on Financial Education launched
uld children learn about finance? month: How early should children learn about finance?
Having worked in financial services for over 20 years I have come across all levels of knowledge when it comes to clients understanding of their finances. There are those who keep a close control of their spending and actively look to enhance their understanding and then there are others who are totally the opposite.
The key thing about starting to educate about finance from a young age is to adapt what is already being taught to apply it to the world of money.
Basic mathematics can be taught in monetary terms rather than just 2+2. Once a child starts to learn about adding and subtracting figures in pounds and pence rather than just as numbers, the interest in budgeting and financial control has started.
In Australia, there has already been the debate on this and education has now started in the curriculum across all age ranges. As they get older, the level of learning gets more specific and it is hoped that it will deliver a young adult into the world with a better understanding of how to manage their money. This will not do away with the need for financial advisers but it will at least mean that the basics will be covered.
The argument about robbing the youth of their childhood is understandable but unfounded. If anything I would say that learning about finance could be one of the most important subjects to prepare them for the working life and if done in a positive way, will not just benefit them individually but also those close to them and the wider economy. Ultimately, the aim has to be to increase financial understanding to make future generations more aware so that they can make better decisions throughout their lives. This can cover saving for retirement, the implications of the varying forms of debt and how to run a monthly budget so that everything that does need to be paid, can be. There would also be the hope that those taking on debt will be more open to
David Sheppard, managing director of Perception Finance
conversations surrounding adequate protection.
If asked, I suspect most adults would agree that financial education is both important and necessary, so it comes as no surprise to me that the government has launched The All Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Education. However what concerns me is the track record government has at tackling social issues by committee – recent failures include five-a-day (healthy eating) and change4Life (exercise) as examples of where good intentions have done little to deliver and embed the desired change. As a nation we are still getting fatter and more unhealthy – me included! Notwithstanding that I suspect that the committee will be allocated a generous budget, and will agree a campaign that will be nicely packaged, well presented, and will satisfy the agendas of the stakeholders in the project. After much self congratulation it will almost certainly go the way of so many other campaigns. But why could this be? The problem with this approach is that it abdicates personal responsibility. Indeed earlier in this piece I criticised government for failing to tackle healthy eating and exercise – should I not be criticising the people at whom the campaign is targeted? Surely it’s for parents to educate their children in such matters who can then go on to teach their children and so on?
And the same should apply to financial education. Financial education needs to have a few basics in place way before you get down to the nitty gritty. Personal responsibility, self restraint, basic arithmetic and English to name a few. Without those in place any attempt at introducing monetary concepts will be pointless and without context.
As for putting an appropriate age on when to start? Who knows? For me that’s a judgement call that is solely the responsibility of parents – not government. However if pushed I would say that early teens seems the only appropriate place to start with the concepts that need to be grasped if there is to be any measurable success, which after all is how this project will be judged.
Chris Gardner, director of
Obligo.cfo.uk
sense. Do you want to be a part of the next Bigger Issue? Email
nia@thepublishinggroup.co.uk morTGAGE inTroducEr MARCH 2011 23
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56