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Jan
18

3 Finance Lessons to Teach in Grade School

in Financial Coaching

by Renee Wittrock

How come no one teaches this stuff in school? The fact is that personal financial planning is simple and broken down to 3 basic parts. If you plan on building wealth, these are a must.

1. POSITIVE Math

One of them is 3rd grade math. You do not have to be a numbers whiz, but you must add and subtract and when you are done you have to end up with a positive balance. The way I see things, teaching this would be easy to add to an elementary classroom. During math class, put a dollar sign in front of the numbers and do math on a check register.  A secondary benefit is that kids would start their money relationship at an early age.

2. Pay a Percentage Forwardgrade school personal finance lessons

Once you figure out how to end up with a positive balance each month, then it’s time for part 2, where you employ 4th grader skills. They could easily teach tithing in school when teaching percentages. Give back 10% of your income to charitable organizations. Pay it forward in your community and be part of something bigger than yourself. This would teach kids to feel as if they had more than they needed before they started acquiring bills and feeling lack.

Next, put 15% of your income into a savings plan so when it builds up you can invest it.

3. Take Calculated Risk

We all know by now that none of us are smarter than a 5th grader, so when they are at the top of their game, it’s time to teach them about investment options. Show them their choices in an unbiased and interactive manner and teach them to ask great questions about their money.

Let them in on Investment 101:

  • You take your age minus 100 and the balance is the percentage of your money that can be put in riskier investments.

So, a 10 year old could have 90% of their investment portfolio in stocks or real estate but the other 10% would need to be in something with a guaranteed return. When they turn 11 then only 89% should be in the risky stuff and so on. They’d figure this out quick, learning an unbelievable life skill at an age where you can still teach them something.

So, you see what I mean? The stuff they never teach us could easily be taught in schools, and then maybe, just maybe we would not have the financial issues that we have today.

But, it’s not too late to apply these easy financial basics to your own life—when will you start?

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Comments

One comment on "3 Finance Lessons to Teach in Grade School"

  1. opthamologists says:

    My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!

    Comment on this   

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