Prime example of why we need financial education

There definitely should be more emphasis on financial education taught at schools.

Just simple stuff like don't go out and get loans for cars and other material items.
 
There definitely should be more emphasis on financial education taught at schools.

Just simple stuff like don't go out and get loans for cars and other material items.

Personal loans too!

If someone wants to treat themselves then I think it's up to them to choose whether or not to use a car loan, PROVIDED that they can demonstrably differentiate between an invesment and a depreciating asset / are aware of the negative ROI. The concept of delayed gratification can also be helpful as long as the delay doesn't expand the original desire :)

edit: I just realised how far-fetched this sounds. Car dealers (and their finance dept) are not going to quiz an individual on their cashflow management before signing them up. I was trying to say that these concepts need to be taught at a younger age so that when the real opportunities do present themselves, they can make a suitably informed decision in their head before putting pen to paper
 
There definitely should be more emphasis on financial education taught at schools.

Just simple stuff like don't go out and get loans for cars and other material items.

Unfortunately with NSW making any level of maths classes optional at the senior level of schooling, its not going to get any better any time soon.
 
Because school is the only compulsory attendance for a child in the education system. Not all kids talk to their parents, go to church, play sport at a club, etc.

Keep in mind that the role of a high school is to teach kids how to learn. The subject matter itself is often irrelevant to life (although that irrelevance is convenient for evaluating teaching methods and learning behaviour.) I aced 4-unit maths (97%) but I have yet to use hyperbola formulae in the real world.

There are supplementary educational services available Australia-wide however only a minority of children benefit from these. So the schools might as well try to teach relevant subject matter

So the schools should take over the parental teaching job because someone thinks they know better?

Schools touch on more than enough of those extras nowadays and if anything we need to draw the line somewhere.

I'm all for teaching anything that will save lives ie, swimming, drug education, etc. but advanced financial education isn't one of these.

Anyway they do teach some financial education (budgeting, compounding interest, etc.) in the early years and later students have the option of Maths Applications available to them.
 
I was brought up in a school that prioritised academic prowess over anything else. Everything was geared toward maximising the Universities Admissions Index (as it was called at the time) so that we could study the degree we wanted to. After that, we are all set on our own paths to our different goals.

High school is the last opportunity to mass-embed some financial knowledge into students' brains. High school is the platform that launches students out into the real world, a world where money management heavily influences the availability of every opportunity. Many don't like this 'state' of the world we live in, but I consider it irresponsible of high schools to take up learning time with useless subjects when there are more important lessons to be learnt.

Swimming and drug education are good examples, as is basic financial management. Advanced financial knowledge can be left to later in life to those who are interested in it, just as maths, physics, chemistry, literature and computer programming can also be left to a later stage. This is where the line has to be drawn.
 
chylld, not sure when you were last at school but this is some of what they teach in Maths.
Business Studies and Accounting also cover areas of finance or relates to finance.

The above are all year 11/12 subjects.

Topics covered in Maths Apps...

? Topic 2: Measurement
? Topic 8: Trigonometry Topic 1: Applied Geometry
? Topic 1: Earning and Spending
? Topic 5: Saving and Borrowing Topic 2: Investment and Loans
? Topic 1: Earning and Spending
? Topic 2: Measurement Topic 3: Mathematics and Small Business
? Topic 4: Networks and Matrices
? Topic 6: Simulating Random Processes Topic 4: Matrices
? Topic 4: Networks and Matrices
? Topic 12: Functions and Graphs Topic 5: Optimisation
? Topic 1: Earning and Spending
? Topic 5: Saving and Borrowing Topic 6: Share Investments
? Topic 7: Statistics Topic 7: Statistics and Working with Data
 
chylld, not sure when you were last at school but this is some of what they teach in Maths.
Business Studies and Accounting also cover areas of finance or relates to finance.


? Topic 2: Measurement
? Topic 8: Trigonometry Topic 1: Applied Geometry
? Topic 1: Earning and Spending
? Topic 5: Saving and Borrowing Topic 2: Investment and Loans
? Topic 1: Earning and Spending
? Topic 2: Measurement Topic 3: Mathematics and Small Business
? Topic 4: Networks and Matrices
? Topic 6: Simulating Random Processes Topic 4: Matrices
? Topic 4: Networks and Matrices
? Topic 12: Functions and Graphs Topic 5: Optimisation
? Topic 1: Earning and Spending
? Topic 5: Saving and Borrowing Topic 6: Share Investments
? Topic 7: Statistics Topic 7: Statistics and Working with Data

WOW. That looks like a solid foundation and is exactly what I would wish to be taught in school. Basic concepts of earning, spending, saving, borrowing and even investing.

I graduated from high school in 2000; we learnt how to play with unreal numbers (sqrt(-1)), calculate integrals and derivatives (not the financial kind), optimise the shortcut an ambulance can take over a slow field, etc etc.
 
There definitely should be more emphasis on financial education taught at schools.

Just simple stuff like don't go out and get loans for cars and other material items.

Unless you can make a car loan work for you.

I just got a runaround car on a 0.5% comparison rate. I can make my money work better for me when looking at current returns.

I'd prefer to have a car company holding that than my own money tied up in it.
 
The truth is out there, when the student is ready the teacher appears etc, etc.

With out the desire to make changes to ones situation force feeding information at school probably wont have the desired effect, assuming it is correct information in the first place.

