What Do You Wish You’d Learned About Money In School?

When I was in school, one of my homework assignments was to follow the price of a single stock for one week. Other than that, I don’t remember having any formal education about money.

I wouldn’t receive any training on how to use money to achieve my goals until I went to grad school and told my adviser I wanted to take classes in arts management and entrepreneurship. (One of the best things that came out of my MFA in theatre was the ability to design and manage a cash-flow budget.) By that point, I’d already decided that I was Interested In Money and began seeking out additional educational resources on my own.

I’d bet a lot of you have similar stories. If you didn’t specifically get a degree in business or finance, your financial education might have come from the internet, the public library, your parents, or, you know, life experiences.

But many of us don’t get much financial education at all. As USA Today reports:

In fact, when tested on financial concepts, only 17% of respondents ages 18 to 34 demonstrated basic financial literacy, according to the FINRA Foundation’s 2018 National Financial Capability Study. It could partly be a lack of exposure. Just 29% of those surveyed by FINRA said they’d been offered financial education at a school, college or workplace.

USA Today lists four important financial topics that aren’t generally taught in schools, including taxes, student loans, credit, and budgeting. Did you learn about any of those in class, or did you have to figure them out on your own?

And tell us—what do you wish you had learned about money in school? When do you wish you had learned it, and how do you wish it had been taught?

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