Money Management and Education

[ForestDad]

Question to the floor please - if you're "not very good with money" - why not?

Should it be taught in school better? At home? If so what aspects?

Yes, it should be taught in school.

I used to be really good with money, siblings called me the Chancellor. The last five years though 🤦‍♀️I’ve been depressed and super stressed, not had a decent nights sleep since 2016 and have tried spending my way out, despite knowing that’s not the best approach.

Meant to say, compound interest should be taught, also all the tricks credit card companies use to entice people to spend.

Exactly how mortgages and investments work.

The effects of inflation on food prices etc.

I am good with money now but in my early adulthood I certainly wasn't. This is because my parents were terrible with it- had debt, bought stuff they cost afford. Never talked to us about saving, budgeting or home ownership, not one word. They were very loving but they didnt have financial sense.
Fast forward and I met DH who is very good with money and has quite literally sat me down and educated me on it, for which I asked and am grateful. I now know about pension, mortgages, interest rates, savings and I have all these things under my belt with no additional debt. I'm so grateful for him teaching me how to live in a financially sensible way and because of this we have a good life together. We save for our children, and when they are a bit older we will definitely be teaching them about money and finance.
I think it would he helpful in the PSE curriculum.

Government child trust fund was supposed to help people start to save for their child & think about the future

Employers of a certain size have to offer their employees the opportunity to join a work pension, but you can still opt out

There are tax free savings like ISAs

There is plenty of information available

I probably don’t make the best financial choices all the time - but that’s more because I lack willpower and fortunately, earn enough that being frivolous with money has never been an issue.

I’m not convinced the majority of people who get into debt do so because there’s not enough information or education out there; there will be an element of that for some people, but I don’t think anyone takes out high-interest loans or credit cards or hire-purchase agreements for household good etc because they’re stupid, more because they’re desperate. (Much in the same way I don’t think the majority of overweight people are overweight because they’re too stupid / haven’t received enough education to know that biscuits and KFC are unhealthy.)

I agree with previous poster about compound interest often being unclear - but I think it should be a regulatory requirement of lenders to make it clear to borrowers what the impact of compound interest on their borrowing will be (and I believe it now is.)

I agree about teaching the importance of compound interest and also about pensions. To be honest I'm not sure I'd have paid attention to this in school anyway, the idea of saving for retirement would have seemed ludicrous but I'm kicking myself that I didn't start paying more in when I was younger.

Schools do teach compound interest (part of GCSE Maths syllabus) but it's taught in a algebraic way rather than a real-life way, so pretty useless. The pupils who have already been turned off Maths will have zoned out when the formula appears on the board/screen.

It needs to be taught in PHE lessons along with all manner of other life skills and taught in a simplistic real-life manner so it would be more accessible for the weaker and disengaged pupils.