Where do Americans learn about personal finances? Internet mostly

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In recent years, more experts have called for greater financial education during high school to help students prepare for their futures. Relatively few Americans have learned about this in school, our survey finds.

Among U.S. adults who are knowledgeable about personal finances, 49% say they learned a great deal or a fair amount about personal finances from family and friends. That is the highest share for any source we asked about. About a third or fewer learned about personal finances from other sources such as:

The internet (33%)

College or university (27%)

Media such as the news, documentaries or books (24%)

K-12 schools (19%)

Learning about personal finances from family and friends is a relatively common experience across all major demographic subgroups. But there are notable differences for some other sources.

Internet

Asian adults (64%) are more likely than Hispanic (48%), Black (42%) or White adults (26%) to say they learned a great deal or a fair amount about personal finances from the internet.
Adults ages 18 to 49 are more likely than those 50 and older to have learned about personal finances from the internet (50% vs. 19%).

Average

Asian (45%), Hispanic (36%) and Black adults (34%) are all more likely than White adults (19%) to have learned about personal finances from media.
Younger adults are more likely than older adults to have learned about personal finances from media (29% vs. 21%).

Only 41 percent of Latinos have financial knowledge