Why Schools Should Teach Personal Finance
November 8, 2007
Photo by msgodf
The good thing about money is not the luxuries or goodies it can buy for you, but it is the freedom that it affords you to do the things you want to do.
Why should schools teach personal finance? It’s because a fulfilling life depends on it!
Does personal finance fit into the theme of living a balanced life? In my opinion, it’s a resounding “Yes!” One of the four key pillars of a happy and fulfilling life is financial stability. Being financially sound has far reaching effects on other areas of your life. Probably more than you understand or expect.
The aim of this blog is to deliver practical and actionable tips to help you live a balanced life. Other than advocating high moral sounding principles of courage and integrity, which are necessary for spiritual fulfillment; we also need to balance that with life’s practicality of having to pay the bills and our needs to bring bread to the table everyday.
An unbalanced approach to life skewed in either direction will not help in achieving happiness.
THE OLD SCHOOL THINKING ABOUT MONEY.
The diagram above shows the old school thinking about money. Since young, we were told to study hard so that we can get a good job. Subsequently, we enter the work force and saw the fanciful cars and big houses that the CEOs, Presidents are driving or living in. As such, we aspire ourselves to work really hard; targeting a grand promotion and accompanying pay increment. That will get us what we want and life’s happiness is thus ensued, or is it?
WHY THE OLD SCHOOL WAY DOESN’T WORK.
There are three fundamental flaws in the old school thinking about money:
- The more you earn, the more you spend. - By saying that we can get what we want when our income increases, it encourages us to spend as much as we earn. Looking around, that is indeed what is happening to a majority of people today. Most people hardly save, and their net assets is near zero. When rainy days like retrenchment, economy downturn or a major misfortune in the family happens, there is very little financial support to fall back on.
How can you have a fulfilling life when you have to worry and be stressed about possibilities of external financial circumstances which are beyond your control?
- YOU must work really really hard. - The old school thinking teaches us to exchange our time and energy for money. This means if you don’t work, you don’t get money, simple. As such, we throw all our time and energy into our work, hoping we will be rewarded with more income eventually.
How can you have a fulfilling life when you have little to no time and energy for family, friends and self growth?
- Dependence on single source of income. - When all our time and energy is focused on one source of income, we subject ourselves to the mercy of ill-intending employers, bosses, customers; so that we secure this single source of income. This means we are put in a position which compels us to make personal sacrifices and compromises about what’s truly important to us.
How can you have a fulfilling life when you are compelled to do what you don’t believe in, don’t enjoy or don’t get any sense of accomplishment from?
MY PERSONAL STORY.
I remember during the first few years of my working life, the annual increments and bonuses meant chances to ‘upgrade’ my lifestyle. It meant chances for me to get the latest electronic gadgets that I had been wanting. Sometimes, I would save my money for a while but still ended up making a big ticket purchase later, which reduced my savings to zero.
My understanding of investment then was limited to the bank’s savings account, and I saw no benefits in putting my money there for a few cents of monthly interest. There was no motivation to save; as such, any excuse to spend was easily acceded to.
I also choked up some debts by credit/installment purchases. The idea of carrying home a big ticket item costing a few thousand dollars for a few hundred dollars of monthly payments was just too nice to pass over. As such, at one point, I ended up shouldering a few debts which amounted to nearly 50% of my monthly income. Can you imagine what it feels like to have your monthly income slashed by half before you can even count them?
If I wasn’t happy with my job, I couldn’t do much about it; as I had debts to repay. The short-term happiness that I purchased came with the price tag of long term liabilities and lost of freedom to choose my career or self development path.
This went on for many years. Later, my contact with personal development also introduced me to personal finance management. For the last 4 years, I got myself free of debt, saved a small sum for rainy days, and the rest are invested for passive income. If I’m retrenched tomorrow, I’ve at least a year to look for the next job without getting into financial difficulties. If I die from a fatal accident tomorrow, my family does not have to worry about their livelihood.
Financial stability is a very liberating feeling. In fact, it frees me of unnecessary worries and to detach myself emotionally from my job to perform my best. I believe that we are at our best when we are given the freedom to pursue a worthy cause of our choosing.
