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>my first world poor friends...are all bad with money This is a well documented phenomenon.[0][1] The state of being in poverty has a significant effect on you

>my first world poor friends...are all bad with money This is a well documented phenomenon.[0][1] The state of being in poverty has a significant effect on your cognitive processes evaluating risk and reward and future planning. For people who grew up in poverty, those programmed biases can be extremely challenging to overcome and limit their upward mobility. There's also the aphorism that it's "expensive to be poor." The boots metaphor and all that. As to building wealth at a good rate, doing that from a state of relative stability vs a state of relative poverty are two entirely different scopes. "Escaping poverty requires almost 20 years with nothing going wrong." When 5 years of savings can be wiped out by a car repair that means you can't get to your job, you can lose 5 years of progress in one bad event.[2] The problem with that statement is whether it "is possible to live within your means." It can be exceptionally challenging and complicated to live within your means while impoverished but still move upwards and respond to emergencies and disasters. And it's doubly much to ask that kind of complex planning from someone affected by the deleterious cognitive effects of poverty documented above. [0]http://behavioralscientist.org/can-neuroscientists-help-us-understand-fight-effects-childhood-poverty/ http://behavioralscientist.org/can-neuroscientists-help-us-u... [1]https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/sa-visual/this-is-your-brain-on-poverty/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/sa-visual/this-is-your-... [1]https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/04/economic-inequality/524610/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/04/economi...

simonsarris 8y ago
That's interesting because its also well documented that "Poverty decreases IQ" studies are contentious and not well replicated. > Mani et al. (Research Articles, 30 August, p. 976) presented laboratory experiments that aimed to show that poverty-related worries impede cognitive functioning. A reanalysis without dichotomization of income fails to corroborate their findings and highlights spurious interactions between income and experimental manipulation due to ceiling effects caused by short and easy tests. This suggests that effects of financial worries are not limited to the poor. Comment on "Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function" (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259207757_Comment_on_Poverty_Impedes_Cognitive_Function https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259207757_Comment_o...
deleted 8y ago
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ams6110 8y ago
One big problem is that we in general do not teach good money management in schools. Impoverished kids could at least be exposed to the principles of sound financial practices from K-12. What they actually get is maybe a few weeks of "personal finance" as a unit in a High School social studies or economics class. Too little, and too late. All kinds of ways to do this. Younger kids could be shown how regular investment compounds over time using games that pay out the reward at the end of the school year. Older kids can do mock investments in mutual funds, etc.
- notheguyouthink 8y ago
  I feel like I fall in that camp. I received no formal money training, and frankly saved terribly when I was younger. However, I don't believe education was the problem, I believe maturity was. I still don't know what I'm doing, but I've got a nice nest egg, I seek knowledge on how best to handle my excess money, and my wife and I are executing her higher interest school loans. I really don't feel I have that much more knowledge than I did. I simply have the will to plan for my future life. In my early 20s I just didn't care (for various reasons). Kids learn all sorts of things that they ignore. As a race, we seem to be really good at shooting ourselves in the foot. Related to education though, I feel that these patterns of ignoring what is good for you is what is really at fault here. This has wide reaching implications in my mind, and is the cause of anti-intellectualism in America that is quite concerning. We just don't.. care, as a society. Until we do, I don't foresee education on finances drastically improving quality of life. Note that I of course will always back education, I'm definitely not advocating against it. I just see this as part of a really large problem, and I've got no idea how to solve it.
- vlaak 8y ago
  I've said this a lot, and I've heard others say it too. I've recently been talking to my sister (a 1st grade teacher) about it and the conclusion we've come to is that even if there was a class it would do little good because of how little high school education sinks in. Most students just don't care enough to learn a boring life skill like money management. I think your idea of having younger kids start learning this early (before its "uncool") is key. My sister says 1st grade is probably a little too early. I think maybe 3rd-6th might be right to start introducing the concepts. Anything would be better than what we're doing now.

simonsarris 8y ago

That's interesting because its also well documented that "Poverty decreases IQ" studies are contentious and not well replicated. > Mani et al. (Research Articles, 30 August, p. 976) presented laboratory experiments that aimed to show that poverty-related worries impede cognitive functioning. A reanalysis without dichotomization of income fails to corroborate their findings and highlights spurious interactions between income and experimental manipulation due to ceiling effects caused by short and easy tests. This suggests that effects of financial worries are not limited to the poor. Comment on "Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function" (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259207757_Comment_on_Poverty_Impedes_Cognitive_Function https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259207757_Comment_o...

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

ams6110 8y ago

One big problem is that we in general do not teach good money management in schools. Impoverished kids could at least be exposed to the principles of sound financial practices from K-12. What they actually get is maybe a few weeks of "personal finance" as a unit in a High School social studies or economics class. Too little, and too late. All kinds of ways to do this. Younger kids could be shown how regular investment compounds over time using games that pay out the reward at the end of the school year. Older kids can do mock investments in mutual funds, etc.

notheguyouthink 8y ago
I feel like I fall in that camp. I received no formal money training, and frankly saved terribly when I was younger. However, I don't believe education was the problem, I believe maturity was. I still don't know what I'm doing, but I've got a nice nest egg, I seek knowledge on how best to handle my excess money, and my wife and I are executing her higher interest school loans. I really don't feel I have that much more knowledge than I did. I simply have the will to plan for my future life. In my early 20s I just didn't care (for various reasons). Kids learn all sorts of things that they ignore. As a race, we seem to be really good at shooting ourselves in the foot. Related to education though, I feel that these patterns of ignoring what is good for you is what is really at fault here. This has wide reaching implications in my mind, and is the cause of anti-intellectualism in America that is quite concerning. We just don't.. care, as a society. Until we do, I don't foresee education on finances drastically improving quality of life. Note that I of course will always back education, I'm definitely not advocating against it. I just see this as part of a really large problem, and I've got no idea how to solve it.
vlaak 8y ago
I've said this a lot, and I've heard others say it too. I've recently been talking to my sister (a 1st grade teacher) about it and the conclusion we've come to is that even if there was a class it would do little good because of how little high school education sinks in. Most students just don't care enough to learn a boring life skill like money management. I think your idea of having younger kids start learning this early (before its "uncool") is key. My sister says 1st grade is probably a little too early. I think maybe 3rd-6th might be right to start introducing the concepts. Anything would be better than what we're doing now.