# Why are so many people woefully ignorant of financial matters? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 16, 2007, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567 "2007-02-16T23:21:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Stinkum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Stinkum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stinkum)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/61 "2007-02-18T07:11:24Z")
The education system doesn’t teach kids about money, and the parents don’t either – because they don’t know diddly squat about it sometimes, or they would rather their kids not know about their financial situation. I was never taught basic economics, or personal finance at school. I was raised by parents who were very frugal (one lived through the Depression, the other grew up on a farm). The message was made very clear: Don’t spend what you don’t have, save what you don’t spend. They were not investors – as a matter of fact, my father had some strange ideas about the stock market – but I taught myself a lot. Before any discussion of personal finance comes up, kids have to be taught priorities. If the parents don’t show and teach priorities, all lessons are lost. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/62 "2007-02-18T08:44:20Z")
Why isn’t more of this stuff taught in high school? My hunch is that there are policies in place at the state or federal level that somehow quietly discourage it. There may well be an understanding that a steady supply of people who _aren’t_ smart about money is a needed resource for the business sector. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/63 "2007-02-18T09:49:48Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] Why isn’t more of this stuff taught in high school? My hunch is that there are policies in place at the state or federal level that somehow quietly discourage it. There may well be an understanding that a steady supply of people who _aren’t_ smart about money is a needed resource for the business sector. [/QUOTE] IMO, I believe that’s it. Although no announcement has ever been made about it, think about it… If the educational system teaches everyone to be financially independent, business would lose out on skilled peons, and banks will miss out on overdraft fees, late fees, etc… Basically, teach everyone to have a “career”, fuel the rat race, and boost consumerism - all great things for those that accept Visa and Mastercard! ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/64 "2007-02-18T12:33:29Z")
Reading this, I’ve a few points. 1. Pay off your credit cards and any high interest loans 2. Keep a buffer account for emergencies 3. **Keep a buffer in your normal account eg: $1,000 at 5% interest = $50 per year less 20% tax = $40 per year If you slip up, you can easily lose more than that $40 in bank charges, and it is easy to slip up.** 4. Your biggest investment will be your home - pay that off as fast as possible 5. **When** you have surplus money, then think about very simple forms of investment Being from the UK, I don’t know much about the USA, but remember buying into funds, buying pensions etc mean that **you are paying someone else to look after your money** If you invest in shares directly, then remember, it is very easy to lose money. A good company today can get badly managed and sold off for peanuts tomorrow. 6. Never buy a fancy combined product, like life insurance combined with a savings plan 7. Be careful from whom you take advice ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/65 "2007-02-18T12:36:15Z")
Also, what gives you tax breaks today, might not give you tax breaks tomorrow - in the UK the Pension Funds lost the tax break on share income, and it has completely shafted them. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/66 "2007-02-18T15:55:12Z")
[QUOTE=FRDE] 4) Your biggest investment will be your home - pay that off as fast as possible [/QUOTE] Not in the U.S. Mortgage interest is once of the few tax write-offs left for the average person. Unless you have an interest only loan, pay the minimum to your house payment and invest the extra money. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/67 "2007-02-18T16:49:02Z")
[QUOTE=FRDE] Also, what gives you tax breaks today, might not give you tax breaks tomorrow [/QUOTE] That’s a good one, too. In the US, generous deductions for hybrid car purchases just expired. ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/68 "2007-02-18T16:59:53Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] Not in the U.S. Mortgage interest is once of the few tax write-offs left for the average person. Unless you have an interest only loan, pay the minimum to your house payment and invest the extra money. [/QUOTE] I am UK - they stiffed that about 20 years ago. The one I like is possibly called an ‘Australian loan’ - you mix your mortgage and your bank account. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/69 "2007-02-18T17:53:09Z")
[QUOTE=ParentalAdvisory] IMO, I believe that’s it. Although no announcement has ever been made about it, think about it… If the educational system teaches everyone to be financially independent, business would lose out on skilled peons, and banks will miss out on overdraft fees, late fees, etc… Basically, teach everyone to have a “career”, fuel the rat race, and boost consumerism - all great things for those that accept Visa and Mastercard! [/QUOTE] Please keep your conspiracy-mongering out of this thread. We are discuss real-world, practical advice. Commercial banks, credit card companies and businesses have little to no influence over high school ciriculums. I think I can speak for business when I say we do want an educated, stable, hard working workforce. People who can’t get their financial shit together often bring that drama to the workplace in the form of absenteeism, loss productivity or even stealing from the company. And as I mentioned before, “they” don’t teach that stuff in school because “they” typically don’t come from the business world. My girlfriend has a bunch of teacher friends and they have no clue what we do. All their mind can grasp is we’re Manhattan business people. ---
