PwC-KWHS has a Podcast Series for High School Educators on Business & Financial Responsibility.  This is their first installment of a four part series which explores the question of how technology is transforming personal finance and how educators should be adjusting their teaching methods and curricula to respond to these changes.

One question posed during the podcast which I often hear from educators is in regards to whether balancing a checkbook is still a foundational skill for young people today:

It’s an excellent question and one that I think we always think about — are we outdated? Should we be doing something different? To that I’ll say that technology has given us many tools that make our lives easier, and these are just that. They’re tools to enable us to transact with banks, to do things a little bit easier.

That cannot replace the base case that we need to know. We need to be educated consumers and what that means is that we need to know what’s happening behind the technology. The reality is that consumers, and especially I’m sure students, are more likely to have their smartphones on them than a checkbook. And so, in this very automated world of online bill payment and tons of mobile apps, I think that students still need to have a fundamental understanding of what it means to have a budget, how to balance a budget. That’s essentially what we were doing when we were balancing our checkbooks, right? It’s looking at what was the budget, how much are we over or under that budget? I think that that’s a … fundamental understanding of financial concepts that never gets outdated and that technology won’t replace.

Unfortunately, what the data shows is that American teens lag behind many of … their international peers when it comes to financial literacy … It has to be a priority. … These fundamental know-hows need to be implemented and taught a bit more to all. … Technology needs to be used as a tool, but the understanding needs to be there first.

What do you think?

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Check out this NGPF Activity idea which will have your students research budgeting apps.

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.