They should teach this in schools

I agree with much of what you say. The basics of Personal Finance (and financial responsibility) should be a required part of our public school curriculum.

While I'm sure some will never want to hear this, a big part of the problem is our popular culture which promotes "spend, spend, spend". (ie - Get a new car every 3 years whether you need it or not -- and take out a loan (or lease) to do it; buy the biggest house you can afford - whether you need one that big or not; keep up with the latest fashions trends; etc, etc. etc).

Life is a series of choices. Everyone needs to decide what's more important to them. Do they want to keep up with the Joneses, or scale back to reasonable limits and help secure their financial future? Eventually most people come to the realization that keeping up with the Joneses isn't what it's cracked up to be. Unfortunately, many people come to this realization too late. But that's what keeps the economy ticking.

Just my opinion.....

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Correct. We are the ones that should be teaching our kids about these things.

Incorrect. Don't assume anyone is going to teach your kids anything about money and finances. I'd be concerned if someone I didn't know or trust was giving my young children financial advice.

You are dealing with issues that are mostly manifestations of an individual's personality. Such as propensity to save, being able to accept delayed reward, being able to contain excitement, etc. That personality can be changed by simply teaching a few basic, and obvious, facts, is a supposition that is not necessarily true.

As your your suggestion that some "teaching" can change the percentage of working spouses, that is very likely to be simply false. There are some powerful forces that are at work here that set the percentage of working spouses. Some are economic forces (a dual income family has more financial stability and ability to have medical insurance), some are desires of persons for self actualization through work, etc.

i

While I think your goals are right, I don't think it should necessarily be a school's responsibility. I was taught by my parents to lead a pure and passion-filled life and that money would automatically come (I pass this on now:

I thinkschools (up to high school) are mostly about learning social dynamicsin a relatively crowded world and some basic knowledge.

--Ram

ManChild wrote:

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An education system may not have total repsonsibility but they have

*some* responsibility. Similarly, it is ultimately my responsibility to see that my children can read and think about the world- but lets not get so philosophically haughty that we forget that the schools have our children five days a week and so it would be nice to have them do some work too. I understand the argument that the schools are increasingly called upon to do everything for everyone and that is valid. However, we are talking about a population that leaves school not knowing what a mortgage is and already in credit card debt with no background education to place it in context. What's wrong with this picture class? We know this is not good for our kids because it was not good for us. Kids these days have access to more and more credit (whether credit cards or school loans)which results in a greater capacity to be financially crippled for decades as a result of making poor decisions early in the learning curve. Bankruptcy isnt going to get you out anymore either.

Winter

People would first have to agree on the Basics. Here a site that is full of educational items.

--Andrew

This is SPAM.

-john-

future

I agree with you. I think its bizarre that our educational system doesn't teach children the actual skills they will need in order to function in the world. If I was in charge of the educational system I would have a daily one hour class on practical living skills for all 3 or 4 years of high school. It would cover things like mortgages, car loans, student loans, applying for a job and going to a job interview, investing, insurance, starting a small business, basic business and consumer law, etc. Its absurd that 80-90 of high school is spent on stuff that the student will never use again, while the knowledge they really will need they are expected to go out and uncover for themselves!

Andy

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Absolutely right. The key words are "not knowing". I'm pretty confident that even if schools instituted a program to address this, students wouldn't learn because they have no external reason to.

So why not pass it on? Seriously.

Let me be very direct (and this is not a flame): I'm saying your suggestion is the problem. In other words, if, as parents or mentors, we took more responsibility not only in terms of education but also in terms of behaviour, this situation would not exist.

--Ram

I've been thinking about this also, especially after reading the debates over on misc.consumers. My thought was that I could volunteer to teach a class at my local community center. I'm no accountant, though, only a career person who happens to have pretty good money habits. Why couldn't lots of people like me try to help solve the problem by doing this? Someone pointed out that much of the problem is personal - attitudes toward money, saving vs spending, and risk-taking. That's true. But what I was thinking that I could definitely teach are things like how to manage a checking account, how to read credit card terms and policies, how to do the math to decide if you're better off paying off a 18% credit card debt vs saving the money in a 6% money market account, etc. Also super simple things that many people never understand like "NEVER pay only the miniumum payment on a credit card". Also many people seem to think that creditors are there to help them, when really the creditors are there to make money. I'm not saying they're out to screw us (although some people will say that), but their undisputable primary goal is to make money, no matter what the net effect to Joe Borrower Jr. is. This stuff CAN be taught. Many of us (like me) are lucky in that our parents taught us. Of course if parents aren't taught this stuff, there's no way they can teach it to their kids.

Sharon

I was taught fp in middle school and in my freshman year in hs. However, it really didn't do me any good - I was too immature at the time (actually I thought it was beneath me - go figure).

However, I'm in the process of teaching my daughter fp using the IPO program at Merrill Lynch

Also, I started her in the program - I really don't know much about the it though - but it seems good so far.

I think it's important that the parent teach financial skills to their youth. Simply because the parent needs to know (and well enough to teach) so that the child will have a sense that it's the real deal - and practical. AND, the parent knows about family assets - inherited or otherwise.

Besides, my daughter's gym coach is already overloaded.

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