Why are we Americans so uneducated / misinformed about personal finance?

How can so many be so ignorant about something so important? Do ppl acutally think that that the gov't is going to give them 800 bucks; do they not realize that they have to pay it back on next years income tax? Or at least have that deducted from their refund. How can so many fall for the Payday loan scams? How did so many get into ARM mortgages? Why don't ppl educate themselves about personal finance?

Public Comments

1. Congratulations! You have it figured out. Politicians want to keep voters fat and happy so they can stay in power. Well educated voters would throw every last one of them OUT.
2. because we dont teach it in school, having been in the finance industry for the last 10 years u would not believe the number of doctors, lawyers, and school teachers, particularly law enforcement officials who dont have a clue what they are doing reference a mortgage or credit, the things i have seen folks sign with good credit would blow ur mind, no the lenders arent scamming they just arent educating, this should be a course for juniors and seniors in high school and a freshman course in college, "Credit, Financing, Mortgages, and How It Works" dont laugh i am serious and bet i could write the course, there isnt 1 in 10 americans who know what they are doing with their personal finances.
3. People have been trained that they can, and should, have everything NOW and not worry about affording it or paying for it. Many of us realize that if we itemize and get money back on our taxes the next year we have to pay taxes on it again. It stinks but there it is. ARMs aren't necessarily a bad thing. You have to know all the conditions and be prepared to follow them. People decided that they wanted a bigger house than they could comfortably afford at the best of times and didn't care that they were taking a teaser rate. Then many people went out and pulled all, or most, of the equity from their homes and spent it on toys. Not worrying about the slowing housing markets or dropping in values. They had to have their wants and didn't worry about having to pay the piper. People fall for the PayDay loans because they have no other place to go to get money when they haven't been able to budget properly or have some catastrophe and have no money in savings.