I grew up when we were still a nation of savers. The personal savings rate in the U.S. at the time I graduated college was hovering around the 10-percent mark. Like most people my age, I’d been schooled early on in the importance of putting money away for the future. I had my first paying job at age eight, opened my first savings account as a teenager and learned about compound interest (investment vehicles at the time were fairly straightforward).

I worry about kids growing up today. Saving has largely gone out of vogue, investment options are increasingly sophisticated and, yet, this is the generation that is likely to live longer, pay higher tuitions for their children’s education, share a greater burden for healthcare costs and be forced to contribute more toward their retirement. We need to teach them to save and make smart decisions about spending, saving, borrowing and investing.

Financial literacy provides benefits for kids throughout their lives. The younger someone is when they begin to save or invest; the more likely they are to continue these good habits throughout their lifetime. This type of steady and persistent savings, even at incremental levels, is exactly the type of activity that creates financial security and independence.

“Financial literacy” sounds dry, but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, a number of programs have found ways to make it a fun experience for students. For more than 36 years, the SIFMA Foundation has sponsored the Stock Market Game ™, an interactive curriculum that utilizes real research and news updates to simulate the markets. The game gives students at schools across the country a mock portfolio of $100,000 to manage for a semester. They buy and sell stock and other financial products with the hopes of creating the largest return on their investment.

Programs like the Stock Market Game have been shown to benefit students beyond the area of just financial literacy. A 2009 study by Learning Points Associates looked at how students who played the Stock Market Game performed in math compared to those who didn’t. The results showed that those who played in grades 4-6 scored, on average, above the 55th percentile while those who didn’t scored above only the 43rd percentile. Results for students in grades 7-10 were similarly impressive. The impact of the program on investor knowledge was remarkable. Those who played in elementary school scored, on average, above the 68th percentile while those who did not scored at just the 42nd percentile.

The Stock Market Game also teaches students how to be an active, engaged, responsible participant in our economy. Their understanding of and participation in the financial markets teaches them how to harness the value that the financial services industry can provide to them. Not only can they benefit personally from the vibrant economy their participation helps create, they can also tap into it to serve their communities.

Helping our children to become financially literate will ensure that they are well prepared to make smart financial decisions as they come of age. If they’re going to live longer, they should be able to enjoy it, right? Programs like the Stock Market Game™ both teach and instill good habits that last a lifetime, and provide a foundation for the youth of today to be the vital contributors to society of tomorrow.

Richard Brueckner
Chief of Staff, BNY Mellon
Chair, SIFMA Foundation

Today is the last day of trading for the SIFMA Foundation’s Capitol Hill Challenge (CHC), a special version of the SIFMA Foundation’s Stock Market Game™, where teams of high school students organized by Congressional district and state invest a hypothetical $100,000 in listed stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Winners will be announced next week and the top seven performing teams will travel to Washington, D.C. in June to meet their Members of Congress and attend an Awards Reception on June 19. Since CHC began in 2004, more than 45,000 students from schools across the country have engaged with their Representatives and Senators in this exciting competition. Stay tuned to see if your district is a winner!