Yet, these benefits are only the tip of the iceberg. Financial stability is only the first step; there are even greater freedom that can be achieved through good personal finance management.
PERSONAL FINANCE - 3 LEVELS OF FREEDOM.
There are 3 levels of financial achievement. Each level results in increasing freedom to pursue a fulfilling life:
- Financial Stability. - This level gives you the peace of mind in knowing that your life is not compromised by any major negative eventualities. It is achieved when:
- You have enough money to cover your current expenses for a minimum of six months.
- You have insurance to protect you and your family against any major crisis or eventualities.
- Financial Security. - This level allows you to maintain a very BASIC lifestyle based on passive income only. You will probably still need to continue working in order to maintain a certain lifestyle, but any disruption in your primary income is not going to threaten your basic livelihood. It is achieved when:
- You have achieved financial stability.
- You have streams of passive income which cover your BASIC monthly expenses.
- Financial Freedom. - This level allows you to stop working and maintain your current lifestyle based on passive income alone. At this point, you no longer need any active income. If you continue to work, it is probably because you enjoy your work so much that you are working for the sake of your personal fulfillment, not money. It is achieved when:
- You have achieved financial security.
- Your passive incomes are enough to cover your current lifestyle or even more.
BENEFITS OF GOOD PERSONAL FINANCE MANAGEMENT.
You don’t necessarily have to reach financial freedom in order to enjoy a fulfilling life. As I have shared in my personal story, financial stability is already a very liberating achievement. The following are some of the life impacting benefits that good personal finance management has brought me:
- Good mental and physical health. - Being in debt can be very stressful and discouraging. I remember those days when I worried each time the bills arrived, and the sense of lack whenever I couldn’t buy what I want because I had to repay my debts. Now that I am free from debt, my perspective and considerations when it comes to money are totally different; it’s definitely more positive and this positivity does carry into other aspects of my life.
- Better relationships. - Maybe you have also seen couples who argue about money all the time? A sound financial status takes away the worries about money, and sense of insecurity. This allows the couple to focus on what truly matters; each other.
- Freedom to pursue my passion and be myself - I’ve gained more freedom to pursue my passion and causes that interest me. I am free to be myself at work, to speak up and strive for what I believe in. At worst, I only lose my job, nothing else.
PERSONAL FINANCE MANAGEMENT SHOULD START FROM YOUNG.
I hope that you see the far reaching impact of proper personal finance management. It goes beyond having more money for a luxurious lifestyle; that is secondary. I like to repeat the statement I said at the start of this article:
The good thing about money is not the luxuries or goodies it can buy for you, but it is the freedom that it affords you to do the things you want to do.
Money, if properly managed, gives us freedom to pursue a fulfilling life; if not properly managed, it can destroy individuals and families. A topic of such importance is ironically not taught in any formal educational institute.
Good personal finance management includes having the correct mindset about money, managing it, investing it, and proper leverage. All these should rightly start from young to inculcate the right values on money matters.
The aim of education is to equip the next generation with the knowledge and skills, to enable them to flourish and succeed in their life. If personal finance has such far reaching impacts on an individual’s life, why isn’t it taught in schools today? I wasted many years before I realized how wrong my mindset about money was. By then, a lot of time, money and heartache were already wasted. Of course, it’s never too late to start.
I hope this helps create better awareness on the importance of good personal finance. Share it with your friends who may benefit from this; educate them today and save some heartaches.
External Resources On Personal Finance:
- To Spend Or Not To Spend - Life Optimizer
- 5 Practical Steps to Start Learning Finance and Business - Life Optimizer
- 102 Personal Finance Tips Your Professor Never Taught You - Ask The Advisor
- A Guide To Making Passive Income - Collis Ta’eed
- How to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck - ZenHabits
This blog is about leading a balanced life focusing on career, relationships and money. You can read more about balancing your life here. These articles are written for you. If you find them useful, feel free to subscribe for regular updates as new articles are posted. It's FREE. :)
Very interesting post, Lawrence! I’m one of the persons who wish I could learn personal finance earlier. It’s very important to build the right knowledge and attitude about money as early as possible.
