Faculty Director Annamaria Lusardi’s keynote address at the launch of Global Money Week
Global Money Week (GMW) promotes efforts aimed at improving the financial literacy of young people. The ultimate goal of the campaign is to ensure that all children and young people have access to high-quality financial education, they learn about money matters and are able to take smart financial decisions that can improve their future financial resilience and financial well-being.
This year, IFDM Faculty Director Annamaria Lusardi delivered the keynote address, underscoring the importance of conversations about money and the need for financial education in schools.
“The question is not whether to have financial education — the question is how to scale it, and how we can leap forward.”
The following is the prepared text of remarks for delivery by Faculty Director Lusardi at the launch of Global Money Week on March 16, 2026.
Good afternoon — and good morning, good evening, wherever you are joining us from today.
I want to start with a question. What kind of world are young people inheriting?
It is, I believe, a world of remarkable opportunity. Artificial intelligence is transforming what is possible — in how we work, how we learn, how we solve problems. Technological innovation is accelerating at a pace that previous generations could not have imagined. I see it clearly here, in Silicon Valley. We are living longer, which means more years to pursue what matters to us. And young people today are connected, informed, and hungry to take on the challenges in front of them.
There is so much to be curious about. And the opportunities — they are there for the curious. They are real. They are within reach.
But here is what I also know. A world of opportunity is, at the same time, a world of risk. Navigating it well requires skills. And among the most essential of those skills — the most essential, and perhaps the most overlooked — is the ability to manage money.
Money is everywhere. It shapes nearly every decision we make. The education we pursue. The work we choose. The home we live in. The life we are able to build. Decisions related to money are a crucial part of our lives — from the very first coin a child receives, maybe coming from the tooth fairy, to the retirement savings a worker builds over a lifetime.
And yet, for so many young people — for too many young people — the conversations about money are simply missing.
The theme of Global Money Week this year is Smart Money Talks. And I want us to hold that phrase close today. We need to talk about money. This week, we are here to do just that.
Research and data show us where young people stand today.
In 2022, the Programme for International Student Assessment — PISA — assessed financial literacy among approximately 100,000 fifteen-year-olds across twenty OECD and partner countries and economies. It is one of the most comprehensive pictures we have of financial literacy among the young.
What did it find?
About one in five fifteen-year-olds scored at the lowest level of financial literacy. These students can, at best, recognise the difference between needs versus wants, and make simple decisions about everyday spending. One in five.
On the other end: only about one in ten students performed at the highest level — able to analyze complex financial products, to navigate situations they had never encountered before.
These figures are just for OECD countries. One in five at the bottom. One in ten at the top. The rest, somewhere in the middle — with gaps that will matter deeply when real financial decisions arrive.
And this is not uniform across young people. Financial literacy is lower among those from low socioeconomic backgrounds. In some countries, a gender gap in financial literacy is already forming — not in adulthood, but in the classroom. These are young people at the very beginning of their financial journey, and the divide is already there.
We are also learning more. Research in this area is evolving rapidly, and we continue to study the changing landscape so that we can better understand the moment we are in and better inform what needs to be done. Because the world young people are entering — with digital finance, with new forms of credit and investment, with AI-driven financial information — is more complex than it has ever been.
But here is something important, and I want to make sure we hold this alongside the challenges: those young people who do have financial knowledge — they do better. Not just in theory. In practice. Young people with higher financial literacy exhibit savvier financial behavior. They make better decisions. They are more resilient. Knowledge makes a measurable, real difference in their lives.
We know financial education works. We know it changes behavior. Looking at financial education programs in as many as 33 countries, we found clear evidence of their effectiveness. The question is not whether to have financial education — the question is how to scale it, and how we can leap forward.
I often think about how financial literacy is, today, largely a privilege. It tends to be passed down at the dinner table — in households where money is discussed, where parents invest and save, where money is part of the normal conversation of family life. Children in those homes absorb this knowledge early and naturally.
But what about the children whose families never had those conversations? The research and data show that sometimes the financial knowledge is not there among adults too.
Those young people deserve the same foundation. And right now, too many of them are not getting it.
So what can we do? I believe — and I want to say this with conviction — financial illiteracy is not inevitable. It is the result of many factors and obstacles that we should consider to find solutions.
Global Money Week gives us a chance to come together — to celebrate what has been accomplished over so many editions, and to commit to doing more. To jump ahead. This week is a chance to make the conversation about money open, visible, and normal — so that every young person understands that this is a topic they are allowed to engage with, ask questions, and talk about with the people around them. It is time to speak up about how much money matters — to make financial conversations a routine part of life, not something reserved for crises or kept behind closed doors.
It is time for young people to talk to their peers about money. To share experiences and questions and aspirations. Because the silence around money — the sense that it is taboo, that asking about it is embarrassing, that struggling with it is shameful — that silence is not protecting anyone. It is holding all of us back.
It is time to change the conversation. To build good financial habits early. Not just to explain what things cost, but to help young people understand what money makes possible — that money is a means to achieve dreams, and that managing it well is one of the most powerful things a person can learn to do.
And the best place for these conversations — the most powerful, the most equitable, the most far-reaching — is the school.
By adding financial education to schools, we can reach every young person. From the North to the South. From large cities to small rural communities. From families with resources to families with very little. Everyone benefits from this knowledge. Everyone.
Schools can make the conversation about money approachable at every level of learning. They can make sure that no young person is left behind simply because of where they were born or what conversations happened — or didn't happen — in their home.
I have seen what happens when conversations about money reach the young people who need it most. When first-generation students take a personal finance course, they bring that knowledge back to their parents, their siblings, and their communities. There is a multiplier effect. When a girl receives financial education, she doesn't just benefit herself — she becomes an educator for the people around her. She changes her world.
We have research confirming this. A study of financial education in schools in Peru found that knowledge spread not just to students, but to teachers and parents — and the parents of lower socioeconomic backgrounds gained the most.
That is the power of schools. That is what we are fighting for.
I am optimistic. Genuinely optimistic. Because I see the momentum.
More than half of U.S. states now require personal finance education as part of high school graduation. That is a profound shift. Universities are adding personal finance courses — and students are filling them. At Stanford, when our personal finance course launched, it filled up instantly with hundreds of students. It has become one of the most popular elective courses. Why? Because students know they need it. They are hungry for it. They just haven't always been given the chance.
And governments are implementing and updating national strategies for financial literacy. The European Central Bank is leading the way to coordinate the effort of national central banks in the European Union to both promote financial literacy, and in particular, close the gender gap. Thought leaders from the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Financial Education have come together to share learnings from around the world and jumpstart solutions.
It is impressive that 71 million young people have been reached by Global Money Week across 176 countries over 13 editions. Let’s sit with that number for a moment.
Seventy one million conversations that might not have happened. Seventy one million young people who were told: money matters. Your financial future matters. You should talk about this. You can ask questions. You are not alone.
That is what this campaign has built. That is what we are here to continue and accelerate.
Young people are our future. The financial decisions they make in the years ahead will shape their lives, their families, the communities they live in, and the economies we all share. We owe it to them to prepare them well.
Changing the conversation about money is a critical step. And it is within reach. The knowledge exists. The evidence is there. I see it on this screen, across this global community — the will is there too.
Global Money Week can lead the way. Let this week be the moment we recommit to making sure every young person — regardless of where they were born, regardless of what their family looks like, regardless of whether the conversation happened at their dinner table — has access to the financial knowledge they need to build the life they dream of.
Smart money talks. Those who know better, do better. Let's make sure every young person has a voice in that conversation. Thank you.