**Author:** ![SusanStoHelit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@SusanStoHelit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SusanStoHelit)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/70 "2007-02-18T18:25:13Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] Not in the U.S. Mortgage interest is once of the few tax write-offs left for the average person. Unless you have an interest only loan, pay the minimum to your house payment and invest the extra money. [/QUOTE] I copied this from a post I read on the [Clark Howard](http://clarkhoward.com/p/boards/ch/wwwthreads.pl?Cat=) message board over a year ago. It is a bit long but worth reading if you are trying to decide between paying off debt and paying into a retirement account. The advice is specific to car loans but it can obviously apply to any type of debt. > [@](#): > > Pay yourself first. IMO the only time it makes any financial sense to postpone retirement funding to pay off debts is when you’re facing imminent foreclosure or having your wages garnisheed, when surviving the present is more important than planning for the future. Never when you can actually afford the payments. > > You cannot make up for lost time in earning compound interest for retirement. If you postpone or suspend a pre-tax plan like a 401(k) you have to pay money in taxes now instead of leaving it invested to earn compound interest for the next 30 to 40 years, and that money doesn’t go to pay down your debt either. > > It will be even worse if you give up any available employer matching payments. You can’t pay bills, buy stuff, reduce debt, or earn compound interest on extra income you choose not to ever receive. > > Time is an exponential factor in earning compound interest on investments and in determining the total interest on a loans. > > You will lose far more retirement earnings by postponing retirement contributions for a few months than you will save in interest by paying the same money on a short-term debt, even if its rate is a lot higher. And almost all debts are short-term compared to the time you should be contributing to retirement. > > If I were in your shoes, I’d tighten up my budget and try to pay off one of those car loans PDQ to give me more elbow room in my budget. But NOT postpone any retirement contributions to do it. > > Here’s an example of how much it can cost you to postpone retirement contributions. > > Let’s assume you were considering putting an extra $300 per month into a 401(k), or using it to pay down the car loans. I’ve made guesses about the time remaining and combined the two debts for illustration, but this is quite similar to how your results would be. > > If the $300/mo. is to be redirected to debt reduction instead of to retirement funding, and the combined fed and state tax bracket is 31%, the first $93 per month will have to go to pay income taxes that are no longer deferred. So you are also losing the exponential growth in compound interest, the Future Value for that pre-tax $93 per month, and it is not paying down your debt either. > > If you were paying $474.30 per month on a total debt of $20,000 at 6.5% it would take 48 months to pay it off. The total interest paid would be $2,766. Paying the after-tax $207.00 extra per month will pay it off in about 32 months, saving $926 in interest and cutting 16 payments. > > If you can earn a conservative 7.% on $300 per mo. for the entire 384 months, your retirement fund in 32. years will be worth $431,023. > > Delaying your retirement contributions for 32 months leaves 352 months during which you can invest the $300 per month. In this case, at retirement 32. years from now, your retirement fund will be worth $349,038. > > Unless you invest more money out-of pocket later, your loss at retirement will be: $81,986.. > > Something most folks overlook is that you don’t stop earning compound interest at retirement time. Even with no more contributions, chances are you will earn more after retirement than you did before retirement. > > For example, if you did not take any of the principal out, at 5% that $81,986 could earn $342 per month in interest. So if you were to live for 30 years after retirement, you would come up short by the $81,986 before retirement, plus lose $122,978 in interest that it could have earned after retirement, for a total lifetime loss of $204,964. > > That is in exchange for saving $926 in interest and 16 months of debt now. It is giving up $221.44 of your lifetime income for every dollar you save on the debt. $12,810 out of your retirement for every extra month you cut from the debt now. > > In 30+ years of talking with people and helping with the math of debt reduction versus investments, I’ve never met anyone who paid off all their debts just so they could start re-investing every single freed-up payment. They eliminate debts to get rid of the payment so they’ll have more money for daily living. > > But regardless of how people budget and pay off debts in the real world, there are people who still insist that you MUST re-invest every single freed-up payment. > > However, there are limits to how much you are allowed to contribute to a pre-tax retirement plan in a given year. It’s usually set as a percentage of your salary by your employer, and there is a maximum per year set by the IRS. > > So if you were contributing the max as you should have been doing already, you won’t be able to invest enough more pre-tax money to catch up later. Besides, it usually won’t work or won’t give much difference even with pre-tax catch-up money. And you almost always come out worse if you miss more than a few weeks or skip a single freed-up payment or two for re-investing during the original period of the debts you were eliminating. > > Anyway, here’s how it could work if you did re-invest every single freed up payment, and assuming that you are investing after-tax money with the freed-up payments because you were already maxing your pre-tax opportunities: > > At 7.