Thanks for the encouragement Donald.
Yes, I agree with you on the importance to learn about money early in our life. As such, this article you see here.
Great article!
Actually I am at the moment teaching a course about financial mathematics: taxes, savings, loans, investments.
Our society is not very flexible in following your dreams about financial improvement. Mostly people’s financial state is related to how their parents have succeeded in life.
Our society quaratees the basic income to everybody. If you lose your job, you get compensation which in some cases is so big that it does not even encourage to get a job. Temporary jobs are even worse, you may end up getting less money than from the unemployment compensation! There is something very wrong in that and I am afraid that we are at the moment giving the young people the message that working is not worth it; you can get along without doing anything.
Our anciet habit is to own our house. When you are young and ready to start working, you have a big loan for your house or apartment and possibly for a loan for getting your education. Changing the situation would be hard because there simply are not enough apartments to rent. In addition the rents are so high that you end up better paying the loan and the intrest.
Insurance is a must here. Even empoyers have to get an insurance to their empoloyees by law.
I have reached the state where I don’t have to worry. My house is paid and I even have a permanet position in the municipality. It quaratees me the money until I retire but it also causes not get any more money! If I would get some other work on the side, my employer could and would tell me to stop doing it.
If I get too ill to work, I am allowed to retire early. The amount of money I get when I retire is based on my income during my whole working history.
If I however wanted to quit my job for fun, I would not get by very long. I would not get support from anywhere because I have a house! I would have to sell it and use the money first.
I also know what it’s like when you don’t see 2/3 of your pay check. The taxes took the 1/3 and the loan payments the other 1/3. My husband had a company which went down and I had to pay the loans all by myself. I worked as many hours as I could and found out that it was actually not worth it. Our taxes are progressive and the more I earned, the more I paid taxes so that in the money I got to myself was nearly the same.
So that is how it works here; We can basically be sure that we are beeing taken care of in any case, but getting richer is not very easy. I would have to win the lottery.
I am not complaining; In those years I had to pay all those loans I learned a very simple life style. Now that I don’t have to pay them any more part of my pay just will be left in my bank
Hi Leena, really appreciate you sharing your story with us.
Yes, I have friends in Europe, and I’ve heard similar stories of tax structure and unemployment compensation which simply does not encourage one to strive for more in life.
Having said that, it sounds as if you already have financial stability, which is a good thing. So look on the brighter side. At least you are free to pursue and focus on what you love; teaching and maths.
As this article points out, we cannot forget about the practical aspects of living a fulfilling life!
[…] Why schools should teach personal finance […]
Financial freedom is my goal - but cannot be achieved without hard work, maybe not in the conventional sense, but work nonetheless. Teaching kids good spending and savings habits is one of the most important things that parents can do but often it gets overlooked because of time constaints. Yes, personal finance should be taught in schools! That is one of the best ideas that I have heard in a long time.
I agree on parents’ responsibilities when it comes to teaching money matters. However, my observation is that a lot parents are bad examples themselves; overspending on credit and living beyond one’s means…
Ultimately, some form of educational system and awareness programs are required to shift the society’s perception and attitude towards money.
Well… they do. At least my school does. TLC (tech, life, career) has three classes. One is business where they teach you personal finance like stock and jobs and stuff, tech teaches you how to use a comp (like we all don’t *rolls eyes*), and FAQS is family life and cooking and such. Although I honestly don’t think it works that well.
Hi Maddy,
It sounds to me it’s already a big step forward in education at your school. You may not think much of it, and I’m in no position to put a judgment as I am not in your situation. However, here’s my thoughts:
Even great materials and issues take great teachers to teach. Don’t underestimate the value of what you are being exposed to. Maybe one day later in your life you will look back, connect the dots, and truly appreciate the value of personal finance.
