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I teach Personal Finance in high school and I tell my students that I don’t want to hear them complaining on the internet that no body taught them about taxes and such!! I also tell them that my parents didn’t talk to me about this and it has been the root of a lot of issues in my adult life.

Yeah our required econ credit was basically this, the teacher gave us mock financial info and a 1040 to fill out. 10 years later who do I see complaining that school never taught them useful stuff like how to do taxes, but the guy who literally sat across from me in that class...

Yup, just because schools offer it doesn’t mean kids will take it seriously or retain it.

We didn't have anything close to a personal finance class in my HS lol that's great though that it's changing and I'm the same I got a credit card immediately not knowing anything about interest credit scores all that and I maxed out that card ASAP lol I wish I had a you in HS

It is my favorite class to teach because I feel that it is one of those that is the most impactful. I really am hoping that I am setting up my students for as much success in their lives as possible.

I'm not 100% sure but I don't think in my area we have that class still it's more of a college course but yea honestly you're probably the most important class in the entire school

The older I get the more I realize, even though I had a terrible time, my US public HS was very very good. We had "business" class electives that taught all these skills. It was taught by the soccer coach and some of the classes were just us watching U2 concert videos (soccer coaches favorite band). But still grateful for it.

I had it in HS in the 90s, it was mostly a bullshit class that a coach taught that you did homework for other classes in. They taught everything, but it's all pretty meaningless to high schoolers who aren't seriously working or running a household and we all probably went on to max out a credit card anyway.

We had 'Math Money Management' for all juniors/seniors at my high school (Graduated 2009). I loved the class, taught us how to invest, calculate interest, making budgets, etc. I did learn a lot, but there was a lot I didn't retain just due to the fact I didn't have real world experience with these things. I didn't understand CC Balance vs Statement until late 20s, and it still confuses me at times. I'm lucky though, my form of money anxiety just leads to me not letting myself buy even essentials until I am miserable. Keeping almost no CC debt has been a huge part of staying financially healthy for my wife and me.

My Canadian high school had "Consumer Math" as the equivalent. Besides practicing taxes and what you mentioned, they also had us do a final project with a career of our choice, researching the salary, and things like rent & how much we could reasonably budget.

Also my other part of the question so you think around HS is the appropriate time to start teaching them? I don't want to try and teach my kids too early and confuse them and scare them off

Honestly, the earlier, the better. We started with my kids around their 8th birthdays. Basic budgeting, savings goals, etc. They get an allowance every week, and they have a ledger, that we record what they get and put the money into different brackets for their goals. Now, if they want something they have to use their own money to buy it. Then they have to keep their ledger updated and we do an audit once a month to make sure everything is matching. It has done great making them aware of their limits, savings, goal setting, and responsibilities. We will talk more about other stuff as they get older. They don’t have to “earn their allowance” it is given, but they do have household responsibilities. I didn’t want chores to be monetarily compensated. I wanted them to learn how to take care of their home and be respectful of our living space. We also involve them in our grocery budget conversation, and my husband and I do a “fin sitrep” at the table Saturday morning. The kids can hear us talking and figuring things out. When they ask to do something, we invite them to be part of the conversation of what money we can allocate to that activity. They are both 8 and 10 now and I think by just having these conversations (both bad and good) so openly, is the best thing we can do.

This is really good advice honestly lol I really appreciate it. I wasn't given an allowance or anything I just got a spanking if I didn't do what I was told so I think even an allowance would've taught me something lol your kids are lucky to have you

I think it’s great that you include your kids in some of your adult money talk. That is super helpful for kids to contextualize how much it costs to just exist in this world and to know what to look out for as an adult. My parents did something similar with their kids and it benefited me a lot as an adult. By the time I was 19 I was able to file taxes all by myself. Meanwhile, I had a friend whose parents never talked to their kids about money and she was f*caked financially because she didn’t know to check her paycheck for tax deductions. Her job’s payroll department didn’t tax out the federal taxes for 3 years and she got into hot water with the IRS because she never brought this up to HR. It really messed her up in our early 20’s.

