I think we are saying science and personal finance are not mutually exclusive. Education is key.
Perhaps I sounded otherwise. My point is, finance ignorance is a major problem in people's lives, leading to divorce, poverty, etc. Aren't financial problems are a key cause of arguing leading to divorce?
As you pointed out, parents may not equipped to teach finance, or sciences, for that matter.
IMO, education is the job of public schools; that's what we pay taxes for.
I could easily deliver a curriculum for personal finance. In my post, I laid out my thoughts on the matter.
I counsel people on personal finance all the time. They usually don't like what I tell them; I am a fiscal conservative. There is no easy way out in the short term.
The good news is, some young people have told me they have gotten exposure to personal finance in schools. Perfect. At worst it is a start.
You and I agree on a lot of points in this, and other, discussions.
Financial illiteracy is a problem. So is scientific/mathematic illiteracy.
We established public schools over a century ago to address illiteracy. Sadly, those above two gaps remain.
I'm not certain that I would remove any mathematics to teach finance when we are still woefully behind the rest of the world in mathematics. I am a fan of education, particularly public education*, but even more importantly, good education. I think educated people are better equipped for the world.
Training teaches you a specific skill. Education gives you tools, and the means to be successful. Of the two, I value education more for young people. Teach them first to read, to think, to understand. Skills can come later.
You could indeed deliver a curriculum, but would it be accepted? Would your personal experience (owning a huge amount of a highly speculative stock, getting lucky on real-estate timing and location) color your recommendations in that curriculum or color the reception it gets from an academic review or school board, many of whom have not had your success?
Wouldn't they be vulnerable to predatory sales pitches from financial planners looking to lock in enormous clientele? This actually happened with state-run 529s; huge influence money was spent, resulting in genuinely awful selections in some states that lined the pockets of large investment firms by providing captive clients forced to choose their high fee plans. I discovered this when researching 529s 20+ years ago while planning for college.
Unfortunately, it takes some financial literacy to know your financial literacy limits and clearly, some state legislators were blissfully ignorant...
So, addressing the financial literacy problem through public institutions could be equally problematic.
Still, we agree that it's a problem and that the subject itself it ain't exactly rocket science. Avoiding bad debt, for example, is easily understood.
I think that the problem is also that adhering to the principles of financial planning is difficult when those principles conflict with human material desire. Frequently, desire is rationalized into "need" and there is the more challenging problem. I "need" this newer car "for the children".
If I've had one success as a parent, it is that my kids are good at managing their money, clearly understand "need" vs. "want" and are making smart decisions for the future. E.G. the surgeon, who drives the 2002 Volvo, with over 210,000 miles on it, doesn't want a new car, and is investing in her Roth IRA instead. She lives a good life, with lots of skiing and hiking interspersed among the long, difficult hours at the hospital, but it is a modest one. She has avoided the debt trap that befalls so many of her colleagues. She doesn't make excuses to spend money by calling things "needs".
Some education remains the purview of parents. I don't think the schools can, or should, teach it all. But I am open to suggestion on how to increase the literacy of the parents, can't really have the ignorant teaching the subject, can we?
*I believe so much in public education that all of my kids (3) and all of my step kids (3) went to public high schools. We also paid for all six to go to college and graduate without debt. This was a huge sacrifice. Some of the kids are directly using those things they learned in college. Some are not. In all cases, the education was worth it because it yielded thoughtful, productive members of society.
