Finances and pensions need to be taught in high schools

[MutterlyClueless]

I am lucky in that I have a defined benefit work pension (I know they are a rarity these days, so think myself lucky). I pay contributions and my employer pays a higher amount.

All good, apart from the fact that I could have retired at my scheme pension age and received my pension, but instead continued to work a few more years to achieve a higher pension.

I thought because I had unpaid maternity leave and worked part-time in my career I needed to work longer to boost my reckonable years and pension amount.

But I now think that in some cases a bird in the hand is better than one in the bush.

Am I the only one that didn't understand the pension choices and carried on working full time when I didn't need to?

Pensions of all kinds should be on the curriculum in high schools and colleges along with other courses about finances to help people stay out of debt and plan for their future better.

Banking has the interests of society at heart?

@ChinBristles

You obviously paid attention to the advice at school. Enjoy the millions!

At home... they need to be taught it at home . Alternatively, there are professionals out there who are experts in this .
Jesus schools have enough to do with keeping abreast of Pension intricacies.

Or rather than being lazy, could be like my mother who had serious illness and depression and brought us up on welfare.

Therefore, if you don't have any money, how do you know how to look after it when you do?

The only thing I learned from my mother was that I did not want to be on welfare myself if I could help it and not be in debt.

It's not the same though as knowing how to make the most of what little you have, and how to avoid getting into and being trapped in debt, which then affects your life choices.

I can see some basics being taught at school. Age appropriate. How to save. What makes a better buy, consumer math. I remember in year 9 and up having pretend investment accounts for the year with little fun rewards at the end of the year.

Thanks everybody for your responses. Food for thought, as always.

I definitely need to stop being blinkered and use all available information resources in future, and not put things off until the last minute (or later in this case). In other words, I need to grow up (or just retire as I have the privilege to do so). 😊

Thanks again.

This is great. I remember feeling so grown up when my class did a pretend investment module.

It's great you're going to continue with it.

Young person: How will learning <this> be of use to me in the future?
Teacher: <explains>.
Young person: <ignores>. They will never be that boring, or even get old at all.
End.

I have been saying schools should teach budgeting and pensions as part of PHSE for years. I was lucky because my Dad taught me about opening bank account, budgeting my salary, helped me start up my pension and open up separate savings account to put back deposit money. Mum and Dad had also saved money for me and my sister's from time we were born. When we got married they handed over money for us to put down as deposit. I have also instilled in my now adult children how to budget and to always save some money just in case. Not all parents have the skills to teach their children about budgets and pensions so many children would miss out so it is fairer if schools step in and offer at least some basic knowledge.

So because of your situation, nobody poor should learn it?
That just perpetuates the crabs in the pot mentality.

Maybe some of the poor kids might find a way to get a part time job and save £5 a week.
Maybe they'll have the idea get some training where they can have a decent career instead of finishing or dropping out and taking the first min wage job, or get involved with drugs, or start having babies they can't take care of at 17.

Are we admitting such lessons are for the socially disadvantaged and not a lesson type for the middle classes?

I think this is slightly condescending as it seems lessons in finance are directed to the relatively poor relatively non academic child to give them a sliver of hope about their future financial prospects.

Do the middle classes just crack on with trigonometry and quadratic equations to get the good GCSEs and A levels so they don't have to worry about credit card debt overly much when they get a good graduate job?

Our workplace runs seminars about retirement options.

Regarding state pensions, the facts change. Loads of women got caught out by this. Yes its a good idea to encourage children to save but shouldn't parents be doing this?

Your example is ridiculous. What you should have been taught in school - and I expect you were - was reading comprehension. Once you were in the pension scheme, there was nothing stopping you reading your scheme details. Unless you have literacy issues, most children are taught enough reading at school.

I’m all for financial education in schools - but that doesn’t mean the fine detail of individual pension schemes!

For most people there will be fifty years between leaving school and retirement. It’s impossible to predict what will happen to pensions in that sort of time frame and obviously individual circumstances vary so what is a good decision for one person may not be for another. Better that schools teach children the skills to research their options and make decisions based on that research, which is what they should already be doing.

@hotmail

@godmum56

I agree: it is a family decision to teach financial basics. How and when to save, when to buy and not to buy etc. are incredibly personal decisions and there is no right of wrong answer as in trigonometry. These decisions may be heavily influenced by family culture, attitudes and background and I think it is not the job of the state to teach on these issues necessarily especially at a young age.

Pensions are a financial product so are we advising children what to buy in much the same way we might tell how to buy a car? Why is it a school's responsibility to teach children what to buy?

If a child has a public sector defined benefit pesnion , great, tell kids the advantages. However have a reply ready when the child of private sector parents says 'my mommy and daddy are paying for that'

yup. reading comprehension, decent research skills and critical thinking....not just useful for finance but for everything from dating to choosing a fridge.

I have taught money management- my Year 11s were interested in:
Minimum wage (they couldn't believe it!)
Mortgage (well not really interested but had heard parents talking)
Tax - couldn't believe that we have to pay this all thought this was grossly unfair and didn't want to pay and as for the council tax were horrified as 'schools and hospitals are free'
Also they all thought that everyone was allowed to have a council house if they wanted

Yip they should defo be taught at school. Drop RE for a start and teach children things that will help them when they are adults!

@MumofSpud

Igneous be great if the state provided housing to any body requiring it and the fear of homelessness was taken away. However I select wing and I acknowledge this is a personal political view. How do you prevent your own personal views on the allocation of social housing provision not influence your teaching?

Minimum wage level again is a political decision and we can argue how it can be set. My issue with talking about minimum wage is that some children do have parents on the minimum wage and is fair to highlight their family's potential.poverty (even inadvertently).

So your students thought tax was unfair? Feels like we're going to have conservative governments for a long time.........

I think there was criticism in your post but not sure?

It would be not ingenous

People are already taught all they need to know about finances in maths lessons really - namely how to add and subtract (budgeting) and how to calculate compound interest (pensions, saving, investing, debt). The problem is more that people don't engage with things and I doubt trying to teach it to kids/teenagers will resolve that.

@MumofSpud

Not criticism as such but I feel talking about such topics with children is difficult without allowing some sort of political bias to filter in.

The class seem to have concluded taxes are unfair but is there an explanation of why taxes are necessary. If you explain taxes are necessary do you then give an opinion on their level and who should hear the brunt of the tax burden.

By bringing such topics into the classroom I think it is too easy to test into areas where there is a political dimension and teachers in my opinion should ever away from giving a political opinion.

A political discussion may be useful in a classroom environment with well defined rules but there is an acknowledgment that the discussion is political and some of your topics did have this dimension.

Social housing is an important right for instance and if your class seems for think that social housing is readily available surely that is a component to your council's a housing policy?

For above reasons I think you have to be careful when talking about money (intimately linked to politics and economics) with children.

Veer not ever