MCLEAN, Va. -- More teenagers want financial education than are able to get it, according to a recent survey.

According to Capital One's 7th annual back-to-school spending survey, 52% of teenagers surveyed want to learn how to manage money and 80% believe doing so would help them in the future. At the same time the survey found that 86% of the teenagers surveyed have never taken a personal finance class in school and 35% want their parents to teach them.

"Now more than ever, we're seeing that teens are eager to learn about money--and the good news is that they want to learn from their parents," says Lahne Mattas-Curry, financial education spokesperson for Capital One. "Back to school shopping is often overlooked as a financial education opportunity, but it's a great way for parents to teach kids about the basics of money, including how to prioritize needs vs. wants and create a budget."

According to the survey, only 19% of parents have

discussed back-to-school budgeting with their children and only 22% have made a list of back-to-school items to purchase.

Further, while 48% of parents have discussed the difference between needs vs. wants, 36% have not discussed back to school finances at all with their teens.

When asked about the

topics they'd most like to learn about, teens expressed interest in all areas of money management.

Surprisingly, they showed the most interest in learning how financing works for large purchases such as a car or a home. Roughly 74% said they would like to learn more. Other popular interests for teens include learning more about investing money (72%), identity theft and how to protect themselves (68%), saving money (62%), budgeting (58%), stocks (58%), checking accounts (55%) and credit cards (55%).

When it came to purchasing choices, however, the

survey held few surprises. Clothes and traditional school supplies such as

notebooks, backpacks, pens and pencils continue to top back-to-school shopping lists this fall.

Just 7% of parents and teens expect to purchase hand-held electronics such as PDAs or iPods, compared to 10% who planned to purchase these items last year.

Parents and teens differed slightly on computer spending--4% of parents expect to shop for a new a computer this year, while 7% of kids hope to do so.

Over 92% of teens expect their parents to join them on back to school shopping trips. This year, 52% of parents expect to spend more than $125 on back to school essentials for their kids, while 27% plan to spend less than $100. Overall, the majority of parents (72%) say they will be spending the same amount as last year; however, 16% plan to spend more. Most plan to pay with cash (69%) and credit (33%).

--dmorrison@cutimes.com

Instant Insights /

Kids Desire Financial Education But Don't Get It, Survey Finds

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