America's Youth Now Spends More and Has More Debt than Ever Before by Pat Melfi

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Teenagers in the United States have become a formidable economic force. In December 1998, Teenage Research Unlimited projected that teens ages 12-19 spent $94 billion of their own money--including money earned or received from allowances, gifts, or employment--in 1998, compared with $84 billion in 1997. Teens also influenced the spending of an additional $47 billion in family money. That's a total of $141 billion.

Yet few have the skills to manage their money wisely. A 1998 poll of 14 to 16 year-old revealed that "fifty-three percent received little to no financial advice from their parents." And according to a 1998 survey of 13 to 21 year-olds, only 26 percent reported that their parents actively taught them how to manage their money.

A 1999 poll of young people ages 9 to 17 found that fifty-nine percent worry about not having enough money, compared to sixty-five percent who worry about not doing well in school and fifty-two percent who worry about getting cancer. This comes at a time when college students must shoulder more debt than ever before. The average college student who takes out student loans graduates with a debt burden of at least $30,000.

According to a survey by Consumer Report, "sixty-four percent of college students have a credit card in their name and twenty percent have four or more cards. In its 1999 Youth & Money Survey of students ages 16 to 22, the American Savings Education Council (ASEC) found that 28 percent of students with a credit card roll over debt each month. A 1998 poll by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group found that the average college student with a credit card who is responsible for paying his or her charges has an unpaid balance of nearly $2,000.00.

Perhaps most disturbingly, a 1997 survey of individuals who filed for personal bankruptcy protection revealed that 8.7 percent of all bankruptcy filings were among young adults ages 18 to 25 years old.