Getting People to Care About Personal Finance

2. Make personal finance part of popular culture . This is already happening to some degree. Television and radio personalities like Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman are making inroads into popular culture. Certain authors like David Bach, Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey and Jean Chatzky are becoming more widely read. DVD s like Maxed Out and In Debt We Trust are on Netflix. However, it s not enough to get people away from Survivor and American Idol.

Maybe we need a personal finance reality show that shows the hardships that result from not caring about finance. They eat bugs on Fear Factor, why not film someone who has to eat dog food as a result of their choices? How about a personal finance video game? Make more movies and TV shows that deal with real financial issues instead of giving everyone hot cars, clothes and jobs. The truth is, in this day and age, something has to be sexy, glitzy, or over the top to get attention.

Finance isn t any of these things. We need to figure out ways to get finance out into the culture and get people talking.