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Financial literacy is a gift, and absolutely omitted from standard education, which is unfortunate. That said, I don't think knowledge of investment gets you v

by ericyd 1y ago

Financial literacy is a gift, and absolutely omitted from standard education, which is unfortunate. That said, I don't think knowledge of investment gets you very far if your job pays subsistence wages. I worked for a popular fintech focused on personal investment and their narrative was essentially "financial freedom through investment". I think it's important to understand that even the most sophisticated knowledge of investment and personal finance does nothing substantial if you aren't making surplus money to begin with.

nxor 1y ago
Sure but if you learn a lot about investing then surely you have learned a lot about other stuff too and maybe have chances at a good job. Not that I disagree
bilekas 1y ago
> Financial literacy is a gift, and absolutely omitted from standard education, which is unfortunate. With my tinfoil hat on, I feel like that is by design.
- tinfoilhatter 1y ago
  I don't think you even need to wear a tinfoil hat to reach this conclusion. Knowing about the origins of the modern outcome-based education systems in the West (we borrowed from the Prussian education system which replaced the classical education system based on the Trivium and Quadrivium) I would assert that your claim is spot on.
  - internet_points 1y ago
    you should know haha :)
    - tinfoilhatter 1y ago
      I wear it proudly!
- nxor 1y ago
  How couldn't it be? If the finance industry made things clearer then more people would benefit from it.
- alxmdev 1y ago
  Probably, because everything would collapse if everyone was an "investor" and fewer people did actual work to keep the world going.
  - RealStickman_ 1y ago
    This type of investing isn't about day trading following the latest hype. It's about putting some surplus money to better use for when you need it in 10-20 years.
    - array_key_first 1y ago
      That's even worse, because the entire point of the stock market is supposed to be that investors choose where to put their money based on how the company is performing and what they're saying. I.e., you vote with your wallet, and the market therefore punishes bad behavior and rewards good behavior. If everyone is passively investing, that no longer works. Then it's not even a market. We don't even know, for sure, if that works.
      - RealStickman_ 1y ago
        Investors are obviously bad a choosing where to invest. See any widely overvalued company
        array_key_first 1y ago
        Right but those wildly overvalued companies become that way because millions of passive investors just mindlessly dump their money into them. If you use big index funds, you're the primary people contributing to Nvidia, Tesla, and openAI. You didn't start it, no, but you certainly propelled that ball forward like a bullet. And, well, that's fine, because we cant expect anyone really to actively invest. The problem is we don't know if this works. This definitely has the potential to blow up. You have to realize that what we're doing here is undermining the stock market at a conceptual level.
      - 1y ago
triceratops 1y ago
I don't know what you mean by that. They teach compound interest in every school. Basic economics too. Anything more advanced is going to be lost on most kids, because that's most adults' level of financial literacy too. The problem is many kids don't have much money to save or invest. Or if they do, real banks kinda suck when you only have a kid amount of money ("Here's the 0.2% interest on your $37 balance"). So they can't apply what they learned. An app like this, backed by the Bank of Mom and Dad, is great for practice.
- danielbarla 1y ago
  While I certainly had the _concept_ of compound interest taught to me at some abstract mathematical level, the application to real life practical financial scenarios was definitely not done [1]. Economics as a whole was an optional subject. I think schools and curriculums could do a whole lot better in representing this important facet of life. More broadly, I often feel that "applying all that math you've learned to real things" is a subject that could be taught. [1] Seriously, having applied math questions like "Johnny earns X per year, with a cost of living of Y. Assuming inflation of Z and average yearly returns of R, what percentage should he be putting away, starting at age 25, so that at age 50 he essentially gets the equivalent of his own salary each month?" would likely cause some lightbulbs to go off in the kids' heads.
  - triceratops 1y ago
    > the application to real life practical financial scenarios was definitely not done Of course it was. You can't teach compound interest without referring to money or banks. That's the whole point of it. Otherwise it's just multiplication.
    - sebastiennight 1y ago
      It... is just multiplication. And can't talk about GP's experience, but I can tell you that going through scientific schooling and engineering schools in the French system you'll learn exactly how to calculate the math and never have a single example such as mentioned above. We're here to build bridges, not count stashes of money after all! You'd probably get those if you went through "economic studies" (which is a different track and where math includes a lot more statistics even in high school).
skeeter2020 1y ago
investment for many is more important than ever, because with home ownership out of reach younger people those with any savings are looking for alternatives. I just hope that - much like how you wouldn't buy and sell your house every day - they can resist the urge to be overly active investors.

