates Ohio is the sixth least financially savvy state in the country.
Knowledge is everywhere, but it seems the more information is available, the less people know.
"According to data collected by the FINRA Foundation, the number of U.S. adults who possess basic financial knowledge has been steadily declining, despite increased access to financial information online," Smartest Dollar reports. "In 2009, 79% of U.S. adults had basic interest rate knowledge, while 12 years later in 2021, that percentage had declined to slightly above 70%."
But here in the Buckeye State, share of adults with high financial literacy is 40.5%; and the share of adults with basic interest rate knowledge is 67.8%.
Financial literacy does increase with age and education level. How many of us wish we'd had that knowledge when we were younger? Perhaps an Ohio law that took effect last year will make a difference, as all students must now earn one-half credit of financial literacy as a graduation requirement.