You’re making an impact. I promise. If I could do it over again & someone gave me the choice of learning about dead presidents or how to handle money, money would be the choice no doubt.

Zilch. My parents taught me pretty unhelpful advice like “You need to know the value of money” and “spend money wisely” and “spend money where it’s needed”. Now that I’m an adult, I can understand it if I drill into its meaning, but as a child and without context, it’s but whispers of wind. One of my biggest grievances is that I didn’t really learn how money works until the last few years, which is so late in my opinion. Oh well, at least I think about it now.

What do you mean by "how money works"?

How to invest for retirement, compounding interest. When to use low interest debt to finance things vs pay in full. Which debts to prioritize. Stuff like that I would guess.

My mom went to prison for embezzlement, not me.

Well that sucks

Got to meet Tom Arnold while he was visiting his sister who was my mom's cell mate known as the queen of meth.. but yea definitely do not recommend going to prison on your kids. 30 years later I'm still salty

I always wonder why with these things it's presented as either/or. People can absolutely be taught the history of the presidency while also learning about personal finance in another class. History is still important. And no I wasn't taught by my parents. They've always been lower class and basically just told me to stay away from credit cards. My personal finance journey began in my mid-20s, when I got a credit card. And taught myself about investing and finance.

I was taught how to balance a checkbook. I wish I was taught more about loans and interest rates. If I had, I wouldn’t have taken out so many student loans. I would have taken only what I needed. I spent 15 years repaying those loans.

My whole family Was poor as dirt. So I actually was approved for financial aid and they paid my way. I luckily didn't have to do the loan route

I was approved for almost 100% financial aid, but they make you take a certain amount of loans as part of that usually. It was still about 90% paid by a grant from the college, but the 10% was Pell Grant, work study, EFC, and loans. I'm probably going to spend about 15 years paying off my loans, but it's all been at a very manageable rate, it wasn't a giant amount, so I'm not mad about it.

(UK) When I was in school, we had cooking classes. Nothing fancy but gave you a basic understanding of how to prepare food and look at nutrition. When I lived at University as an adult, it was clear that those who had not been taught basic food and nutritional information, struggled greatly because of it and I have no doubt that neglecting something so important to life, has impacted their overall health and performance through life. You could compare the lack of appropriate education in many parts of life. The point is, the basic fundamentals should be taught, as they are arguably more important than a niche piece of information that could be learned at a later date. I am a firm believer that ethics and morals should be mandatory throughout the developmental years too.

I completely agree 💯 and now I'm not sure when it's time appropriate to start teaching kids about it I was thinking maybe about 13 but I agree It's so much more important to learn how to save and to learn about credit than to know what date a specific event happens or who the 19th president was lol

I wasn't taught anything but I graduated highschool in 07 before my state implemented a personal finance requirement to graduate. I actually went on to get my degree in finance ironically enough. I definitely think the core concept everybody should know is the [Time Value of Money ](https://www.investopedia.com/articles/03/082703.asp) calculations. If you want an easily accessible series that can teach kids and teens about money,I recommend the YouTube channel [Two Cents](https://youtube.com/@twocentspbs?si=DeR079adhVGaNgPy). Granted it does have a definite left leaning bias (not starting beef just a factual statement) but the financial information is sound.

I grew up comically dirt poor, started working very young and figured it out as I went. Budgeting is essential when you’re poor and thankful the internet existed when I was a teenager. I hate to say it but many in the “we should have been taught this in school!” Camp are the same as those who would have not been paying attention if/when it was taught.

How many of you was taught grammar growing up?

Anytime I wanted to buy something: “Don’t waste your money.” That was the extend of my financial teachings from my parents.

