Young people better prepared for the future

baby_boomer

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

When I was at school, we had general studies lessons on compound interest, pensions, credit cards, mortgages, etc. I'm surprised this isn't standard anyway.

But was that just a sixth form option? Taught by a Head of Economics?

At the moment it will be fitted into PSHE (Personal, social and health education). Those teaching this will have come into it not from a finance perspective but from either a citizenship angle or because they are the only ones who can bear to do sex education with teenagers!

avinabacca puts his/her finger on it.

the success or failure of this initiative will rest largely on the content and approach used.

I think the real problem in most schools is finding teachers with enthusiasm and knowledge. In many staff rooms money matters are regarded as beneath their dignity and the public sector pension scheme means that there is less incentive for teachers to overcome their own ignorance.

neverdespairgirl

baby_boomer wrote: »

But was that just a sixth form option?

No, it was spread across GCSE and 6th form.

Our general studies wasn't for the GCSE or A level, it was a (compulsary) subject whcih included finance, learning to type, various other useful things, and a choice of option subjects, including ballroom dancing and car maintaince.

PasturesNew

As I recall, credit cards were rare when I was at school. And it wasn't deemed necessary/important for people to get a personal pension until I was in my late 20s.

Back then information was hard to come by. There was no Internet, only 3 TV channels and they shut down at 11pm each night.

treliac

My school concentrated on academic subjects; don't remember anything very relevant to coping in adulthood. I've always thought school should provide an education for life in the real world and I guess subjects like PSHE would suggest they are trying these days, but to what success?

If they do the financial bit properly it would be good and might reduce the 'I didn't know what I was getting into' argument. Of course it won't deal with the 'I can beat the system' or 'don't care' types but at least there might and should be better access to learning about personal finances, which seems to have been hit or miss so far.

It does seem a better plan than the endless rounds of SATs have been.

wymondham

treliac wrote: »

My school concentrated on academic subjects; don't remember anything very relevant to coping in adulthood. I've always thought school should provide an education for life in the real world and I guess subjects like PSHE would suggest they are trying these days, but to what success?

If they do the financial bit properly it would be good and might reduce the 'I didn't know what I was getting into' argument. Of course it won't deal with the 'I can beat the system' or 'don't care' types but at least there might and should be better access to learning about personal finances, which seems to have been hit or miss so far.

It does seem a better plan than the endless rounds of SATs have been.

This seems to be the main problem with education in that there is a set inflexible path that teachers have to adhere to, regardless of the pupils...
Schools should have subjects to prepare pupils for real life, such as finance (real life situations), cooking, world affairs, local community and social help etc....... having things on paper is only one side of things that helps in life...

Jorgan_2

Maybe they can try and improve peoples memories as well? The number of people who are in their 40s & 50s and have told me that house prices can not drop is quite staggering. In theory they should be able to remember what happened 20 years ago, but do not appear to have retained any of this information.

If it stops one person messing their life up due to a poor financial decision, it has got to be a good thing.

GracieP

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

When I was at school, we had general studies lessons on compound interest, pensions, credit cards, mortgages, etc. I'm surprised this isn't standard anyway.

I think most people learn this at school but just forget it. When I was in school we had extremely comprehensive lessons in finance. From 1st - 3rd year a huge part of the business studies course is personal and houshold finance. Credit cards, loans, hire-purchase agreements, renting v buying, mortgages, pensions, balancing your cheque book, etc. Home Economics is at least 20% household finance from 1st-3rd year and 50% from 5th-6th. (Irish curriculum).

But I know people who I went to school with, or who did the same subjects in other schools, who are just terrible with money and come out with, "they should teach us this stuff in school." I find that people are generally looking for someone to blame for their own mistakes. I also think that the number 1 best way to learn about personal finance is to be involved in budgeting at home.

I was 7 when my parents bought their house, and I was well aware that we had a mortgage which would take 20 years to repay. I was also informed the mortgage was more than our rent used to be and sacrifices needed to be made in order to own the house but that it was worth it. So no I could not have a She-Ra bed cover, but my dad would build me a tree-house instead. So I've always grown-up knowing about budgeting and about how you need to decide what is most important to you and what you may need to sacrifice to get it.

GracieP

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

When I was at school, we had general studies lessons on compound interest, pensions, credit cards, mortgages, etc. I'm surprised this isn't standard anyway.

I think most people learn this at school but just forget it. When I was in school we had extremely comprehensive lessons in finance. From 1st - 3rd year a huge part of the business studies course is personal and houshold finance. Credit cards, loans, hire-purchase agreements, renting v buying, mortgages, pensions, balancing your cheque book, etc. Home Economics is at least 20% household finance from 1st-3rd year and 50% from 5th-6th. (Irish curriculum).

But I know people who I went to school with, or who did the same subjects in other schools, who are just terrible with money and come out with, "they should teach us this stuff in school." I find that people are generally looking for someone to blame for their own mistakes. I also think that the number 1 best way to learn about personal finance is to be involved in budgeting at home.

I was 7 when my parents bought their house, and I was well aware that we had a mortgage which would take 20 years to repay. I was also informed the mortgage was more than our rent used to be and sacrifices needed to be made in order to own the house but that it was worth it. So no I could not have a She-Ra bed cover, but my dad would build me a tree-house instead. So I've always grown-up knowing about budgeting and about how you need to decide what is most important to you and what you may need to sacrifice to get it.

And when She-Ra bed covers were reduced on sale the following January I was able to buy one for myself with my birthday/Christmas money.:cool:

baby_boomer

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

compound interest

The most important lesson of all, especially as students are going to get £35K in debt even if they don't overspend!

Start with Confucius, the chess board and the grains.

Then move on to the damage a loan shark could do to you(r finances).

baileysbattlebus

Our 3 are what are called "generation y" (age 13 to 28), 1979, 1980 and 1982, all learnt a bit at school, we didn't try and make them do anything with their money they didn't want to do - we advised them to save, but they didn't.
By the time they were in their late teens they all had overdrafts, storecard debt and credit card debt, one also had a loan.
Invariably they each got into some sort of trouble financially. All in the past now and they are ok, but for each of them it was a hard lesson learned.

Would it have made a difference if we had been much stricter with them regarding money? Probably, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

We didn't often say no to them if they wanted anything, we weren't hard up or anything. We tried to give them what we didn't have as children and young adults. There are a lot of parents like us around.
OH's and my parents didn't have much money and certainly not enough to give us what we wanted.

They do say generation y in general has different attitude to money - they need it to fund their lifestyle.

Most young people haven't known any real financial hardship as they were brought up by fairly comfortable parents - I think this coming or already arrived recession will be a big shock to a lot of young people as jobs disappear and their lifestyles have to change.

Maybe generation Z will be more prepared -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/may/25/workandcareers.worklifebalance