Allison Beacham, my Millennial daughter and co-author on O.M.G. Official Money Guide for College Students, has nearly $17,000 in her 401(k) plan.  That’s just two years into her “after-college” job. This is not by chance. Financial education (a.k.a. having the money talk) begins in the home, and we have been grooming her since she turned eight.

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The following is an article written by my daughter, Allison Beacham, for USA Today College‘s contributor network.  I completely agree!

My four years at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, taught me many things: how not to turn laundry pink, that Bagel Bites aren’t dinner.

I also learned about financial literacy — even though, like laundry and nutrition, it was strictly through self-study. There just wasn’t much financial education offered to students outside the business school.

So even though money management is a key part of every adult’s life, personal finance wasn’t part of my formal education. (I did, however, have to take two geology courses.) Lucky for me, I grew up in a household where being money savvy was a family rule and not some afterthought like the laundry lesson I had clearly needed.

On-Campus vs. Off-Campus

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After reading an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal this weekend from a parent at A.N. Pritzker Elementary in Chicago lamenting about the school library closing,  I was compelled to respond.  After 8 years of working with hundreds of Chicago Public School teacher-librarians to bring financial education to students at schools that would otherwise have missed out on these essential life-lessons, I know personally how vital a role these educators play within the schools.  So I wrote a piece which posted today on RightAboutMoney.com as my tribute to those hundreds of educators who have chosen to make a positive impact on elementary students in Chicago.  We could not do this without them!

“Firing a Librarian Caused This School to Backslide on Financial Education”  |  RightAboutMoney.com

Here is a video we created featuring some of the best CPS teacher-librarians and the students and parents that have been impacted as a result:

Forbes columnist Simon Constable gives a thumbs-up to our new “O.M.G. Official Money Guide for College Students” book as a great resource to help college-bound students and their families.  Here’s the article – Enjoy. (We did!)

“A Simple Way To Help Your College-Bound Student Ace Personal Finance” – Simon Constable, Forbes