Money in Your Jeans

Making Sense Out Of Money

Posts Tagged ‘Education’

Another Fine Mess You’ve Gotten Us Into Ollie!

November 11th, 2009

I am beginning to believe that one of the major reasons that the world is in the financial mess that it’s in is the very fact that most people have no clue how to manage their money. I’ve probably insulted a few of you by saying this, but quite frankly being ignorant about money has led us to the biggest financial disaster since the Great Depression.

Who is to blame? The financial industry has done a great job of feeding us doublespeak that most of us didn’t understand. We have been brought up to believe that financial institutions, and financial planners had our best interests at heart. Unfortunately, we failed to understand that the gooblygook that was being spouted by them was meant to make us believe that they knew what they were talking about. Boy did we ever get snookered!

Let me make something very clear – financial institutions are in the business to make money. A financial institution is nothing more than a store that offers financial products. The employee’s job is to sell you a product that may or may not fit your needs. Too many people are intimidated by this process and fail to understand what they are buying. This has been going on for ages. Most of us were never taught money management in school and most of our children will not be taught it either. It doesn’t surprise me that schools don’t teach students to be financially literate – most teachers that I have met are financially illiterate, so having them teach our kids would be like the blind leading the blind. I don’t trust most bankers or financial planners to teach our kids, because they see whoever is in front of them as a potential client – they just see dollar signs when they have a warm body in front of them (hmmmm….seems to be that this is one of the factors that led to the mortgage crisis in the USA; some brokers would arrange deals for clients as long as they could fog a mirror).

So who do you turn to? Parents you have to do your research. Find an organization that teaches basic money skills without pushing financial products.

My two cents worth…

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Posted in Learning About Money

Tags: child Education financial literacy financial planners money Parents school

H1N1

October 31st, 2009

I wear several hats: I am the president of Net Learning Solutions Inc, I am a husband, a dad, a son, a brother, and a junior high school teacher. At the school that I work at we have had a large number of students absent with flu-like symptoms. The absentee rate was close to 25% – this has an impact on teaching. It impacts those that teach only to the curriculum; those teachers will be in panic mode for the entire year, because they won’t be able to cover all of the required course material. Those of us who prefer to teach the child will have an easier time of it – yes the curriculum has to be covered, but I prefer to teach my students how to think; rather than memorize and regurgitate back what they have “learned”.

What does this have to do with financial literacy? Financial literacy is not about memorizing key concepts and doing math problems. Financial literacy is about using your brain and understanding how one’s actions has an impact on one’s personal situation. Financial literacy is about understanding how money works and encouraging behaviors that will keep money in your jeans. Simply put, financial literacy is learned by doing and reflecting on the consequences. So parents, financial literacy is not rocket science – it’s all about talking to your kids and imparting values that will help them to use money wisely.

My two cents worth,

The Money Professor

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Posted in Learning About Money

Tags: child Education financial literacy H1N1 money Parents school

Education Is The Key

October 15th, 2009

How is it that some people survive a recession better than others? The simple truth is that they know something that the others don’t – knowledge is the key to surviving an economic downturn!

Where do you turn to become financially literate? Our school system has failed us in this area of literacy; most teachers do not understand that money management is more than learning how to balance a checkbook. Those in the financial services sector – bankers, financial planners, etc. – have a vested interest in providing information, because they are expecting to get a sale out of the members of their audience.

I pity those who lack financial knowledge, because their standard of living will suffer. I’m sure that no parent wishes that their child should ever suffer the consequences of not understanding how to make one’s life better through sound money management. The problem for most parents is they themselves really don’t understand how to teach their children about money.

I’m in the process of creating a financial literacy course for teenagers and their parents. It will be up and running in the next few weeks. For more information please drop me a line by clicking here.