Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?

#181

Post by jandrewrogers » Sat, Oct 24, 2020, 4:22 PM UTC

rsynnott wrote: post #166

leetcrew wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the median net worth of a US household is $121,411. you have to go down into the bottom quartile to find households with a net worth under $10k. most americans absolutely have enough money to make investments relevant. https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-net-worth-percentiles/

I would assume that that ‘net worth’ is mostly caught up in housing, and very much not available for investment.

Median household investable income after all expenses, including housing, is about $12,000 per year, per the US government. So at least half of American households are in a position to do significant investment.

The data consistently indicates that Americans have significantly more ability to invest than the impression many people seem to have.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?

#182

Post by egberts1 » Sat, Oct 24, 2020, 4:22 PM UTC

We called it “home economics”, which went the way of the dinosaurs with gun safety training, auto shop, wood shop, Metal shop, and welding shop.

I wonder what changed. :-/

Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?

#183

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o » Sat, Oct 24, 2020, 4:24 PM UTC

Hell, I’d settle for much more basic finance than that. I know people who have turned down jobs that would bump them into the next tax bracket, thinking it would net them less. In their thirties.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?

#184

Post by Retric » Sat, Oct 24, 2020, 4:28 PM UTC

aliassmith wrote: post #43

Every recommendation to add "x" to a school curriculum should state explicitly what alternative activity should be cut to free up time. This could be another subject, sleep or childrens' free time. For example, a better question would be "Why don't we eliminate and teach finance instead?"

I would suggest replacing a chunk of geometry. Teaching students the names of the Platonic solid’s for example is seemingly vastly less useful than basic financial literacy. As a math class you can cover plenty of useful ideas like risk assessment at the same time.

Alternatively, I would drop things to 3 years of English to add a year of Home Economics that covered basic cooking, practical nutrition, taxes, personal finances including insurance, and saving for retirement. All I can recall from mine was a few weeks we learned how to fill out a check and sew a pillow.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?

#185

Post by vulcan01 » Sat, Oct 24, 2020, 4:29 PM UTC

GuB-42 wrote: post #175

Generally, school doesn't teach practical things, it teaches the fundamentals for learning practical things later. Finance by itself is not that complicated. If you know the underlying maths, that's the kind of thing you can learn on the spot, at least on a basic level. If you want more than that, you probably should hire an accountant, or it becomes specialized studies. For the rest, I don't know what kids learn in…

> you know the stock market and taxes exist from history lessons and you learn the mathematical operations to run the numbers.

And most schools have a government class, where you learn why taxes exist and how they've changed over time. This class is generally also where you learn about the legal system.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?

#186

Post by aidenn0 » Sat, Oct 24, 2020, 4:30 PM UTC

egberts1 wrote: post #182

We called it “home economics”, which went the way of the dinosaurs with gun safety training, auto shop, wood shop, Metal shop, and welding shop. I wonder what changed. :-/

I took Home Ec.

Learned: How to sew, how to cook, how to plan a meal, and that anorexia is bad.

Those are all useful things, but only tangentially related to finances.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?

#187

Post by aidenn0 » Sat, Oct 24, 2020, 4:32 PM UTC

Jach wrote: post #11

It is. When I was in high school over a decade ago, I did take a required financial literacy class. Required by the state. So yes, students do learn about savings accounts, CD accounts, IRA, Roth IRA. They learn about stocks, mortgages. Various other things (like tax returns by hand). I don't think equity/derivatives/futures/bonds were covered. Another class I took that was an elective (so not required, but available…

Which state?

I certainly didn't take one in Virginia 20 years ago.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?

#188

Post by nickff » Sat, Oct 24, 2020, 4:32 PM UTC

GuB-42 wrote: post #175

Generally, school doesn't teach practical things, it teaches the fundamentals for learning practical things later. Finance by itself is not that complicated. If you know the underlying maths, that's the kind of thing you can learn on the spot, at least on a basic level. If you want more than that, you probably should hire an accountant, or it becomes specialized studies. For the rest, I don't know what kids learn in…

>"Generally, school doesn't teach practical things, it teaches the fundamentals for learning practical things later."

This is a common belief, but it unfortunately doesn't work that way. "Transfer of learning" as it is known in educational psychology, (similar to 'learning how to learn',) is basically a failure. People have been studying it for over 50 years, and it turns out that students are very bad at taking things they learn in one class, and applying it in another.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_Against_Education

Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?

#189

Post by nickff » Sat, Oct 24, 2020, 4:37 PM UTC

tjs8rj wrote: post #152

BoiledCabbage wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are probably 10 guys like him for every person who actually is so broke there is no way out...This is what America's "poor" looks like, it is far more a mental state than concrete reality. No, this is what poverty looks like in the strawman you've built up in your head. I guarantee you the person you describe exists, and is just as you describe - but they're also not representative of American poverty. But th…

Asking in good faith: data to back you up? Just my anecdata, growing up living in apartments with 8 siblings at one point, many friends who grew up in foster homes and trailer parks - maybe 1 or 2 I could recall who were “doing everything right” but still poor, and that seemed primarily because they were on disability and elderly. The rest? Spent every paycheck, griped about immigrants and how the govt takes too much…

(Economist) Bryan Caplan is currently working on a book, and his research so far seems to agree with your points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAaCpyuwRIw

Re: Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?

#190

Post by vulcan01 » Sat, Oct 24, 2020, 4:37 PM UTC

In response, I'd ask this question: "Which teachers are qualified to properly teach finance?" Many of the current comments presume that there are a qualified group of teachers.