Photo by Trinette Reed/Getty Images.

“There is a lot of ignorance out there,” Vaughn says. “You graduated from high school and just about everyone got a (credit) card. Nobody told you how to use it or what credit was. Everyone blew all that money and then had to pay the consequences.” The result for many people, she says, is that “you get hit with huge interest rates, you pay the minimum, never pay the card off, and then 10 years later you’re still paying on the same $500 you spent on real stupid stuff when you were 18 years old.”

Ty says that AARP, the nation’s largest organization for people 50 or older, chose to develop a website aimed at young adults because financial decisions people make in their 20s and 30s have a huge impact on their retirement security. Also, she says, 69 percent of AARP members report they are supporting their adult children in some way financially.

The LifeTuner site provides young people with financial information and provides ways to discuss their financial problems with peers and get advice from AARP members. But perhaps more important, it lets them question financial experts, who respond in a general way on what to do.

“We want to break down the last frontier and get people talking about their finances and connecting to like-minded peers, experts and individuals who have ‘been there’ before,” Ty says.

Gilbert Klein, a former national correspondent with the Media General News Service, is a freelance writer based in Arlington, Va.

1 | 2