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> Financial literacy for the average person consists of two things: do not buy things you don't really need / don't spend more than you have Great, now take ou

> Financial literacy for the average person consists of two things: do not buy things you don't really need / don't spend more than you have Great, now take out a mortgage at a good time, predict interest rate and house prices manage your savings and plan your retirement, be self-employed for a year and correctly identify what is tax deductible and what isn’t, recognise when you are being sold a bad financial product. There are all things a middle class person needs to deal with.

Amezarak 2y ago
> Great, now take out a mortgage at a good time, predict interest rate and house prices Nobody can do this. It’s not part of basic financial literacy. A few people who make careers out of investing or real estate attempt it and many of them fail. If you are a normal person, you find a house that needs your basic needs in a decent area that you can afford and you buy it. You don’t try to throw darts at a board to figure out if the housing market is going to crash or the fed is going to lower rates. If you could reliably predict these things it’s your day job. > manage your savings Simply putting your savings into a savings account pr even under a mattress is more than most Americans do and is self-evident. Are there more optimal places? Maybe but if it matters to you you have the time to figure it out; Americans are doing well to accumulate 500 in emergency savings anywhere. Worrying about 5% interest money markets vs maybe an index fund for some portion is pointless at that level. (Ed - median emergency savings is 5k. This doesn’t require management.) > plan your retirement This becomes important as you approach retirement age, sure. Until then all you need to worry about is stuffing away as much money as you can because of that “compound interest” thing. > self-employed for a year and correctly identify what is tax deductible and what isn’t There’s a public website for the IRS where this is all laid about, but even Americans with easy standard taxes pay an accountant because they don’t want to add a few numbers together and look at a tax table. > recognise when you are being sold a bad financial product. If you are worried about “financial products” and you’re not at retirement age, all you need to know is “it’s a scam” or you’re very rich.

Amezarak 2y ago

> Great, now take out a mortgage at a good time, predict interest rate and house prices Nobody can do this. It’s not part of basic financial literacy. A few people who make careers out of investing or real estate attempt it and many of them fail. If you are a normal person, you find a house that needs your basic needs in a decent area that you can afford and you buy it. You don’t try to throw darts at a board to figure out if the housing market is going to crash or the fed is going to lower rates. If you could reliably predict these things it’s your day job. > manage your savings Simply putting your savings into a savings account pr even under a mattress is more than most Americans do and is self-evident. Are there more optimal places? Maybe but if it matters to you you have the time to figure it out; Americans are doing well to accumulate 500 in emergency savings anywhere. Worrying about 5% interest money markets vs maybe an index fund for some portion is pointless at that level. (Ed - median emergency savings is 5k. This doesn’t require management.) > plan your retirement This becomes important as you approach retirement age, sure. Until then all you need to worry about is stuffing away as much money as you can because of that “compound interest” thing. > self-employed for a year and correctly identify what is tax deductible and what isn’t There’s a public website for the IRS where this is all laid about, but even Americans with easy standard taxes pay an accountant because they don’t want to add a few numbers together and look at a tax table. > recognise when you are being sold a bad financial product. If you are worried about “financial products” and you’re not at retirement age, all you need to know is “it’s a scam” or you’re very rich.