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

badmemory

People's financial ignorance stopped amazing me an awful lot of years ago.  I had a yong girl working for me who had a card for one of those type shops.  Borrow £20 & pay back £x a month.  She actually thought she could spend £20 a month for the same amount.  I tried to explain but I don't think she believed me,  Thankfully she left before the proverbial hit the fan

purplevamp

They were talking about this when my eldest son was at school.  He's now 34!!!  When I was at school we had a savings scheme, where we could bring in some money each week to "save up".  It was only about 5p or 10p.  I don't actually remember what happened to that money though...

annielyn

I definitely think that more could be done on Financial Education in schools. I would agree that maybe incorporating this into Maths lessons would be the obvious way forward so that what they are learning has practical applications.

I also think that this can be backed up in the home.

Growing up (in the 60's) my father was paid monthly into his bank account. He then drew out the cash needed for the month ahead. I remember clearly sitting at the dining room table with him and a stack of envelopes marked Food, Clothing, Petrol etc and helping him put the allocated amount into each envelope. That was the budget for the month, when its gone, its gone. That has stuck with me and I still budget similarly today (not in cash!) but I like to allocate a certain amount to each expense each month and an amount into savings for annual expenses.

Today children often have their own bank accounts and managing these can be a way of educating, When my grandchildren get money given for birthdays and Christmas they usually spend 10% on things they want and save 90%. They enjoy seeing the interest mount up on their accounts and my son has used this as a moment to teach about the effect of compounding.

badmemory

There was actually another reason for drawing the whole lot in one transaction back then.  The banks used to charge per transaction, no free banking.  It makes a difference to how you run your finances.

annielyn

badmemory said:

There was actually another reason for drawing the whole lot in one transaction back then.  The banks used to charge per transaction, no free banking.  It makes a difference to how you run your finances.

Yes of course, it wouldn't be the way most people would manage their finances today, its a different world.

I was merely using it as an example of the influence parents can have on their children regarding how they manage their money.