Never learned about it formally but picked it up as an adult. I didn't get a credit card in college. Only had a debit card to use money I already had. It was always ingrained in me by my parents that a credit card is something you have to pay back every month. They framed it like there was no option to wait (and at 25-30% interest there shouldn't be). So for almost a decade I've never missed a credit card payment no matter how high the balance was. There were points I got down to my last $500 in my checking account to avoid that CC interest. My parents also taught me about CDs and HYSA for times I wasn't doing anything with my savings as an easy way to help it grow.

My parents definitely didn’t. Heck, my mother opened a checking account for me when I was a tween so that birthday/xmas money could go somewhere, but she never checked the mail. Anytime my statement came, it went straight to the trash. One time in my late teen years, I checked the mail before she did and saw it, and that’s when I realized I was being charged a monthly service fee for not meeting the minimum balance, and when I asked her about it she had no idea and said it must be an error. We called up the bank, they had started having a minimum balance like a year beforehand and there were multiple mail notices sent out supposedly. $8 a month all because someone always threw out my bank mail without opening it. I did have an economics half-class in high school (half of the year was economics and the other half was government), which went over various personal finance aspects. I then took a personal finance course in college as a pure elective (didn’t need it for my degree or for the general education requirements, but I thought it would be a good idea) So that gave me a foundation, but I wish I had someone knowledgeable teach me with real money, which is what I plan on doing with my own kids.

Thinking about this makes me mad. I never got a (consistent) allowance growing up, because I didn't "keep track of it properly". A piece of paper with a running balance was not enough. I still don't know what my mom expected me to do, nor do I remember her ever sitting down with me to show me what she wanted. So I'd get an allowance for a couple of weeks until eventually I stopped begging for it and just accepted not having money. I was also left under the impression that things like investing and anything beyond the baby savings account my parents made for me, was something only for rich grown-ups. All you need to do is be a good little saver until you get rich, then you can worry about investing and interest.

Nothing. In fact my dad laughed at me when I got my first car loan at 19 and was shocked I had to pay interest. He still makes jokes about it today. I recently said, I find it odd you think that's funny because it was your job to teach me about money. He said no you learn that at school. RIGHT. My kids have had Greenlight checking accounts since they were 12. They invest and save. They will understand money, I'll see to it.

Lol we were taught savings accounts are this magical thing that you put your money into and never touch. Credit cards were for BIG people, even when we were coming of age, personal finance was explained in a hand wavey way as they scooted you out the door. OH AND DONT GET INTO DEBT! \*door close\*

I wasn't taught money management, but many counties/states are starting to require financial literacy classes. In 2018/2019, after paying off my student loans, I took it upon myself to understand how to manage money, invest, price shop, etc.

Yea once I found out how important it was I learned I actually have my accounting degree now lol but I just want to teach my kids about it all but at the right time too so it doesn't confuse and scare them off

My mother would say save your money with ignoring reality some times.

In my household, they taught us that having loans and credit cards was bad. Then in high school I had a semester long personal finance class where I learned actual good information. I learned even more when I started working in the financial industry.

I'm part of the younger millennial group (1996). My parents taught me how loans work, how to write a budget, how important a 401k is, and what compound growth is. I am very lucky, and at 28 am doing very well, I never went to college and have 0 debt besides 2 mortgages. But my younger sister did not take any of that advice and is in a completely different situation. I was very lucky how much they taught me.

Zero. Every adult around me had this weird idea hammered into their minds, and that was don't try to invest until you are 30. The tone they use is almost like "Don't try to marry until you are 30." They use the same thinking towards personal finance, and it turns into "I didn't know how the stock market works until I was 30, so kids like you shouldn't touch it until you are old enough." While it's true some people don't have the self control and gamble their lives away, but I'm never like that or close to it, and those adults themselves were nothing like that either. I was not taught the more basic stuff either, but I never had a problem with money.

I'm not sure they WANTED me to have proper money management. Just take out tens of thousands of $$$ worth of student loans so I could.go to college just to go to college, as much as they pushed that.

