Wow that is interesting. Some of the questions I would just use a calculator just to make sure but I understand all the reasoning behind it.
Part of saving, is just save for a rainy day, like the pandemic so you can do more then survive. Worked for me.
I helped a student friend of mine one time who wanted to live the life. He was so focused on getting a BMW because that is all he noticed on the street. So we crunched some numbers based off a living wage in Toronto and deducted the basics like food, internet, phone etc..he wasn't impressed.
Financial fundamentals is something the rich teach their kids at early ages, and make accounting games out of it. Seems reasonable everyone should have the same basics.
A calculator would certainly help with precision, but the real test in not using one is the ability to do basic math and estimation - quickly. One thing you will find with people who are unsuccessful financially is they can't evaluate the situation quickly, so desire kicks in and they act. Using your example, had your student friend not had someone help him crunch the numbers, the BMW dealer would have found a way to get him into that car.
A calculator would certainly help with precision, but the real test in not using one is the ability to do basic math and estimation - quickly. One thing you will find with people who are unsuccessful financially is they can't evaluate the situation quickly, so desire kicks in and they act. Using your example, had your student friend not had someone help him crunch the numbers, the BMW dealer would have found a way to get him into that car.
I sometimes wonder if vehicle sales staff know the total cost of vehicles they are pushing. They are laser focused on the monthly payments and how you can afford them, how you can add this for only a few bucks a month etc. Its much easier to get buyers on the hook for $500 a month for 8 years than 50K for a motorbike.
I sometimes wonder if vehicle sales staff know the total cost of vehicles they are pushing. They are laser focused on the monthly payments and how you can afford them, how you can add this for only a few bucks a month etc. Its much easier to get buyers on the hook for $500 a month for 8 years than 50K for a motorbike.
Thing is, the car salesperson doesn't really care about your finances. Their thoughts are on their commission and meeting their job related sales targets. It's up to the buyer to assess their own financial situation.
Thing is, the car salesperson doesn't really care about your finances. Their thoughts are on their commission and meeting their job related sales targets. It's up to the buyer to assess their own financial situation.
Oh, I know, I am just surprised when you ask what the total cost is and they look at you like you have two heads. I think part of the training is to avoid the big number as much as possible and focus on the bites.
Honestly, with everything I have ever purchased, the size of the bites the financial industry allows grossly exceed anything I am comfortable with. I pick the big number I am comfortable with and let the bites work themselves out. It doesn't always work out in my favor (my old house is for sale for 25% more than I sold it for a year ago) but I would have been super stressed with a humongous mortgage.
An elderly friend had easy access to money her entire life. A retirement home used up everything. She said she still had a bunch of money which made no sense. It turns out she had a 50K unsecured LOC. She thought that meant she had 50K she could spend. She had never dealt with credit in her entire life, everything was cash. I guess technically she was correct that she could spend the LOC but I dont know how that ends up when you dont make the payments.
I teach financial fundamentals to hundreds of 20-30 year olds each year, I can tell you very few understand the fundamentals of savings and credit. If you're reading this, ask yourself a few questions:
Credit Cards:
What are the intended purposes of a credit card?
Explain how interest is computed on a credit card?
What is late, what is delinquent?
Can increasing your credit limit increase your credit score?
What level of credit card utilization causes your credit score to drop?
How many days can you use the bank's money for free (before getting charged interest)?
Savings:
What are the 3 main reasons for savings?
If you put $100 biweekly into a RSP savings plan and reinvest the dividends & tax refund, how much will you have in 5 years?
Explain a simple saving strategy.
General:
If you carry 10K balance on a credit card, what is your annual carrying cost? If you carried 0 and put the equivalent interest charges into savings, how much would you have after 5 years.
What percentage of your gross income will most lenders considerable reasonable for housing costs, taxes and debt payments?
.... Now, if you have reasonable financial acumen you can answer those questions without the use of a calculator or the internet in about 5 minutes.