This is a great article. I don’t think that it is intentional, but the education system in the U.S. does not address the issue of fiscal responsibility. A fact that is taken advantage of by financial institutions who bombard the youth with credit card offers. Once you are in debt, you are hooked and have to “work” to pay for your new stuff. I am not sure that young people can grasp the concepts of managing their money, but we will never know until we teach it at the high school level and give them the opportunity to accept responsibility or reject it. If an awareness is created via articles like this one, perhaps we can move away from “working” for a living, to enjoying life for the blessing that it is.
www.soupornuts.com
www.therotater.com
Hi Chris,
I don’t think this is only a U.S issue per se. I am from Singapore, an island country in Asia. The same thing is happening here. I also have friends in Europe and can say the same for Europe as well.
Effectively, it’s all around us, globally.
“Working” for a living simply leads to a ’substandard’ life; there can be no fulfillment. Most great success stories in the last 2 decades are results of people pursuing their beliefs and dreams. I am talking about people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Oprah, Walt Disney… the list goes on. Their means to great success aside, the common factor among them is that they did not “work” for a living.
I got very little, if any, training on the issue in school. You’re right, it’s so fundamental and essential that it should not be overlooked by schools.
Hi Steven,
No worries, it’s never too late to start. I hope this article is a good start for you? There are many other good resources about personal finance on the web. Let me know if you are interested, I can recommend some to you.
Hi Lawrence,
Are you aiming for Financial Freedom then? If so where are you now and how to do you plan on getting to the next level?
Great post! I just digg’d it. hehe..
Love & Gratitude,
Tina
Ha, wonderful question Tina.
Well, I believe many people are aiming for it. For me, I’m happy and filled with gratitude about being financially stable.
Although financial freedom is my goal, it’s really a long term one, and I’m not too focus on it right now. I believe that with good education in personal finance, living a simple life so that we don’t overspend, and wise investment pf what we earn to allow our money to grow, financial freedom will come eventually (in the long run).
That’s what I hope to share with everyone: my beliefs in money handling on this blog so that they can enjoy the same freedom.
What about you Tina? What’s your financial goals?
This is a great and very informative article. As a former teacher, I took great interest in it.
However, I can see some problems. With all the other things that schools have to teach nowadays, it would be very difficult to fit in personal finance as well. If it is taught, then it is likely to be an ‘option’ and students could well opt out; it is likely that it is those students who most need such lessons that would opt out from them!
If it is taught, then it would have to be tested and examined.. increasing the workload on teachers. Also, teachers would have to be expert and trained to teach the topic.
It all comes down to how important people feel this subject is.
Doug
www.dougwoods.com
Hi Douglas,
thanks for sharing with us the challenges from a teacher’s perspective.
Indeed, parents around me are already complaining about the workload from schools nowadays. The stress for kids from school is in no means lesser than what adults face at work.
I guess there is just no easy way around it, and it probably takes more than just adding another subject to the curriculum. It will take a bigger look at the entire teaching system and way we approach teaching knowledge in schools.
Then again, I’m in no good position to talk about this.
Nonetheless, my position remains that personal finance is a subject important enough to be looked by everyone.
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Emam
This is one thing I definitely agree on
Hey Lawrence - Loved the article and agree with it completely - In regards to Douglas’s teaching perspective on it, I agree that it will take time and resources to find the proper pieces to the puzzle, but think of it this way, how many people USE most of the classes they took? I took a semester class growing up called “Word Clues” where it taught the roots of words and how to interpret them if I didn’t know them - Has that helped me now? Not really - So I’m better at crossword puzzles, but that’s not going to put food on the table for my kids - I wrote a similar post about it (click my name to see it) that points out several other issues in not implementing it, but yes, I’m onboard as well and if it costs tax money, well, that’s fine too because this is something we need to find funding for in the future…
Hi Hank,
1. It’s such a great coincidence that you have written about similar thoughts. It does seem like I have found another friend!
2. Douglas points are indeed valid; like what I replied, I have honestly no good idea on how to balance this. Well…maybe not through formal education. But parents should at least note the importance and inculcate good personal finance from home.
3. It think it will be idealistic to hope that 100% of students will find the subject useful. Even if only 50% of the people finds the subject meaningful, it’ll still be much better than what we have today.
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Great article. I believe financially healthy young adults can take a better role in scociety. As we get older, we need a smarter younger generation.