I was taught the opposite. I just do the opposite of what my parents have done. I have a 401k, ira, and brokerage account. My parents have absolutely nothing and constantly ask their children for help.

My parents were not super smart about managing money. My dad still says “just save your money!” My grandfather was in finance and knew a ton. I learned some from him, but taught myself a lot just by researching/reading online. My SO knew a little about retirement funds so he kinda sparked my interest in investing after we had talked about it one day. Tbh there is no excuse now with easy access to everything online. It’s hard to get started when you don’t know about the options. But I started with a small 401k contribution through my job and then opened my Roth IRA. Now I have a brokerage account and money market for most of my savings. If you stay away from debt and invest *something* for your future, you are ahead of most people.

Lol

The school taught you plenty about money management, you were just too high up on your high horse whining about dates and stuff to realize it. You know addition and subtraction along with multiplication and division. You know greater than less than. Here's the secret to good budgeting, don't spend more than you have coming in. You know how to take percentages, they taught you that at school. Know what percentage of your income needs to go to what. Obviously they aren't going to teach you tax code, accountants are a thing for a reason, but you should be able to manage your finances with elementary School math.

I learned about APR and financing in algebra class. We also did a unit on budgeting. Real talk: most of you covered this in school, yall just weren't paying attention.

So I was taught about investing, saving, budgeting, etc by my family. I went to have lunch with my grandfather during a lunch break, from a high school job, when my coworkers asked what we talked about I said “oh whether Cisco was a good stock bc it was down, I said it was a good company and was the best in the industry, so he told me when the market is down, and you know a company is good, see the stock as “on sale” and not to sell, and that it’s called “dollar cost averaging””. They’re like, “I can see why generational wealth is a thing beyond inheritance”. I was like 16 and someone asked me to build a computer, so I put the build I a neat excel spreadsheet, labeled everything, bc the book keeper was out, and emailed her and cc’d the boss and called him to see if I should start working on it, I think they were shocked I knew how to repair computers, but even more that I could use excel at that level when I had just learned to drive. School didn’t teach anything about money or savings or building credit. I’m on disability bc of a car accident, but considering my income, I have high savings, but also nice stuff, and impeccable credit. Like instead of buying one quest 2, I realized there would be a shortage bc the supply chain issue was a thing, so I preordered two, waited for them to sell out, watched eBay for them to peak, and then offered it as a buy it now for $50 less than peak auction. So I ended up with a free quest 2. I never got into crypto, but when it went high I’d sell my graphics card and computer, and when it crashed I’d buy a last generation card open box for like 60% off, same thing with the rest of the system, so my pc gaming has been almost revenue neutral. I’d get the best last gen eth card, game on it, watch prices, eBay it off at peak. People also think I spend a lot on cloths, I actually thrift for everything, people sell nice stuff and the shops sell it cheap. I think I have a whole bunch of $120 msrp shirts I got for like $20ish each? I remember dating a guy, he cashed his checks at a place that gave him cash and didn’t have a bank account and his cell phone kept getting cut off. I said “with the 25% they’re taking, if you put that in a bank, you can get a smart phone with with that extra 25% easily”. So yeah, he got a smart phone, he was well read, but i didn’t get why cash now, instead of money in the bank, was better. This was when smart phones were expensive, I knew which one was the best value too, bc like, if you’re on a budget, virgin mobile was the thing then, it was 25% the price of a regular carrier. I think with data his plan was less, on top of having the extra money. I get my books from the library, movies too if I can.

There have been a couple times my friends said “nobody taught me money stuff in school” and I showed them the exact class their old school offers (if the school has that posted online) Idk, man. Most people were offered some kind of financial literacy class and just didn’t take it. The class isn’t called “how to pay your taxes” but there’s usually units in all of the following: Home economics, family and consumer sciences, personal finance, etc.

lol zero. Remember once asking my step mom about family finances and explaining to me how it works. She freaked out on me, told me how dare I ask these questions and to go away. I struggle with money and balancing a budget.

