Survey says many young people don't know how to handle money or debt

Parents are supposed to teach their children a lot of skills to enable them to lead their lives. The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) in this day and age, one of those things is how to handle money. The CFA says results of a new survey indicates that just over half (53 percent ) of the parents they talked to, were confident that their children would be leaving home knowing how to manage their money.

The survey found that while most parents feel responsible for the financial education of their children, not all feel confident to undertake this education. And even more say they are "not" confident their children will leave home knowing how to manage money, credit, and debt.

According to the CFA, there are ten myths that young people (ages 14-21) have about money and debt:

1) I don't have to worry about credit at my age.
2) Bad credit can't keep me from getting a job.
3) All loan companies have the same rates.
4) All credit cards are alike.
5) The job of financial advertising is to tell the truth.
6) It's OK to bounce a few checks.
7) It's OK to make minimum payments on a credit card.
8) Paying late occasionally can't hurt my credit.
9) Fine print isn't important.
10) Young people don't have credit scores.

As a result of the survey, a new website, FoolProofMe.com has been developed to help educate young people and their parents. According to the CFA, FoolProofMe.com is a web-driven group of programs uniquely targeted to teach young people about money and financial responsibility. The website features hard-hitting messages about using checking and credit (often from young adults in short videos.)

29-year old Will deHoo, is the founder and CEO of FoolProofMe.com and says six years ago, he began speaking to young Americans about their finances. "Many of the young people we met had some form of financial training," deHoo says, "But they obviously hadn't listened." deHoo decided rather than kids not caring, it was the medium for delivering financial education that was the problem. He says even though young people were exposed to important financial information, because it wasn't in their 'language' they didn't engage. "We discovered that young people did care and would listen, if there was a way to reach them."

deHoo says that's when FoolProofMe.com was born.

deHoo says young people are immersed in technology and don't want to appear foolish. "And those realities defined how FoolProofMe.com would work," he says. So he gathered a team of consumer advocates, teachers, and most importantly young people from seven countries to develop the programs.

"We also take a strong stance on issues like credit cards," deHoo says. "Most financial literacy programs, especially those sponsored by financial institutions, present credit cards as the path to freedom. We present credit cards as the path to destruction, if you're not careful."

In addition to messages for young people, the website also contains programs for parents and school teachers.