Financial Education

[Jolly]

So as not to derail another on-going thread, I thought I'd ask these questions in a thread of their own:

1. Should schools teach a financial education course in high school? Should it be elective or mandatory?

2. If so, what should taught in the course? Basic household and small business (or farm) finance? Basic investing? Credit issues?

3. Would a basic finance course in high school have helped you in life? Would it have changed your homesteading goals?

[Karenrbw]

Here in Missouri, all high school students must take and pass a Personal Finance class. It covers items such as home buying, loans, simple interest, compound interest, banking, checking accounts, saving for retirement, etc. It is a semester class and is usually taught to juniors. It has been in place for about 4 years now.

[Pink_Carnation]

When I was in school they did teach it as a required course. It didn't really help beyond knowing how to write a check and to not spend more than was in the account. It won't be retained without a teacher who can make it interesting and make them really see the bigger picture.

[Callieslamb]

I think it needs to be taught, but in reality, kids just don't understand how long it might take to pay back a loan of $5000 - it sounds small and a payment of $150 a month doesn't sound like much to them either.

My sister teaches (in Mo) a class on personal finance as part of family and consumer science. Included in her class is budgeting, checkbook balancing, loans & interest rates, etc. They don't get it usually, she says. From this information, I realize that I need to teach my own kids as well as show them by my example. If they see mom and dad working a budget (saying 'no' from time to time) it is easier for kids to understand it.

[silverbackMP]

I'd go a step further and say macro and mirco economics should be mandatory for college prep and combined economics class should be required for votech type students. Also ALL schools of economics (to include Austrian) should be taught. This is in addition to personal/business finance and STRONG civics, government, and history courses.

[sgl42]

no.

i think understanding finance, investing, money, saving/budgeting are critical life skills, yet still i say NO.

why? what schools should *really* teach is critical thinking. yet unfortunately, their failing and corrupt. any course would be watered down and corrupted and simply they'd simply become shills for wall street.

think back on the last 15 years. we had the tech bubble, which all the mainstream "economic experts" were cheerleading for, declaring you couldn't recognize a bubble ahead of time, the market was efficient, etc. yet basic critical thinking allowed one to easily see it was an unsustainable bubble.

then, given the incredible gullibility of the public, these same "economic experts" blew a housing bubble. "real estate always goes up." "they're not making any more land." "don't wait to buy real estate, buy real estate and wait." the drumbeat from the mainstream media and the so-called "experts" were really shills for the wall street bonus machine.

and then we allowed these same "experts" to recommend that the gov't the bail out wall street so they could continue the fat bonuses using taxpayer dollars.

under the current corrupt and failing education system, i'd expect any class to become a re-education/propaganda machine. make it confusing so they'll think "its so complicated, i better leave it to the experts."

unless/until the current system is reformed to teach critical thinking, it will fail. if the schools taught/teach critical thinking, more of the populous would have seen our current problems developing, and realized who the culprits are.

--sgl

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Originally Posted by sgl42

unless/until the current system is reformed to teach critical thinking, it will fail. if the schools taught/teach critical thinking, more of the populous would have seen our current problems developing, and realized who the culprits are.

--sgl

Agreed

In high school and college I was subjected to preparing a pro-forma personal budget no less than 7 times. (Nevermind I already worked and paid my bills on time). So, fast forward 10 years and I am now a comercial banker by day, farmer by night and weekends. Being slightly qualified, I attempted to teach a high school class a few things about economics/personal finance with particular emphasis on building net worth (never covered in my education) . Maybe 5% of the class was interested, the rest of them slept or played with electronic devices. I quickly struck teaching high school from my list of possible second careers.

[Patt]

Absolutely! The 3 best classes I took in High school were Budget & Buying, Checking, and Income taxes. I learned how to do all three things and it was an enormous help when we were young marrieds!
We homeschooled ours and we made sure that they knew all of those things thoroughly. Honestly every responsible parent should be sure that their kids have checking accounts and debit cards by the time they are 16 and know how to budget their money, balance an account and do their taxes. Your child's education is always ultimately up to you as a parent.

[Michael W. Smith]

When I was a teen, we had an Adult Roles & Functions class that covered basic finance.