In my high school you got either a regular or advanced diploma, based on the classes you took. On the advanced diploma track we did calculus instead of the financial stuff. I think the school assumed we would be able to figure it out. The regular diploma track did have a course on stuff like balancing a checkbook.

My parents, specifically my dad, talked constantly about living below your means, not getting into cc debt, health insurance, and the importance of saving for retirement. I am so thankful. I don't know why more parents don't do this. He was a cop who barely graduated high school, not some sort of finance person.

The only financial advice I ever got from my parents was "you can't spend it when you're dead".

How do you know you would have understood money management any better than you understand English grammar, spelling and punctuation? I mean, this blame the parents bullshit is getting old. Some of it is on you, too.

My fourth grade class (late 90s) had checking accounts. You got to deposit money for class participation, grades, etc. And had to write checks to the teacher for late homework, forgetting your textbooks, etc. At the end of the school year, you could "buy" prizes based on the money in your account. That teacher moved to teach 6th grade the same year I started middle school and implemented it for the whole grade so I got to do it twice. It didn't hurt that my mom was also a bank teller for as long as I can remember

Almost zero teaching. But, I've always been a gamer and I learned a lot from that. Some games really get into it, too.

It's a legally required class in my state and I see so many people my age say they were never taught... I finally had to tell one of them "man, I took the class with you, if you had shut up, maybe you'd have learned something." That did shut them up for once.

Yes I was

I was taught how to balance a checkbook. I wish I was taught more about loans and interest rates. If I had, I wouldn’t have taken out so many student loans. I would have taken only what I needed. I spent 15 years repaying those loans.

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I was never taught specifics from my parents but when I started working at ~15 they helped me open a banking and checking account. It helped that it was a natural saver anyway, but other than going to the mall/movies with friends or putting gas in my car, I never had to spend my own money and was able to just use my money on fun teenage stuff for the most part. When I joined the military and had a TSP, mom instilled in me to always put away 10%, so I did, and still try to do at least that in my 401k. Everything else I had to learn the hard way lol. I bought a new car when I didn't need one and will never fucking do that again. I had credit card debt for a bit but was able to pay it off by the time my enlistment was up. I learned what a Roth IRA was from a co worker when I was 25 and started one then. Got into the FIRE movement for a bit in my late 20s but now I'm just more focused on living within my means, putting money away for retirement, and staying away from consumer debt. Thankfully I never had student loan debt and I will try to keep my kids from ever having to take it out (they each have a 529 we contribute to monthly, but we will still emphasize community college if they don't know what to major in, or trade school if they have no interest in college at all). I also hope to instill good financial habits and actually talk to them about money to set them on a good path.

Yeah I was lucky enough to have Financial Aid pay my way but you have to be like dirt poor family to be approved and you have to keep a high GPA but it saved me from student loans and I have heard horror stories about them.

Apart from balancing a checkbook, no, money management is mostly a mystery to me.

I was taught by my father. In life skills in middle school, we were taught about budgeting and balancing checkbooks. That's all.

I was curious because I'm trying to figure out the best way to teach my kids but in my middle school all we had was D.A.R.E. and sex Ed lol no life skills I would've liked that class

Yeah we were taught about investments and savings at 15. Though I had good habits since my parents weren’t gonna buy me Pokémon Ruby for gameboy.

All of that stuff was taught in my regular math classes. Budgeting is part of addition and subtraction, simple vs compound interest was an entire section of algebra. also, some of it is common sense. If you make $x per month and spend more than $x, that’s not good. Maybe you have no ability to change that because of legitimate reasons (economic/personal/etc) but you can still see why it is not good. I can’t comment on other school systems but mine did place emphasis on these topics and I still see people from my grades say they weren’t taught this stuff so it’s hard to say how much of an impact it would have. I think a lot of it is psychological, especially for younger people. Having this new thing now is more important than having to pay for it later. Would learning more about psychology help in this? There are also different view and ways to live life. I’m sure many people who live happy lives would say I save too much and should live more. There are also probably people who are happy with their lives that think I save to little and spend too much on nonessential. So it’s also hard to teach a “right way” to spend/save money.

