It's normal for kids to turn to their parents for financial advice. But a new survey says that many parents are not all that confident that the answers they give will be the right ones.
While 61% of Americans consider parents a key influence in how they handle their money, 46% of parents with kids under age 21 give themselves a grade of C or lower in financial literacy, according to a survey released today by Country Financial.
The lack of confidence extends to a number of areas, with just 53% of parents feeling confident about managing a 401(k), 61% confident with planning for retirement, 55% confident with the subject of taking or paying off student loans and only 33% confident about investing in the stock market.
"Parents have the benefit of having real-life experience that has helped them to sharpen their personal finance skills, but most are not going to be experts in every topic," Tim Harris, executive vice president at Country Financial, said in a prepared statement.
The lack of confidence in financial matters may be having an impact on their children—particularly millennials and Generation Z, according to the survey.
The survey found that 48% of 18- to 34-year-olds feel somewhat or not at all prepared to manage their finances when entering adulthood. While 80% of that age group are confident about managing a bank account, the confidence level drops in the areas of investing (20%), planning for retirement and managing a 401(k) (32%) and taking out and paying off student loans (43%).
Parents also seem to be shy about talking to their kids about some financial matters they're not confident about, according to the survey.
For example, only 13% of parents said they have talked to their kids about planning for retirement and only 9% talked to them about managing student loans. Saving and budgeting were more popular topics where parents expressed confidence; 78% of parents in the survey had talked about saving and 52% of parents had talked budgeting with their kids.