I remember we had to choose a career, research annual salary, and keep a checkbook based on paycheck and made up bills.
(I already had my own checfbook so knew how to write a check, balance the checkbook, etc.)

I'm not sure if retirement investing was talked about. Even if it would have been, I would not have "got" it.

Even once graduated from school, I didn't understand retirement investing - and did nothing. However, my very first boss who owned a small business decided to open up an IRA for me and put in 10% of my yearly salary. (At this point, I still didn't "get" it. Although I wise enough not to touch that money.)

I really didn't "get" it until I was in my late 20's and started saving for retirement through IRA's and through my 401(k) at work. I did invest some in my IRA before this, but not to the maximum I could. (But I cringe at the thought at the money I "threw away" on wasteful things!!!! Live and learn!)

Yes, it SHOULD be taught. Basic checkbook and saving information. Investing for retirement and using the tax free vehicles provided (IRA's and 401(k)'s) and it should be mandatory that you learn you can invest money yourself - direct through many companies.

Many people are of the thinking that they must go to a financial facility to invest money, not understanding that instead of giving the "Edward Jones" company $50.00 to invest in say Verizon, you can invest it direct with Verizon and invest that $50.00 with them rather than "throw it away" on an unneeded service. There are MANY companies that you can buy their stock directly with - either at NO FEE or at very little cost! (Certainly not the cost charged by the "big" guys.

[Farmerga]

I learned Personal finance in my Agriculture Education class. The best class I ever took, on personal finance was a Pre-cal class I took in college. The professor was very big into personal finance and used extra time in class to teach us. I remember more of that than I do of calculus.

http://www.dostersheritagefarm.com

[peaches]

Not only finance but I think boys and girls both should have to take a class that teaches how to feed a family without using all the prepackaged processed foods. Some don't even know how to cook a real potato. lol They need to learn the basics of preparing nutritious foods and how to set a table and EAT at a table as a family.

[Maura]

In the school our kids went to it was rolled into the Government class. They had the kids earn a small paycheck. Out of the paycheck they had to go through the classifieds and find a place to live, then grocery shop. This was a pretty good wake up call as to how much money was needed to survive day to day. I think you can quote statistics and study charts, but trying to find a place to live and food to eat on minimum wage, or just above minimum wage goes farther.

[Oldcountryboy]

Interesting! Today is first day of school for my kids and my oldest daughter (Sophmore) came home telling my she has a math class called Personal Finance. Apparently it's a elective class but she has to have X amount of math classes before she can graduate high school.

After reading what people have to say about it, I believe I had the same thing back in the 70's but only it was called "Consumers Math". Cause it was all about writing checks, balancing check books, keeping spending records, investments, etc. You know how they change the name of things since we were young and in high school. For instants Future Homemakers of America (FHA) is no longer called that but is now called Family Career & Community Leaders of America (FCCLA). So I'm guessing they changed the name from Consumers Math to Personal Financing. Something thats already been in schools for a long time.

[Belfrybat]

When I was in high school -- way back when -- we had a class that taught the basics in personal finance. Can't remember the name of it. At that time, it was common for banks to give out 10 check booklets, and some of the class members were horrified to learn they had to have money in the bank to back up those checks.

Yes, I believe the basics of personal finance still need to be taught, even though most kids won't "get it" until they are in their late 20's/ early 30's. But at least a foundation will be laid they can draw on later.

[Harry Chickpea]

What needs to be taught can actually be taught in a day or two. The rest is just practice and getting the hang of it. I had my own checking account as soon as I got my paper route.

While my first response was, "yeah, teach it in schools" sgl42 has it right. In reviewing how history gets slanted by those with influence, I can just imagine what a course in finances would be like in twenty years. Certain products would be promoted, independent thought would be repressed, and major financial players would have a whole crop of new consumers.

Besides, a proper teaching of financial skills beyond addition and subtraction has to include a major discussion on inflation and the effects of it, as well as the DEflation in value of many physical items and products. How many teachers had the housing bubble figured out? Can you imagine the uproar if they came out in class telling kids to AVOID buying homes because they were overvalued?

Nah. Keep it out of the schools. Make it into a good book, tv show, music video, or 3D movie.