Teens worried about financial future

American high school students are beginning to worry about their financial futures, knowing that they may have to take out potentially crippling student loans very soon, which may result in communications with a debt recovery service. Reports of credit card and medical debt are also cause for concern among those on the verge of adulthood. A new Junior Achievement USA and Allstate Foundation collaboration found that American teens are less financially optimistic than they once were. In 2011, 89 percent of teens from age 14 to 18 years old believe they would eventually be either more or as financially stable than their parents, but that number dropped to 56 percent in 2012. The 2012 Junior Achievement Teens and Personal Finance survey also showed that teens believe they will still depend on their parents for money until a later age. Only 18 percent said they thought they would be financially independent by age 20, while 23 percent thought somewhere between the ages of 25 and 27 was more accurate. International Monetary Fund deputy division chief for the global financial stability division in the monetary and capital markets Erik Oppers explained that America's youth should also worry about financial savings because people are expected to live longer. People will have to save more and for longer in order to assure comfortable living into later ages.