It begins at home and that's the way it will always be imho.
 
I graduated from high school in 2000; we learnt how to play with unreal numbers (sqrt(-1)), calculate integrals and derivatives (not the financial kind), optimise the shortcut an ambulance can take over a slow field, etc etc.

There are different Maths.

Sounds like you didn't do your homework properly when researching the subjects you chose.

Teachers can do so much.

Investing is a bit like that also, in that you need to use your initiative.

All the education in the world sometimes makes no difference, while other times someone with no education decides they want something different, seeks out the education and put it into practice.
 
There are different Maths.

Sounds like you didn't do your homework when researching the subjects.

Teachers can do so much.

Investing is a bit like that also, in that you need to use your initiative.

All the education in the world sometimes makes no difference, while other times someone with no education decides they want something different, seek out the education and put it into practice.

There was a "maths in society" subject, but in my school (James Ruse) you were looked upon as a failure if you took that, or even 2 unit maths. All the "smart kids" were pushed onto 3u and 4u maths as that ensured the highest UAI and the best results for the school's reputation as the best in the state for x years running.

Did I have a choice? Yes, I chose the "best subjects" based on the framework around me at the time. Was that the correct choice as pertains to the real world? Hell no. However, just as it wasn't my fault back then, it's not the fault of all the other students who were similarly pushed towards academically beneficial subjects.

FMS makes a good point in that force-feeding information is unlikely to have the desired effect. The desire to learn has to be there first. So I guess life will continue to be the real teacher, especially for students in academically competitive schools.
 
Unless you can make a car loan work for you.

I just got a runaround car on a 0.5% comparison rate. I can make my money work better for me when looking at current returns.

I'd prefer to have a car company holding that than my own money tied up in it.

Im talking about the 17 year nearly out of school who go s out and buys the 15k - 20k holden ute or forrester because there cool. then two years down the track they realise the 3-5k car in cash would have been a much better option.
 
chylld, I suppose we have a choice of where we send our kids to school. All schools have their individual 'traits' based on demand. Imo, this isn't a bad thing.

I'd say your parents chose a school like the one you went to because that's what THEY thought was best.

My biggest problem is taking away from the curriculum and cramming it with the kind of thing marg4000 mentioned. It also makes it harder and harder for teachers to do their job well.

In your case the criticism could probably be directed just as much towards your parents than with the system or individual school.

I take it you're investing and are becoming financial savvy now so something worked for you :D.
 
I suppose we have a choice of where we send our kids to school. All schools have their individual 'traits' based on demand. Imo, this isn't a bad thing.

I'd say your parents chose a school like the one you went to because that's what THEY thought was best.

My biggest problem is taking away from the curriculum and cramming it with the kind of thing marg4000 mentioned. It also makes it harder and harder for teachers to do their job well.

In your case the criticism could probably be directed just as much towards your parents than with the system or individual school.

I take it you're investing and are becoming financial savvy now so something worked for you :D.

That is the biggest choice yes; which school to send the children to. e.g. some schools place a large emphasis on leadership-building activities which is an immensely important life skill.

My parents put me in the local primary school (5 minutes walk away) so that was a sensible choice. I sat the selective exam and got into James Ruse, it was also fairly close and it was known as the top school, so that was also a sensible choice. They always did what they thought was best for me.

On the other hand, can I say my school did the best for me? Did they think that 5000-word interpretations of a short poem by T. S. Eliot was going to be more useful in my future than calculating compound interest? No. The school worked for itself, by training up students to do well in the only metric that mattered - the UAI (now ATAR).

I could direct much more criticism at my school's totally irrelevant curriculum than my parents' decisions. However if schools these days employ the basic financial subjects you mention, then I think that is a sufficiently solid foundation upon which to build if an individual so desires at a later stage in life :)

I think the ozbargain thread guy is about the learn some important lessons just as I did when I stumbled across somersoft :D
 
I'm skeptic when it comes to practicality of school lesson.

Yes, the kid might understand what debt, loan, investing, earning, and money balance. But do they really know and can appreciate what it means until they earn the money themselves?

The gap between knowledge and experience is hard to make up with just education.
 
I'm skeptic when it comes to practicality of school lesson.

Yes, the kid might understand what debt, loan, investing, earning, and money balance. But do they really know and can appreciate what it means until they earn the money themselves?

The gap between knowledge and experience is hard to make up with just education.

I believe it is best to teach them the basics... the role of education is to give kids the framework they need to make decisions later in life. It is pointless going into too much detail, but awareness never hurt. Of course once they start earning money for themselves it's up to their own discipline to apply the fundamentals and build from there.

I vividly remember when the fire department came to our school and gave us some basic fire tips (stop drop roll etc) - they didn't try to teach us how to be firemen, but they made us aware of the issues and what we can do in the future.
 
A bit off-topic, but sorta relevant; I also reckon that kids should be given practical and written driver training and road rules from Year 8 onwards.

And, a course in advanced defensive driving as well as part of the curriculum.

And of course; basic car maintenance and how to change a tyre etc.

We had a woman whining to us today because the RACV took 2 hours to come and change her punctured tyre.....

Um; hellooo....change yer own frickin tyre if you are in a hurry.

Why do you reckon they take 2 hours now? Because they have to spend most of their day changing people's punctured tyres.
 
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