I was forced to learn multiplication tables to 12 when I was four and was tutoring older students when I was 6.
My parents never took us to McDonalds or fast food, but I got a happy meal for learning my multiplication tables!
However, I have poor financial literacy. I make good money, spend a little less, buy some real estate and try to pay off all my bills with minimal interest. My wife and I were just talking about how we both need to really improve our financial acumen, especially related to investing and taxes, because we both kind of wing it and things have worked out.
I look forward to the answers, because I have no clue on most of those questions!
I was forced to learn multiplication tables to 12 when I was four and was tutoring older students when I was 6.
My parents never took us to McDonalds or fast food, but I got a happy meal for learning my multiplication tables!
However, I have poor financial literacy. I make good money, spend a little less, buy some real estate and try to pay off all my bills with minimal interest. My wife and I were just talking about how we both need to really improve our financial acumen, especially related to investing and taxes, because we both kind of wing it and things have worked out.
I look forward to the answers, because I have no clue on most of those questions!
Take a crack at the answers. Thinking your way through the solution is more than half the battle even if you make some mistakes and don't end up at the correct answer.
I was forced to learn multiplication tables to 12 when I was four and was tutoring older students when I was 6.
My parents never took us to McDonalds or fast food, but I got a happy meal for learning my multiplication tables!
I already knew bedmas (as we call it here, there's no acronym in Chinese) at around 6 and was doing calculus in grade 9 (think 14 years old?). I never got rewarded for doing well, I just got beat for every wrong answer via belt or chopsticks. Nothing like trying to solve a quadratic equation with swollen hands and tears covering a Kumon booklet!
...anyone else got math beaten into them? lol I know schools in Taiwan, Japan, and China beat the students for sucking, but I don't know if it's still done now.
I already knew bedmas (as we call it here, there's no acronym in Chinese) at around 6 and was doing calculus in grade 9 (think 14 years old?). I never got rewarded for doing well, I just got beat for every wrong answer via belt or chopsticks. Nothing like trying to solve a quadratic equation with swollen hands and tears covering a Kumon booklet!
...anyone else got math beaten into them? lol I know schools in Taiwan, Japan, and China beat the students for sucking, but I don't know if it's still done now.
Haha yes...I went to school in Poland for my first few years...regular beatings with a ruler there when I was in school. Was a shock to the system going here. No rulers over the palms was a nice change!
As for homework and the like, I remember learning here and my cousins from Poland showed up one year...I'm struggling with calculus and cousin is like 'Oh ya...we did that 2-3 years ago'...and he's younger than me!
The curriculum needs a change. I haven't looked into this yet, but finances and taxes need to be taught. Most people are ignorant, and there's a reason for it. Took me a long time (and late in life) to figure a lot of this stuff out. But I've always been fairly miserly about saving, just still learning slowly about investing. Always been beat into me to save, save save.
Coding is heavily linked to math due to the critical thinking required to solve all problems. I'm sure you can find a few different ways to make "Hello World" run with memory leaks and take 10 minutes. With that said, if somebody blows ass at math, they will likely blow ass at coding. Both are linked to IQ, which really translates into "how hard do I have to work to identify patterns" (high IQ = less time, it doesn't mean anything more or less.)
I do think everyone should actually learn to code though. Reason is because we've entered an age where:
1. If you cannot use a computer, you're useless.
2. If you are competent with a computer, you're are hireable.
So in the interest of more power to people, I think coding should be mandatory, especially due to how much computers have taken over our lives. Then the boomers can stfu and stop with the "ROBOTS ARE TAKING OUR JOBS"; at least the younger generation could do maintenance work then.
...........now if you're of the mindset that some people are simply irredeemable because they're too stupid (aka. destiny, fate, genetics), then no, not everyone should code. I'm honestly 50/50 between these two sides because I've worked with some devs that are negative throughput. No amount of math and training can fix that.
Haha yes...I went to school in Poland for my first few years...regular beatings with a ruler there when I was in school. Was a shock to the system going here. No rulers over the palms was a nice change!
