Consumer Educators, Now Is The Time For A Paradigm Shift Toward Employee Financial Education

In order to better reach all people, there must be a paradigm shift for consumer educators toward employee education. Workers with money problems cost their employers big money, and those money problems occur because of personal difficulties with credit, budgeting, and consumer rip-offs.

Consumer educators are qualified to teach such concepts in the workplace, and this will in turn help more workers overcome financial obstacles to fully fund their retirement plans. Virginia Tech's Personal Finance Employee Education outreach effort (www.chre.vt.edu/~/pfee/) can help educators partner with employers.

Times have changed for consumer educators, and so has the audience. Budget cuts and downsizing at universities in recent years has reduced the number of academic programs. Fewer states and school districts are mandating consumer education in the public schools. The lives of consumers, especially for families, have become busier than ever, leaving them precious little time for important matters, such as leisure time with children and spouse, as well as participation in community education programs.

Today's time-pressured lifestyles often leave consumers largely unable to pay attention to public service announcements about the latest product recall or to read the Consumer Information Center's newest publication on whether it is better to buy or lease a car. Thus, it is not surprising to find that, "only about a quarter of adults feel confident in their ability to choose a mutual fund that suits their needs (Atchley, 1998)."

It is not, however, time for consumer educators to give up! With today's marketing efforts targeting younger consumers, such as primary and secondary school pupils, students need consumer education more than ever. They need good decision making skills. They need to learn how to resist the sales pressure of the media. They need to learn how to establish spending and credit use priorities. They need to plan for and take action to secure their financial futures.

All young consumers need to learn how to make such informed decisions. No, that's not correct. All people need to know how to make these informed decisions.

Download Report