by ericyd 1y ago

nxor 1y ago

Sure but if you learn a lot about investing then surely you have learned a lot about other stuff too and maybe have chances at a good job. Not that I disagree

bilekas 1y ago

> Financial literacy is a gift, and absolutely omitted from standard education, which is unfortunate. With my tinfoil hat on, I feel like that is by design.

tinfoilhatter 1y ago
I don't think you even need to wear a tinfoil hat to reach this conclusion. Knowing about the origins of the modern outcome-based education systems in the West (we borrowed from the Prussian education system which replaced the classical education system based on the Trivium and Quadrivium) I would assert that your claim is spot on.
- internet_points 1y ago
  you should know haha :)
  - tinfoilhatter 1y ago
    I wear it proudly!
nxor 1y ago
How couldn't it be? If the finance industry made things clearer then more people would benefit from it.
alxmdev 1y ago
Probably, because everything would collapse if everyone was an "investor" and fewer people did actual work to keep the world going.
- RealStickman_ 1y ago
  This type of investing isn't about day trading following the latest hype. It's about putting some surplus money to better use for when you need it in 10-20 years.
  - array_key_first 1y ago
    That's even worse, because the entire point of the stock market is supposed to be that investors choose where to put their money based on how the company is performing and what they're saying. I.e., you vote with your wallet, and the market therefore punishes bad behavior and rewards good behavior. If everyone is passively investing, that no longer works. Then it's not even a market. We don't even know, for sure, if that works.
    - RealStickman_ 1y ago
      Investors are obviously bad a choosing where to invest. See any widely overvalued company
      - array_key_first 1y ago
        Right but those wildly overvalued companies become that way because millions of passive investors just mindlessly dump their money into them. If you use big index funds, you're the primary people contributing to Nvidia, Tesla, and openAI. You didn't start it, no, but you certainly propelled that ball forward like a bullet. And, well, that's fine, because we cant expect anyone really to actively invest. The problem is we don't know if this works. This definitely has the potential to blow up. You have to realize that what we're doing here is undermining the stock market at a conceptual level.
    - 1y ago

triceratops 1y ago

I don't know what you mean by that. They teach compound interest in every school. Basic economics too. Anything more advanced is going to be lost on most kids, because that's most adults' level of financial literacy too. The problem is many kids don't have much money to save or invest. Or if they do, real banks kinda suck when you only have a kid amount of money ("Here's the 0.2% interest on your $37 balance"). So they can't apply what they learned. An app like this, backed by the Bank of Mom and Dad, is great for practice.

danielbarla 1y ago
While I certainly had the _concept_ of compound interest taught to me at some abstract mathematical level, the application to real life practical financial scenarios was definitely not done [1]. Economics as a whole was an optional subject. I think schools and curriculums could do a whole lot better in representing this important facet of life. More broadly, I often feel that "applying all that math you've learned to real things" is a subject that could be taught. [1] Seriously, having applied math questions like "Johnny earns X per year, with a cost of living of Y. Assuming inflation of Z and average yearly returns of R, what percentage should he be putting away, starting at age 25, so that at age 50 he essentially gets the equivalent of his own salary each month?" would likely cause some lightbulbs to go off in the kids' heads.
- triceratops 1y ago
  > the application to real life practical financial scenarios was definitely not done Of course it was. You can't teach compound interest without referring to money or banks. That's the whole point of it. Otherwise it's just multiplication.
  - sebastiennight 1y ago
    It... is just multiplication. And can't talk about GP's experience, but I can tell you that going through scientific schooling and engineering schools in the French system you'll learn exactly how to calculate the math and never have a single example such as mentioned above. We're here to build bridges, not count stashes of money after all! You'd probably get those if you went through "economic studies" (which is a different track and where math includes a lot more statistics even in high school).

skeeter2020 1y ago

investment for many is more important than ever, because with home ownership out of reach younger people those with any savings are looking for alternatives. I just hope that - much like how you wouldn't buy and sell your house every day - they can resist the urge to be overly active investors.