Gold medal winner teaches students importance of personal finance

ATLANTA - Educated young people remain pretty uneducated about personal finance. Georgia is on the brink of passing legislation that will require a financial literacy course to graduate. 

Here’s the problem: A recent survey shows that 65% of the students they talked to left high school without ever taking a personal finance course. And, still today, not enough parents are talking to their kids about money. 

Former Olympic soccer champion Amy Rodriguez recently retired from professional soccer. As a NCAA coach, she now teaches soccer and personal finance to her students. She says she left home a soccer expert but didn't know a thing about how to manage her money. 

"When I was a student athlete in college I didn’t necessarily have the resources or the tools to know how to handle my money. And one day I was a poor college student, and next I became a professional athlete getting money deposited into her account. And I wish I would’ve had something or someone to kind of hold my hand to lead me in the steps you take to make these big financial decisions," she told the FOX 5 I-Team. 

April is financial literacy month, so she is helping to kick off a tool for young people. It’s an online game called "How Not to Suck at Money." It’s a digital platform game that goes over so many important topics like picking a bank, budgeting, credit card use, understanding student loans, buying a car, moving out, starting a job, and learning to invest. 

"I’ve always told my student athletes the younger and the sooner you start planning and educating yourself the better you’re going to be," the world champ said. 

And hey, adults, it’s never too late to "Not Suck at Money" yourself. Check out the game and give it a go — even do it with the kids.

Right now about a dozen states require personal finance courses to graduate high school. Georgia will likely join the team this year.