As a 15-year-old, year 10 student, at school I am constantly told about how to create a CV, how to look presentable at interviews and how to get a job. But I have never been taught what happens after you have secured a job and specifically what to do with the money you earn like ways to save, taxes, mortgages and paying into pensions.
I have never been taught about all the different pension schemes and loans that would be available to me in later life. Yes, I know what a pension is, but we get taught a definition and that’s it.
I took Business Studies as a GCSE and only then was I introduced to the world of finance but it’s still at a very basic level and all the terms we have been taught relate to setting up a business and the start-up costs. Not everyone is going to set up a business, but everyone will have a salary or income of some sort.
What we learn now is how loans have an involvement in business. We haven’t been introduced to personal money management at all. If someone told me a few years ago about mortgage rates and pensions I would have had no understanding of them. Even now if someone asked me about pension schemes I wouldn’t know and I’m sure it’s the same for every student.
The government was making plans to introduce personal finance as a core subject to give students the know-how on managing their money and knowing where it goes and buying the things you need in the future. I think it would be a good thing to teach pupils money management as early as possible as then they would leave secondary school with the knowledge of how to secure a job and also the knowledge of what to do with the money they earn as a result.
I am planning on going to university but the price of gaining a degree is thousands of pounds of debt. Once you’ve completed all forms of education you might want to buy a house and I have no idea about all the different mortgages available. I don’t know which rates are better than others or who I would speak to to arrange a mortgage? People don’t know because no one is taught this.
Pensions are also going to be a major factor in my life once I’m up and running in the working world. But I don’t know how much money I should pay into it, when to start saving or any of those things. That’s why I think its important to start teaching it at an early age as nearly every one will need this knowledge the whole way through life.
Students should be given more guidance so when we leave school we aren’t all in the dark about handling our salaries. This would help us manage our money effectively and hopefully save us from going to payday loan companies, which benefit from people not understanding finance, first through getting into desperate situations by not managing their money effectively, and then by not understanding interest rates or knowing about other ways out of debt.
Everybody should be taught personal finance, just like any other subject. We are going to need it for our entire life.
