North Carolina may be setting a trend many would like to see extend to Texas. That state will require a personal finance course to graduate high school.
Michael Smith at Houston's STA Wealth Management says a recent example shows high school kids have no idea what to do with money.
"They gave them a hypothetical $100,000 account and you know what they did with it? 70% of it went to Tesla and how do you think that turned out? Turned out fine for now but it's gonna be the wrong way to teach about finance and investment in the future."
Smith says he has lot of clients who wish they'd gotten better financial instruction.
"I had a very high-level neurosurgeon tell me 'I wish I would have learned more about personal finance and saving in high school and college; I've never had a course on it.'"
Smith says every teen should be taught to save and not run up credit card debt.
"Give them an illustration of what they could have at retirement if they started investing and I think you could change the mindset from binging on credit to more about saving and keeping credit scores low and keeping your debt down."
In North Carolina the new finance course will replace one of the American history courses students are currently required to take for graduation.