Incorporating financial literacy into the accounting curriculum

Financial literacy education, or the lack thereof, has received much attention in recent years. Over the past two decades, we have witnessed the dot com bubble, corporate scandals that stirred the market, and a large recession. Because many individuals turn to accountants for financial advice, it is now more important than ever for professionals to possess a strong foundation in basic financial literacy to better serve their clients. While the responsibility of financial literacy education does not lie with one institution or one individual, multiple efforts have been put in place to provide financial literacy education to the public. The purpose of this paper is to describe how financial literacy education was successfully incorporated into the accounting classroom to provide tomorrow’s professionals with a strong foundation in financial literacy.