Quick Answer: The U.S. Treasury is seeking public input to update the National Strategy for Financial Literacy, with comments open until April 6, 2026. But here’s what they’re missing: research shows financial literacy education alone doesn’t change financial behavior—because how we spend is driven by emotion and personality, not knowledge.
Part of a Research Series: This post is part of Why Financial Education Fails: The Research on Money Psychology and Behavior — a complete collection of research on money psychology and financial behavior.
The federal government wants to know how to teach Americans about money. The Treasury Department just published a Request for Information asking the public how to update the U.S. National Strategy for Financial Literacy—a plan that hasn’t been revised since 2020.
I should be thrilled. More financial education, right? What’s not to love?
Except I’ve spent 30 years watching people drown in debt, and I can tell you this: knowing the right answer and doing the right thing are two completely different problems.
What the Government Is Asking
The Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC)—a group of 23 federal agencies chaired by the Treasury Secretary—is required by law to review and update the National Strategy for Financial Literacy each year. They’re asking the public to weigh in on everything from priority areas to best practices to how to fight fraud.
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The current strategy covers five areas:
- Basic Financial Capability
- Military Financial Readiness
- Postsecondary Education
- Housing Counseling
- Retirement Savings and Investor Education
The RFI also mentions “Trump Accounts”—youth investment accounts created through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—as a vehicle for teaching kids about saving and investing through real-world experience. That part actually makes sense. Real experience beats classroom lectures every time.
Comments are open until April 6, 2026 at Regulations.gov under docket number TREAS-DO-2026-0001.
The Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About
Debt is math wrapped in emotion. You can teach the math all day long—but if you don’t address the emotion, nothing changes.— Steve Rhode
Here’s what decades of research—and my own experience running a credit counseling organization—have taught me: financial literacy programs alone don’t reliably change financial behavior.
The Research: Economist Lewis Mandell, who ran the Jump$tart Coalition surveys for years, found that high school students who completed a personal finance course scored no better on financial literacy tests than students who never took the class. In some cases, students who took the course actually performed worse—possibly because the course gave them false confidence without changing their underlying behavior.
Let that sink in. Students who sat through an entire financial literacy course sometimes did worse than students who didn’t. Not because the information was wrong—but because knowledge alone doesn’t drive behavior.
Why Education Alone Fails
The way we deal with money is not primarily logical. It’s emotional. It’s unconscious. It’s shaped by how we grew up, what we saw our parents do, and deep-seated personality traits that no amount of classroom instruction can override.
When I ran Myvesta, my credit counseling organization, we conducted research showing that 49% of 136 debt clients screened positive for depression symptoms — an elevation over the general population best stated as a range of roughly two to five times, not a single multiplier, as I explain here. You can’t tell a depressed person to maintain motivation for five years of debt repayment. That’s not a financial literacy problem. That’s a mental health problem masquerading as a money problem.
The Dogma: “If we just teach people about money, they’ll make better decisions.”
The Reality: How you handle money is driven by your money personality—unconscious patterns shaped by emotion, not logic. Research from psychologists Brad and Ted Klontz shows our “money scripts” are deeply rooted beliefs we don’t even recognize. A budgeting worksheet can’t fix what’s happening under the surface.
What Would Actually Work
If I were writing the National Strategy, I wouldn’t start with spreadsheets and compound interest formulas. I’d start with self-awareness.
- Understand your money personality first. Before any financial plan can work, you need to understand how you unconsciously deal with money. Are you a binge spender? A stockpiler? Do you avoid looking at your finances entirely? This is why I built a free Money Personality Quiz on my site—because understanding your patterns is the first step.
- Teach at the point of need. Mandell himself concluded that financial education works best when delivered just before someone needs it—like learning about mortgages when you’re actually buying a house, not in 10th grade.
- Use real experience, not lectures. The Jump$tart data showed that students who played a stock market simulation game scored significantly better (55.1%) than students who completed an entire money management course (51.4%). Hands-on beats hypothetical.
- Address mental health alongside financial health. When nearly half of people in debt are screening positive for depression symptoms, “just make a budget” is about as useful as telling someone with a broken leg to walk it off.
The Fraud Piece Matters
One area where the FLEC update could genuinely help: fraud prevention. The RFI specifically asks how to equip consumers to identify and avoid sophisticated scams. That’s a real and growing problem.
Scammers exploit the exact same emotional triggers that drive overspending—fear, urgency, shame, and the desperate hope that someone has a quick fix. Teaching people to recognize those emotional manipulation tactics is more valuable than teaching them about APRs.
What This Means for You
If you’re struggling with debt right now, here’s my honest take: don’t wait for a government strategy to save you. The information you need is already available—the question is whether you’re addressing the real problem.
Debt is what’s left over when the math is broken. But the math usually broke for emotional reasons, not because you didn’t know the interest rate on your credit card.
Key Takeaways
- The Treasury Department is seeking public input on updating the U.S. National Strategy for Financial Literacy—comments open until April 6, 2026
- Research shows financial literacy courses alone don’t reliably improve financial behavior—students who took courses sometimes scored worse
- How we handle money is driven by emotion and personality, not knowledge—take the free Money Personality Quiz to understand your patterns
- Effective financial education needs to address mental health, teach at the point of need, and use real-world experience
- Not sure where to start? Take the free Find Your Path quiz to get guidance tailored to your situation
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC)?
FLEC is a federal commission of 23 federal agencies chaired by the Treasury Secretary. Created by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, it coordinates federal financial education efforts and maintains the National Strategy for Financial Literacy.
Does financial literacy education actually work?
The evidence is mixed. Economist Lewis Mandell’s research through the Jump$tart Coalition found that students who completed financial literacy courses scored no better—and sometimes worse—than those who didn’t. Experiential learning (like stock market simulations) showed better results than traditional classroom instruction.
Why do people make bad financial decisions even when they know better?
Because financial behavior is driven more by emotion, personality, and mental health than by knowledge. Research from psychologists like Brad and Ted Klontz shows that unconscious “money scripts”—beliefs about money formed in childhood—drive spending habits regardless of financial education.
How can I submit comments to the Treasury Department about financial literacy?
Submit comments at Regulations.gov under docket number TREAS-DO-2026-0001. The comment period closes April 6, 2026.
What should I do if I’m in debt right now?
Start by understanding your relationship with money through the free Money Personality Quiz, then take the Find Your Path quiz to explore all your options. Debt is the symptom—addressing what broke the math is the real solution.
(Source: Federal Register, Department of the Treasury)
Dealing With Debt? Understanding your options is the first step. See how all your debt relief options compare — including ones most sites won’t tell you about. The Find Your Path quiz gives a recommendation based on your actual numbers, and the Scam-O-Meter checks any company’s complaint history before you sign. Federal Reserve research shows bankruptcy filers recover faster than those who don’t file.