As for homework and the like, I remember learning here and my cousins from Poland showed up one year...I'm struggling with calculus and cousin is like 'Oh ya...we did that 2-3 years ago'...and he's younger than me!
The curriculum needs a change. I haven't looked into this yet, but finances and taxes need to be taught. Most people are ignorant, and there's a reason for it. Took me a long time (and late in life) to figure a lot of this stuff out. But I've always been fairly miserly about saving, just still learning slowly about investing. Always been beat into me to save, save save.
My opinion is spending, credit and saving are the things everyone should master -- investing... not so much. Managing spending, credit and saving has much higher monetary return than investments for most people.
For most people their home is their biggest investment, there isn't a lot of strategy that goes into owning a home, I like that as one's first substantial investment. If you own your home or have surplus cash to invest, engage a pro. If you're not a professional investor and you are managing a portfolio of securities yourself... you're probably closer to a gambler than an investor.
I was forced to learn multiplication tables to 12 when I was four and was tutoring older students when I was 6.
My parents never took us to McDonalds or fast food, but I got a happy meal for learning my multiplication tables!
However, I have poor financial literacy. I make good money, spend a little less, buy some real estate and try to pay off all my bills with minimal interest. My wife and I were just talking about how we both need to really improve our financial acumen, especially related to investing and taxes, because we both kind of wing it and things have worked out.
I look forward to the answers, because I have no clue on most of those questions!
Done. Given the level of public education, I have faith that most of the good information in those four posts can be conveyed to the kids in the eight years allotted.
I just hope young teachers understand this stuff well enough to deliver it. It's not all that tough but it's surprising how many people only have a vague understanding of savings and debts.
It's easy to regurgitate where the brakes, throttle and shifter are but it doesn't mean you can ride. IIRC Ford was bringing credit into the curriculum but the appropriate use of the formulas is important.
Credit for toys is different than credit for tools.
Toys: How am I going to pay for this?
Tools: How is it going to pay for itself?
Friend of friend thing but a punk living with his grandfather was complaining about how cheap he was even though he owned the house. Friend tells him his grandfather still has to pay for hydro, gas, water, taxes etc. Kid is stunned and says "He has to pay for that???"
I was forced to learn multiplication tables to 12 when I was four and was tutoring older students when I was 6.
My parents never took us to McDonalds or fast food, but I got a happy meal for learning my multiplication tables!
However, I have poor financial literacy. I make good money, spend a little less, buy some real estate and try to pay off all my bills with minimal interest. My wife and I were just talking about how we both need to really improve our financial acumen, especially related to investing and taxes, because we both kind of wing it and things have worked out.
I look forward to the answers, because I have no clue on most of those questions!
I was born before lotteries. When I saw a nice car or house my mother would say "If you want something like that you have to get an education, be smart with your money and save". Now it's "Ya gotta win a lottery." Work ethics flushed down the toilet.
I was born before lotteries. When I saw a nice car or house my mother would say "If you want something like that you have to get an education, be smart with your money and save". Now it's "Ya gotta win a lottery." Work ethics flushed down the toilet.
To be fair, for many people that do not currently own real estate, a nice house in much of Toronto probably does require a lottery win. They are way behind on the property curve and it is very unlikely they can make enough salary or do enough jumps on the property ladder to get into many neighbourhoods. Obviously if your bar is a decent home somewhere in Ontario it is possible with hard work (and/or a useful education).
To be fair, for many people that do not currently own real estate, a nice house in much of Toronto probably does require a lottery win. They are way behind on the property curve and it is very unlikely they can make enough salary or do enough jumps on the property ladder to get into many neighbourhoods. Obviously if your bar is a decent home somewhere in Ontario it is possible with hard work (and/or a useful education).
It lets one dream but as some have said it's a tax on stupidity, the average win is half of what you put in. When my mother made the comment her wages would have been 1/25th of what they are today. The house we were living in would have been 1/100th of what it is today.
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