Will the next generation be able to buy their own house?

DigForVictory

Green_Bear wrote: »

Financial education is important.
But unfortunately, the UK has a culture that completely ignores and even disparages it.

Yes - not only were the boys oblivious but my husband thought it was “just some middle class thing”. If only they would read the financial news as opposed to the headlines... (Far better written, wider vocabulary, usually well researched & then I double check here in MSE!)

Green_Bear

DigForVictory wrote: »

Yes - not only were the boys oblivious but my husband thought it was “just some middle class thing”. If only they would read the financial news as opposed to the headlines... (Far better written, wider vocabulary, usually well researched & then I double check here in MSE!)

I agree 100%.
I grew up in working class Liverpool.
All the boys could tell you every single fact about football. But no one knew a thing about shares or bonds and weren't interested. It was seen as 'posh' and not encouraged by parents and teachers.
Madness, because the poorer you are, the more you should know about money.

When I left the army I went to work in Africa in the mining industry. The attitude of the locals and the management really opened my eyes to how brainwashed I'd been growing up.

westernpromise

Green_Bear wrote: »

I agree 100%.
I grew up in working class Liverpool.
All the boys could tell you every single fact about football. But no one knew a thing about shares or bonds and weren't interested. It was seen as 'posh' and not encouraged by parents and teachers.
Madness, because the poorer you are, the more you should know about money.

When I left the army I went to work in Africa in the mining industry. The attitude of the locals and the management really opened my eyes to how brainwashed I'd been growing up.

Liverpool is solid Labour and as such is their intended model for the country. The locals are preoccupied with football and nothing much else and consequently doomed to wretched lives of poverty and underachievement. This ensures they vote Labour, which in turn ensures wretched lives of poverty and underachievement.

Green_Bear

westernpromise wrote: »

Liverpool is solid Labour and as such is their intended model for the country. The locals are preoccupied with football and nothing much else and consequently doomed to wretched lives of poverty and underachievement. This ensures they vote Labour, which in turn ensures wretched lives of poverty and underachievement.

I do agree somewhat about the football and under achievement. It's a UK wide cultural problem.
But most people in areas like Liverpool will not do better under a Tory govt. It does make sense for them to vote Labour, to get a UK Labour govt.
The Liverpool working class are actually quite politically aware (in a similar sense to those in Northern Ireland). But it's a tribalism and they lack an individual interest in financial education.

Labour is not (uniquely) responsible for the cultural problem. That is longstanding, whichever party is in charge.

Herzlos

Green_Bear wrote: »

I agree 100%.
I grew up in working class Liverpool.
All the boys could tell you every single fact about football. But no one knew a thing about shares or bonds and weren't interested. It was seen as 'posh' and not encouraged by parents and teachers.
Madness, because the poorer you are, the more you should know about money.

I agree the poorer should know a lot more about money, but the useful stuff like interest, how domestic banking works, loans, mortgages and savings accounts etc. Stuff that'd prevent them making stupid financial decisions like buying a TV at 50% APR and understanding the importance of having some money in savings.

They should also understand stock and bonds but being honest if you're completely skint you're unlikely to have the spare money to dabble in such things beyond maybe some premium bonds.

westernpromise

Herzlos wrote: »

I agree the poorer should know a lot more about money, but the useful stuff like interest, how domestic banking works, loans, mortgages and savings accounts etc. Stuff that'd prevent them making stupid financial decisions like buying a TV at 50% APR and understanding the importance of having some money in savings.

They should also understand stock and bonds but being honest if you're completely skint you're unlikely to have the spare money to dabble in such things beyond maybe some premium bonds.

In Liverpool they would surely nick a TV, not finance it.

Malthusian

Green_Bear wrote: »

I do agree somewhat about the football and under achievement. It's a UK wide cultural problem.
But most people in areas like Liverpool will not do better under a Tory govt.

Nobody said they would. It's the attitude of aspiration, wanting to do better and be better, that would allow them to do better. And this attitude is associated with voting Tory. The government itself is mostly irrelevant, however much they like to think otherwise.

If you're a lifelong Labour-voting working-class Liverpudlian from a lifelong Labour-voting family, and you decide you've had enough of being skint and you're going to study for a qualification, work hard and better yourself, then chances you are going to earn more money, afford a nicer home and be happier even if Liverpool council remains solidly red for the rest of your life. Unless you are unlucky enough to be arrested for a crime you didn't commit or gunned down by a policeman, the government will have negligible effect on you.

Madness, because the poorer you are, the more you should know about money.

And the unhealthier you are the more you should know about good nutrition. Doesn't work that way unfortunately. You can't wake up as a skint person who owns minus £2,000 on pay day loans and decide you'd like to be Martin Lewis because you really need to make every penny count. All you can do is try to get a bit better at handling money and keep at it. Alternatively you can just vote Labour because your mate Gary who reads Marx says Corbyn'll write off everyone's debts.

Green_Bear

Herzlos wrote: »

I agree the poorer should know a lot more about money, but the useful stuff like interest, how domestic banking works, loans, mortgages and savings accounts etc. Stuff that'd prevent them making stupid financial decisions like buying a TV at 50% APR and understanding the importance of having some money in savings.

They should also understand stock and bonds but being honest if you're completely skint you're unlikely to have the spare money to dabble in such things beyond maybe some premium bonds.

I hear this argument a lot. But a lot of the time it's not true.
You need to ask why people are 'completely skint'. For some, that will be inevitable, due to a bad family.
But a lot of people I know have wasted money over the years, on TVs, football shirts, season tickets, alcohol, branded clothing etc.
To be effective for working class people, the saving and investing mindset needs to start in childhood. And continue until you have a house deposit etc.

Schools these days are an absolute menace. They rip off pupils by insisting on branded uniforms (this should be illegal, as it is verging on a breach of competition law somewhere).

Then there's the import of USA style school 'proms'. No one seems to challenge this nonsense.

Herzlos

Of course, many people are skint due to being terrible with money - anything coming in goes out again. That can be solved by providing basic financial education.


Others will be skint due to the situation - unemployment, kids, sick family to take care of, etc.



There are a lot of people who are getting by comfortably enough, but don't have enough spare money at the end of the month to put into any kind of structured savings. The minimum entry for a lot of funds are £1000 or £100/month, which may be entirely out of reach of a minimum wage family.

DigForVictory

Herzlos wrote: »

The minimum entry for a lot of funds are £1000 or £100/month, which may be entirely out of reach of a minimum wage family.

Not just minimum wage families, either...
Still, I keep reading here & learning.