Is there a lack of financial education in the UK from family and schools?

Bigbobby

Is it just me or does there seem to be a lack of financial education in the UK whether that be from school or from parents?  When I fled the nest and got my first property nobody taught me about personal finances and it was only through life experience and my own research that I became more aware.
-Have a budget that you stick to.  I am not saying do not have fun but to live within your means and avoid bad debt. Look at some ways in which expenses could be reduced or to top up income. Many seem to live beyond their means and end up causing stress for themselves.
-Having an emergency fund of 3-6 months worth of expenses in an easy access savings account.
-Joining workplace pension scheme whether that be in the private or often more generous public sector.  I often see many opt out.
-Investing in a stocks and shares ISA.  This brings up the active/passive debate and I prefer passive investing with Vanguard.  I am still rather young so the majority of my investments are in a global equity index with a smaller allocation in a global bond index.
-Avoiding investment mistakes like trying to beat the market by picking individual stocks or active fund managers who in most cases fail.  Get rich quick with crypto and the increasing price of gold even though neither pay any interest, dividends, coupons etc.
When I speak to my parents, friends, colleagues about finances such as budgeting, emergency funds, pensions, index funds in an ISA, investment mistakes, they look at me as if they cannot understand the majority of what I am saying.
From personal experience I have now found that once you are in a better financial position then it can have a very positive impact on your mental health which is priceless.
I am not expecting people to reveal every bit of their finances to everyone else but I think if there were better education from a young age and a culture change around spending, saving and investing in general then many would do better in life.

tacpot12

There is this lack of education, and it as been obvious for many years. Martin Lewis has tried to get something done about it, including commissioning a reference book that could be used to teach the subject in secondary schools. I don't really know how many schools are actually using it, or even teaching the subject using different material, but if they aren't, they are letting down the next generation badly.

Anytime the government injects money into a poor area, Financial Education is one of the things they should really focus on.

osmarks

If it was taught in schools, people would simply not learn or internalize it properly.

Altior

I work in finance, with other people that have accounting degrees. Many of them still struggle with such basic concepts as workplace pensions. If you manage to convince them to contribute, I'd say 90% don't know what they are invested in. 

Lead a horse to water and all that, reality is that so many people aren't interested in maintaining their own affairs until it's too late. Part human nature, part cultural (in my view). 

We did cover personal finance basics when I was at school (when dial up internet was only just starting the become a thing!). 

Myci85

I absolutely think it should be taught to kids in school. I wish I understood more about investing and pensions etc, but I was never taught as my parents were clueless about it. Now as a parent myself, I don't know enough to teach my children, beyond trying to instil general good money management and budgeting. They've seen how hard I had to work to buy our first house, so they've hopefully learnt the importance of saving from a young age, and I've told them they can live with me to help them save rather than falling into the rental trap I did, but investments etc is beyond my capability to teach.

Uriziel

This is done intentionally because it simply is no good for the economy if everyone was saving money or stopped spending. They want people to live from pay check to pay check and preferably also take out finance for purchases and pay some interest on it before paying it back. This is why in USA you can now take out finance to buy fast food.

BridgetTheCat

Yeah, witness the number of people that proudly say they’re rubbish at maths and see how well teaching finance in schools will go. 

Pollycat

Nobody taught me about finances, either at or after I left school.
I worked it out myself.
Don't spend more than you earn. 

lr1277

My view is lots of people want things taught in schools. If you are passionate about a subject or a particular area in life, then one suggestion is to have that subject taught in schools.
There might be advocates for the following subjects to be taught in schools:
money/personal finance
cooking from scratch
car maintenance
IT skills

This is where the decision makers have to decide with the limited time in a school day/year, what gets added to the curriculum.
I suspect they are teaching people to be able to do a basic job once they leave school, so I think maths, English and IT skills are in the curriculum.
If you want money/personal finance to be taught in schools you need to get your MP onside to push your case.

onomatopoeia99

We had a term of one 40 minute lesson a week in personal finance, tax and so on in the sixth form from what I remember.  That would be mid-1980s.  I remember the teacher explaining the difference between a crossed and uncrossed cheque and explaining NI, income tax and VAT.

A lot of personal finance is common sense or elementary maths they teach you by the time you're 13 (e.g. calculating interest) and if you paid attention then nothing run of the mill financial you encounter in your adult life, such as making a budget, should daunt you.  Unfortunately this country is infested with "too cool for school" types that didn't pay attention. I know as I went to school with some of them.

poseidon1

Although I am an advocate of the idea  of financial literacy being a core element of the school curricular,  I do have to wonder to what extent that would really improve later life outcomes for children who undergo the process.

Northern Ireland ( as far as I know) is the only country in the Union to  conduct a widespread roll out ( as far back as 2007) of a 'financial capability' component in the curriculums for primary and secondary school children - see link below 

https://www.fincap.org.uk/en/articles/schools#:~:text=England's school curriculum.-,Northern Ireland,finance and financial decision-making.

Despite this I would question to what degree NI children have emerged from this 'schooling'  any better equipped to effectively managed their financial affairs compared to their counterparts in the rest of the UK . 

From my perspective, part of the problem in trying to make this a wholly a school curriculum problem is finding sufficient number of people qualified to teach effectively. The school teachers I am socially acquainted have no greater knowledge in these matters than the population as a whole.

As @Altior observed ( and I can confirm) even  accountants ( in the private sector) with supposedly better numeracy skills,  training and one assumes commercial understanding, struggle with DC pensions and the obligation placed on them individually to manage their own pension outcomes, so what hope for the rest of the population?

Ultimately, for many of us it came down to personal aptitude and a 'wealth building' outlook . Can whatever spurred us to seek out different avenues to build wealth, and plan effectively for the future be taught?