It's never too soon to learn how to handle money but, based on a recent basic financial knowledge quiz, many kids aren't making the grade.

Financial knowledge -- especially when it comes to debt, credit, spending and the like -- can make or break that first home purchase and, for better or for worse, leave an indelible mark on an impressionable young mind.

Just ask rapper LL Cool J.

"The biggest misconception probably comes from the hip-hop community itself ... that the money lasts forever. You have to do the right thing with it," he said during the Hip Hop Summit on Financial Empowerment's "Get Your Money Right" tour.

The summit tapped Cool J and a crew of other entertainers who already have young fans ears, hoping to get through to them -- in their own language -- about financial literacy.

They need to listen to somebody.

High school seniors barely got half of the answers right on a quiz of basic financial knowledge, according to the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy.

Only 14 percent knew that stocks are likely to have higher average returns than savings bonds, savings accounts and checking accounts over an 18-year period, the quiz revealed.

"This is what we get with widespread debtors mentality," says 24-year-old financial expert Michael Z. Stahl.

"Many young people look at the world in terms of the things they want -- not in terms of how they will make the money to get those things," he added.

The survey measured the financial literacy levels of some 5,775 high school students and revealed little improvement between the 2003-2004 survey and the 2005-2006 survey.

Don't blame all financial illiteracy on kids and parents who don't provide enough financial learning opportunities.

April is the Fourth Annual Financial Literacy Month, with today, April 25, designated as Financial Literacy Day and some critics say the direction of financial literacy education may be a few cents short of a buck.

Instead of taking the investment education approach, kids need to be nickled and dimed into financial literacy.

"Everyday spending decisions, especially credit-based ones, will do far more harm to your financial future than any investment decision you will likely ever make," says Paul Richard, executive director of the Institute of Consumer Financial Education (ICFE).

"National financial education efforts including those on the Internet are by and large void of any meaningful spending education," he added.

The ICFE says learning how to spend and to avoid overspending -- by using credit, by paying too much, or by not comparison shopping -- is a prerequisite to fostering improvements in the levels of personal and retirement savings and investments.

"If someone is spending everything and more than they earn, where do they think someone is going to come up with money save, much less money to invest?" Richard asks.

The non-profit's "Might You Be An Overspender?" helps you answer that question and others about your spending habits.

If the test reveals you as an overspender, the website's "Mending Spending" assistance can help you cut it out.

Then you can graduate to higher financial learning with Stahl's new "EARLY TO RISE: A Young Adult's Guide to Saving, Investing and Financial Decisions that Can Shape Your Life," (Silver Lake Publishing, $17.95).

Only 232 pages short, for the attention spans of many of its designated readers, the book is loaded with advice for kids of any age, including:

Published: April 25, 2006

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A journalist for 35-years, Broderick Perkins parlayed an old-school daily newspaper career into a digital news service offering editorial content and consulting services. Perkins' San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group includes the flagship news site, DeadlineNews.Com, offering real estate, personal finance and consumer journalism, and a backshop, the Deadline Newsroom.