My name is Aiden and I am currently a college student. I am the Founder of Paving Our Path. The Covid-19 pandemic was a highly unusual period in our country's history. With the economic dislocations it created and the ongoing financial struggles of so many households in our country, I began to wonder what we, as a country, can do to put ourselves in a better position to withstand future shocks and periods of economic difficulty. I began to wonder what we, as kids, can do to put ourselves in a better position when we become adults to successfully manage our own financial lives and more comfortably withstand periods of personal financial difficulty. Seeking to answer these questions and then share my findings and conclusions with others -- with the hope that I can help others -- led me to start Paving Our Path.
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Nearly two-thirds of Americans today live paycheck to paycheck, over one-third of adults in the United States report that they would have difficulty covering a $400 emergency expense, and approximately two-thirds of Gen Y (commonly defined as those born between 1980-1994) have less than 3 months' worth of emergency funds on hand. (1) In the United States we spend billions of dollars helping children master reading, writing, and math. And yet, we send kids and young people out into the real world of work lacking basic knowledge of personal finance. More than 1 in 6 students in the U.S. do not reach the baseline level of proficiency in financial literacy. Less than 10% of students in low-income schools have guaranteed access to financial education. Only 1 in 5 high school students is guaranteed to take a personal finance course before graduation. (2)
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So how can we send kids and young people out into the real world of work and expect them to successfully manage their financial lives if they have not actually had an opportunity to develop the skills, knowledge of personal finance, and habits that ultimately can lead to their financial well-being as adults? This is a real problem and Paving Our Path -- through a series of educational blog posts and other forms of communication -- seeks to address it.
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(1, 2) Sources of data can be found on our home page.
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