Why isn't finance taught in high school?
High schools (at least in the UK and the States I think too?) teach business, economics, accounting, bookkeeping. Why not finance? Do u think they should? I think basic CFA L1 level stuff (basic ratio analysis, basic DCF, basic portfolio theory) would be pretty interesting for some high school kids, would keep the stonks and WSB kids more engaged in school too. Thoughts?
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Because if everyone knew just how basic finance was, we wouldn't get paid nearly as much as we do. The veil of acronyms and processes are what keep the non-finance world thinking that we're more intelligent and valuable to society than we really are.
this is a rlly good point. But that's in the finance world's interest to withhold that information from the public. Building on that, schools have more of an incentive to educate this so that people don't get bamboozled by wall street. Not complaining tho
Playing devil's advocate, where would the pension plans make their money if they can't bamboozle the uneducated investor?
Some schools, sure. Kids in my high school struggled with supply and demand curves….
I love corporate finance as much as the next guy on this forum (so like a 5 of 10, let's be honest..), but I think they should absolutely teach personal finance in high school. Like how to make a budget, how not to use payday loans, when and how to buy a house, basic retirement and health planning, all that. I think our country would be better for it.
This guy gets it. They actually taught us that back in the day.
They still offer these classes but nobody fucking takes it. I was the only underclassman in the personal finance class that was offered in my high school. At some point you gotta realize that it’s the students or parents simply not seeing the value in learning about these things.
agreed. maybe if kids were more educated about these things they'll avoid the hivemind of going into college and graduating with debt (especially if what they're studying is gender studies), when learning a skilled trade or apprenticeship might be more suited for some of their talents
Absolutely zero reason for stuff like portfolio theory, DCF, etc. Maybe for some schools as an elective but 100% not core curriculum
Do think there is a genuine interest about money with the younger generation. All the class should teach is:
- Compound interest (returns vs debt)
- Different types of debt
- Cost of higher ed vs returns/employment. Though when youre in HS you usually have no idea what you want to do but get kids thinking before going to college and rubber stamping 30k tuition
- General money management skills, making a budget. How much % of income should go to rent/mortgage, food, entertainment, savings, etc.
And that's it. You can really stretch the above to cover an entire semester and yes it should be core curriculum.
We were taught personal finance and how to do our taxes in a US public school, anything beyond that feels like overkill for the vast majority of people. It will be probably be decades anyway for every high school to offer a personal finance course, much less make it mandatory.
Our government and economic system has entire sections dedicated to taking advantage of the financially illiterate. Why would the ruling class arm the general populace with one of the key knowledge tools for resisting them.
i think this alludes to the much broader issue of why education quality is so low in the US and why there is such a lack of actual useful/real life info (personal finances, retirement, personal health, nutrition, honestly even actual critical thinking/deductive + logical reasoning skills nowadays, etc) being taught in schools
will toss out the idea that maybe an intelligent/knowledgeable/responsible citizenry is anthithetical to the success of the ruling class in today's political environment
They know if they start teaching finance in school, People will start understanding the basic concept of ROI.And the first thing every idiot will calculate is ROI on education.Boom! Every one will stop coming to school once get they calculate ROI on education and eventually their business of education will wither away, getting replaced by free Youtube videos(which has an Infinite ROI as for Youtube, only a high speed internet is needed and returns can be humongous)
Definitely personal finance since it is applicable to 99% of the population. Don’t think ratios or portfolio management are the vibe
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