Where is the Financial Education in Our Schools? Opinion piece
Nathan Cuthbertson
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ooking back on my secondary education I notice a glaring gap - financial education. This is woefully mismanaged to the point of travesty in today’s education system. Defined as the ability to use financial tools to suit one’s own goals, financial literacy includes topics such as budgeting, saving, or investing as well as the knowledge of risk, understanding credit and debit, and how to plan. The benefits of educating students at an early age in financial literacy cannot be understated. All our lives, we as consumers are told to spend. Governments use stimulus packages to stir the economy. We live in a materialistic and consumerist culture where consumption and instant gratification is the goal. We must work long hours each day, to pay for things that we really do not need. We are taught bad spending habits from the day we are born. Savings and investments are worth far more overall than spending and excess consumption. A survey conducted by ME Bank found that
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40% of people wish that they had learnt more about financial education growing up. The same survey demonstrated a link between people who were taught about money as a child and their financial wellness as an adult. Of those that were taught about money as a child, 74% claimed that they were effective savers. Of the respondents that received little or no financial education, only 43% reported themselves as financially comfortable. As a recent graduate of the Western Australian high school system, I can personally attest to the lack of any real financial education. Students are not taught budgeting or investing. Students are not taught how financial risk operates, or what the difference is between variable or fixed rate loans. They are not taught how to calculate whether we can afford the repayments on a loan. It is these essential financial tools that have not been communicated to those who need it most. Financial literacy also has a deep impact on mental and physical health. Studies have shown