%, earnings until retirement, the BEST CASE for delaying retirement contributions for 32 months to pay off the loan, including re-investing the 16 ‘freed-up’ loan payments, is the difference between the normal $431,023 and $405,342 which is a loss at retirement time of $25,681. > > At retirement time, the interest alone on the $25,681 at a more conservative 5% would have been $107 per month. If you live 30 more years, the loss of monthly interest after retirement would be 107 x 360 = $38,521. > > So you would lose the initial $25,681 that you won’t have at retirement plus the $38,521 in interest that it won’t earn after retirement, for a total lifetime loss of $64,202. > > That is still paying $69.36 out of your future retirement income for every dollar you avoid paying on that debt now. > Or $4,013 of your future retirement fund for every extra month you eliminate from the debt now. ---
**Author:** ![SusanStoHelit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@SusanStoHelit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SusanStoHelit)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/71 "2007-02-18T18:37:17Z")
Oh and we _did_ have a personal finance class that was required for graduation, but it was taught by the football coach (his only class IIRC). It was pretty much as worthless as you would expect. And I never knew how much my parents made until it came time to fill out the FAFSA either, but I remember talking about money matters around the dinner table. I knew, for example, that they had a 30 year mortgage but were paying it off in 15 years and we went through the math of how much they were saving in interest because of that. My mom was a SAHM and she discussed with us that because she clipped coupons, made all of our meals, didn’t need childcare, sewed many of our clothes, etc she was actually saving the family money versus her working in a minimum-wage job. It seems like some other families were ashamed of their frugality and afraid to talk about money, but even today when my parents have more money than they know what to do with my mom still calls me up when she finds a great bargain at the thrift store. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/72 "2007-02-18T19:27:04Z")
[QUOTE=fishbicycle] I appreciate your input, and would also appreciate any information you might know on what I should read to further acquaint myself with how employment and retirement plans in America work. [/QUOTE] I would recommend you go to the library, bookstore, or trusted internet sites and read up about 401k and Roth 401k. Also, read whatever is on your company’s intranet or in your employee handbook, to see what’s available to you personally. This is all just for explanantory information. If you can afford it, meeting with a financial advisor is a good idea, too. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/73 "2007-02-18T19:47:30Z")
[QUOTE=Harriet the Spry] I would recommend you go to the library, bookstore, or trusted internet sites and read up about 401k and Roth 401k. Also, read whatever is on your company’s intranet or in your employee handbook, to see what’s available to you personally. This is all just for explanantory information. If you can afford it, meeting with a financial advisor is a good idea, too. [/QUOTE] There are a lot of internet sites that will recommend a 401k mix for your age. The most common advice is “invest as much as you can” and “take bigger risks younger, than change your mix as you get older.” Here is a start: [http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/18/pf/expert/expert.moneymag.moneymag/index.htm](http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/18/pf/expert/expert.moneymag.moneymag/index.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/74 "2007-02-18T20:02:38Z")
[QUOTE=FRDE] Also, what gives you tax breaks today, might not give you tax breaks tomorrow - in the UK the Pension Funds lost the tax break on share income, and it has completely shafted them. [/QUOTE] In general: **diversify**! Do not put all of your eggs in one basket. I had an aunt and uncle who both worked for Nortel. They had a large amount of their savings tied up in Nortel stock. When the tech bubble burst, its stock went from a hair over $120 per share to somewhere around $5. :eek: Another cautionary tale: here in Canada, there’s a particular type of company called an “income trust”. Basically, all of the profits of an income trust are paid to the shareholders as dividends. This allowed the income trust to take advantage of a tax loophole and pay no corporate income tax on their profits. When several large Canadian companies announced plans to convert to an income trust, the Canadian government quickly changed the tax rules so that income trusts would pay corporate income taxes. The income trust market instantly lost billions of dollars. A lot of retirees, who depended on income trusts for their retirement income, were hurt badly by this. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/75 "2007-02-18T20:10:51Z")
The reason it usually isn’t taught in high school is because the people, through the school boards, have in their infinite wisdom decreed that we teach **every other frakking thing in the Universe parents are supposed to teach their children!** That said, I would like to note that in the Econ classes I teach (2 sections this year) we skip the Laffer Curve and high-end stuff they will never encounter in their lives and spend as much time as possible on Practical Economics. This includes credit-cards (bad), saving (good), budgeting (more good), check-book balancing, how having a kid early can doom you to the bottom of the heap for the rest of your life, and stuff like that. I’ve been told by returnees that that particular class was the one thing they remembered as being useful from high school. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/76 "2007-02-18T20:16:16Z")
