Teens want to walk a clean financial path, but currently don’t seem to understand enough on the subject. The Federal Reserve’s 2008 test of high school seniors resulted in an average financial literacy score of just 48 percent. How can we best educate our youth to build a health credit history?

Care about your credit now. At WalletPop.com, the number one teen money myth is not believing a need to worry about credit exists at this age. Teens can become aware of the three credit reporting agencies and their FICO score and how they affect everything from landing a job to a securing a residence.

Trusted people can screw up your credit. Let’s say a teen needed a parent to be co-signers on a credit card or auto loan. If mom forgets to pay the bill, it reflects poorly on both credit reports. The new Credit CARD Act laws make it harder for a person under 21 to get a card, upping the chance for loan default if the parents aren’t financially responsible.

Learn risky identify theft behavior. Teens are much more plugged into technical devices and thus frequent targets for Internet identify theft. Here are some more ideas about what teens can be learning about protecting their money.

Take a close look at the punishments. Without a decent FICO score, we know we’ll pay a higher interest rate on a loan and in result lose a lot of money. Teens need to crunch these numbers and think of all the other fun ways this money could be spent rather than fees. Failing to pay an owed debt results in a negative mark which hurts as much as a nasty high school rumor. And in the future, if they fail to pay off student loans, their wages could be garnished.