Recently I saw an interview on CBS TV with Jill Schlesinger about how to teach children about money. The first thing that caught my attention was the following:
“Survey found that 1 in 4 people received no financial education from their parents growing up.”
Based on my surveys of thousands of people from speaking on stages or in classrooms, there is no way 25% of the population has received a financial education from their parents.
My surveys have shown that when I add up those who have been taught about money from both school AND parents it only adds up to 10%.
90% of the population, not 75%, has received no financial education from their parents or teachers.
Unless you think the following counts as a financial education:
- Discuss saving money
- Do you have to give up one thing to buy another?
- Is it worth it?
I’m sorry, but that is NOT a financial education.
Let’s say you tossed a child into a swimming pool and asked them, “If you moved your arms and kicked your feet would you be swimming?” Is that providing a swimming education? Hell NO!
A financial education needs to include how to set up a spending plan or budget. It needs to include HOW to save for future expenses or desired purchases. It requires how to invest for the future so work can become a choice instead of a requirement. It ought to include the difference between a net and a gross amount on a paycheck.
But let’s get real. Parents can’t teach what they don’t know. And teachers can’t teach what they’ve never learned. And credit card companies prefer you know nothing.
Around 1990 I provided a financial education program to twenty high school districts, not high schools (but districts), that was free and funded through an educational endowment. When I came back a year later to measure the results I was shocked.
Not one teacher taught the information. Why? Because they were confronted by the material, and I realized I had to teach the teachers first.
It does get worse: It is not a part of the training for Certificated Public Accountants (CPAs) nor Certified Financial Planners (CFPs) how to set up a spending plan or budget, nor how to teach that to their clients.
Ninety percent of the population (9 out of 10 people) has to learn how to handle money, avoid credit card debt, save for the future, or create a household or business budget by trial and error.
As a CFP® it took me years of searching to learn about these foundational principals. That’s why I found myself broke after each divorce and had a business failure.
And after learning what works, and what doesn’t, and applying those principals starting at age 50, I was able to go from broke to multi-millionaire in a few years.
These practices work. They have worked for 5000 years. They are not a secret, but they are not taught to everyone like they need to be.
If you want to know more about our nine step program that can take you from a struggle with money to a place where you can have Complete Financial Choice®, then just reach out to me.*
To Your Prosperity,
Rennie
*100% of profits donated to charity.