BTW, we paid off our mortgage early. Our 401ks are well funded and much of the mortgage money is now going into 529s for the kids. I wanted the change to cash flow - I didn’t want to lose jobs in a recession and down market and have a mortgage over our heads and investments not worth as much as we paid for them. The mortgage is a guarenteed return (and we make too much to qualify for the interest deduction anyway). Last time we had an employment scare the stock market was down, the unemployment rate was high and one income was inadequate to support our expenses. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/77 "2007-02-18T20:25:45Z")
“Household Economics” should be a required course for graduation from high school. It’s a fundamental skill that has tremendous impact on your life. Why it’s not is truly baffling to me. Everyone kid who graduates should know how to balance a checkbook, know how to calculate the future value of money, understand how inflation works and how it affects a person’s long term financial situation, the difference between stocks, bonds, and other investment tools, the basics of taxation and tax planning, how to plan for retirement, and how to prepare a family budget. If that doesn’t take a full semester, they can cover automobile depreciation, the cost of raising children, the true cost of credit card debt, and practical tactics for living within your means. ---
**Author:** ![Millit\_the\_Frail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Millit\_the\_Frail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Millit_the_Frail)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/78 "2007-02-18T22:30:56Z")
[QUOTE=Captain\_C] I declare this to be the best thread ever. Lots of good advice, and I think I’m going to seriously look into this “money market account” idea. I mean, I have a checking account with a couple grand in it. The thing never goes below say $2,000. So basically I’m sitting on $2k which isn’t getting any interest. Money market seems the way to go for this. It wouldn’t get locked away if I really needed it, but it won’t just be sitting stagnant like it is now. Thanks dopers! [/QUOTE] Amen. I’m loving this thread, and I’m going to look into opening a 401k this week. And I’m also going to look into doing something with the several thousand we have sitting in our bank account. Citibank has something called a “Preferred Money Market Account,” which is what we have, but I don’t think it’s the same thing that everyone else is talking about. It’s basically a regular savings account, and we can transfer money into it from checking (or vice versa) any time. Going back to families and education: My dad grew up with Depression-Era parents, and he took their financial teachings to heart. He took me with him when he bought his last car, and he made the down payment in cash, then immediately wrote a check for the rest. I’ve inherited a lot of his attitudes, so I’m very frugal, but I’m also very hesitant and kind of scared. Anyway, I’m learning… ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/79 "2007-02-19T03:13:35Z")
[QUOTE=Millit the Frail] The Big Question: How much money, of what we have in the bank, should we budget spending on the car? How much should we put away for the eventual house? How much should I put in an index fund? Should I get a CD? Should I do none of the above and pay off the damn student loans instead? Should I put it towards nursing school and incurring less loans? [/QUOTE] Here are my suggestions (but, like everyone said, do some reading and decide for yourself) You should have short term savings, short term investments, and long term investments. Short term savings should be in a high-yield savings account. You can earn 5+ percent in several of the online banks, all FDIC insured. It should be 3-12 months of living expenses, depending on how flexible your spending is, and how secure your income is. Short term investments, like for a house down payment in a few years, should be kept in something similar, or in a CD or some bonds. Low-risk, slightly higher return than the savings acct. Long term investments is for 10+ years. It should be a mix of stocks, bonds, real estate, etc. Probably weighted toward stocks if you’re young. There are hundreds if not thousands of books written about how to divide up your investments, but if you invest regularly, split evenly between domestic stocks, international stocks, bonds, and real estate, you’ll do fine. Should you pay back student loans? It depends. Are you getting a tax deduction for interest? How does the rate compare to what you could make in a safe investment? Make sure to factor in the taxes that you’d pay on the investment earnings. How much should you budget for a car? As little as possible. Cars are depreciating assets, so buy just as much as you actually need. My mom was really good about talking to me about finances. She told me about the importance of retirement investing, and about her mutual funds, and to stay away from credit cards unless I had the money to pay them off immediately. She told me that she was mad at _her_ mom for not teaching her about these things, until she figured out that her mom didn’t really know. About a year or two ago, when I finally started making enough money to have more than I needed to live on, I started reading about investment and recommended some books to her. Now we go back and forth and talk about asset allocation and investment strategies, and recommend books to each other. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567/80 "2007-02-19T03:19:51Z")
I disagree with the notion that people are ignorant because “it’s not taught at schools”. They’re largely ignorant because it’s not _practiced at home_, at least openly. Money and finance was drilled into me as a kid by my grandparents. We made ledger entries, set up savings accounts, and discussed investing. They had money because they saved money, and they made sure that I knew how to figure simple calculations like compound interest at an early age. So, like many things, this starts at home. Leaving it for others to do is a losing proposition. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-people-woefully-ignorant-of-financial-matters/392567.md?page=5)