The St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Mary C. Suiter
“April is Financial Literacy Month, so it’s a good time to examine personal financial capability here in Missouri and Illinois. And there is room for improvement. Missouri ranked 33rd in WalletHub.com’s survey of the most and least financially literate states in the U.S., which also included the District of Columbia. The state ranked seventh for knowledge and education, which looked at categories such as the high school dropout rate, percentage of residents who hold at least bachelor’s degrees and number of library branches per 100,000 residents. However, the planning and daily habits rank of 44th is concerning. This category included the percentages of people who spend more than they make, of people who borrow from nonbank lenders and of “unbanked” households, or those who don’t have traditional bank accounts and instead may rely on costly alternative financial services.”(more)