The problem with financial literacy is that it is mostly gained by experience, at which point it may be too late.
The same things have been happening in financial markets for two centuries. I will say it is remarkable how few people take an interest in looking at this kind of thing. History, particularly in the US, is regarded with derision. Economists believe that nothing in the past could be relevant any more...their expert guidance has moved us to a higher plane of existence...
...and if you look at history, you will see that almost everyone back then thought the exact same thing too (I say almost, when things really went to shit you find that humility tends to last a bit longer...there is zero humility today).
This all applies to personal finance too. All the financial problems that people have are problems of human nature.
The financial industry has changed in some ways but most of it is exactly the same.
Viewing everything as personal is why people don't learn from history. This is why financial markets have cycles.
We all know not to eat junk food or buy stuff on credit..
Perhaps, we should make it harder to get credit, take loans, etc.
And could make we should make it easier to save for retirement, maybe a monthly contribution should be the default.
IMO payday loans or quick loans should be regulated to have limited interest. And if issued to someone the bank didn't verify as having credit worthiness the loan should be forfeited without being repayment. Or something like that.
There's too much predatory lending today. Certainly the barrier to taking such loans could be higher.
I think that's more effective than education.