Posted on 06/15/2021 9:12:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In school, you likely learned about logarithmic functions. You likely learned about the American Revolutionary War. You might have even learned about electrochemical bonds. But did you learn anything about the importance of fiscal responsibility or how to manage your basic finances?
The unfortunate reality is that personal finance is not a required curriculum in the public education system, and few schools in this country offer financial courses as electives. As a result, we have entire generations of people who don’t know the first thing about personal finance or economics -- and it shows.
We’re severely underestimating and underutilizing the power of personal finance education in this country, and it’s time to change things for the better.
The Basics of Financial Literacy
What do I mean by “financial education?” That could refer to a broad range of different topics. When I use the term, I’m referring to a common collection of principles associated with financial literacy. These include things like:
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Too many people think about finances only in the short term: how much money do I have today and what can I spend it on? Better personal finance education should include illustrations of long-term effective decision-making. For example, if I save $5 a day, every day, how much extra money will I have at the end of the year? At the end of the decade?
The consequences of leaving these topics untouched in school and in a person’s childhood can be devastating.
Taking on debt early in your life can hinder your potential growth. With college debt or credit card debt, you may find it nearly impossible to establish a strong financial foundation for yourself — and that debt may only grow worse over time.
Millions of people forge a path to their own retirement through hard work, strict budgeting, and investment; even on a modest salary, an individual can push to retire early. But with no personal finance skills, that’s a practical impossibility.
Personal finance is now a mandatory course for graduating high school in Virginia. As in no pass, no diploma.
Shush!
The creators and managers of The Fed, government officials and pubic skool teachers are quite happy with Americans’ financial ignorance.
Math is RACIST
When public school officials get salaries higher than most people and pensions to not have to worry about retirement (at least they think they don’t — inflation can be a downer, man), they think personal finance isn’t a necessary skill and project that onto the kids’ futures.
I’ve screamed for decades that education fails us by not educating people about personal finance and investing. It’s why so few build wealth and so many needlessly suffer economically.
But I’m not getting on a school board.
Mark Twain: “In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.”
If kids are taught financial responsibility at xchool,that would diminish the need for the welfare system...can’t let that happen. Welfare abusers vote Democrat.
There was, oh, in 1964, such a thing called ‘the business curriculum’. It was on par with ‘collegiate studies’. (This was junior high school.)
That curriculum, followed in high school, prepared me for working in business. Obviously, this was all before hand-held calculators. I learned most of those things mentioned in the article.
All these years, even with the change to computers.
And it started with learning what a checkbook, and a zavings account were.
What used to be a ‘blonde joke’ has become reality, i
e., “How could I be out of money??!! I still have checks left!”
I can’t imagine some whiny dem teacher could say anything about personal finance that could be helpful
The problem with institutions teaching personal finance is that much like everything else being taught, it’s rife with incompetent to outright false teachings. If they won’t teach Reading, Writing, and ‘rithmetic correctly, they won’t teach personal finance either.
Nineteenth century grade and highschool texts are loaded with economic postulates. Of course, one was then expected to grow up, work for a living, become self-sufficient, and serve the community as an adult, all the while having a good grounding in the economic universe. If the world is one’s oyster — it matters not whether one is a graduate of the ghetto or Beverly Hills — today it seems that ignorance is bliss, and few have found the stabber needed to pry open that shell and enjoy the meal that awaits.
IIRC, my ‘General Business’ class was in the 10th grade. That would have been the 1965-66 school year. I agree it was one of the more valuable things I learned in 16 years of formal schooling.
Give kids Dave Ramsey books.
Personal financing is racist and part of white patriarchal supremacy. Decolonize racist math.
Although it’s way out of date I’ve found Microsoft Money to be very,very useful in many ways.It only works on PCs but Mac users have access to Quicken...which does pretty much the same thing.
LOL. Years ago my wife worked at a bank... had a customer whose wife thought exactly that way. Always bouncing checks.
That’s because most people do not have the cognitive capacity to learn it.
Same at our local high school.
My daughter is pretty financially literate as a result, but sits on too much of her part time work money.
Trying to get her to buy into compounding interest through some low risk investments so she would at least see return instead of the .12/yr she gets in interest in a savings account!
Slow process, but taking her with me to my next meeting with my advisor to help her get a better handle and confidence.
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