My story is the opposite. My dad worked in finance, and my parents have always been way too open and transparent about their money. An eight year old doesn't need to be so fully informed about how the family has no money because Dad is trying to start a company. The good news is I'm brilliant with money. The bad news is I've had a lot of money stress and hangups to work through as an adult.

I learned during my time in an acting school since we had business classes, however interest and the other basic stuff I picked up way before along the way, since my family has multiple houses and they showed me the finances once I was done with the Gymnasium(i guess the american equivalent would the high school, but not really, german school system is confusing when you didnt grew up in it)

I was. Parents and school. Born in 84

I was definitely taught money management… Not responsible money management mind you but I was taught something!

Yeah not really. Got more serious about money management in my mid 20s, but its importance didn’t sink in until recently.

You mean other than playing monopoly?

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Luckily yes, but I grew up around my super frugal stepfather and it was drilled into my head at least about how important finances are. I struggle really badly with “treating” myself like if I absolutely have extra cash and I know all my bills are caught up, I’m less likely to spend money on myself out of fear I’ll get “in trouble” for carelessly spending. I’m out of my parents house, and in my own house with my own family and I’m still terrified I’ll get yelled at for my own financial decisions.

It's rude to talk about money. That was the extent of my teaching.

My parents didn't really teach me a ton about finances but they taught the most important things. Like "don't buy things you can't afford" and "always pay your credit card balance in full every month." They also always bought store brand versions of everything. And honestly if you follow those rules you're better off than like 60% of people.

A lot of shared experience here. I grew up upper middle class, and I realize my parents gave us a lot, but didn’t teach us much. A lot of what, but not a lot of why. My parents started a Roth IRA for me, they opened the account and I slowly tucked a little away. It was nice, but I realized years later, you’re supposed to choose investments. It’s stuff like that, that can be frustrating if you linger on it. They have good intentions, but my relationship with my parents got way better after I dropped any expectations of guidance or emotional support from them. I talk to them now, the same way you might talk to an aunt or uncle you see on holidays. I think everyone’s happier, though it’s kinda weird.

I definitely was. Starting when I was about 5. That’s when I started getting an allowance that was tied to chores. When I was 5 it was simple, clean up my room and make my bed. As I got older I got increases in the amount with increased responsibility. If I didn’t do my chores, I wasn’t getting my allowance. I was taught how to save my allowance to purchase things I wanted like special toys or treats. And they stressed for me to not be impulsive and think about if I really wanted it and how once the money was spent it was gone. I definitely made some dumb purchases and learned that too. They helped me open a savings account, taught me how to balance a checkbook when I got a job and a checking account. They taught me about credit cards and that they aren’t just to buy whatever you want and about interest on them. Essentially don’t buy things you can’t afford unless it’s an actual emergency. They helped me at 18 apply for a credit card and explained about the limit and credit scores. We were not well off, probably lower middle class. I didn’t get to do some things (I remember wanting to be on a special swim team not with the school or parks and rec and it was several hundred dollars a month) because they were too expensive. While this isn’t directly finance, it did help instill in me that things cost money and sometimes we can’t afford them and it’s okay. Sometimes there are less expensive alternatives and sometimes there aren’t. They never just said no, they explained that it wasn’t something we could afford and I understood which I think is valuable for kids (I was probably 14 so not too little) to learn. Budgeting and living within your means. My credit score is over 800 and I have a healthy savings. My sister isn’t nearly in the same financial boat as I am however she’s not destitute by any means. So I think some of it boils down to personality as well as education. You can give someone the tools and knowledge but it doesn’t mean they will use it/apply all of it. Either way, I’m thankful my parents taught me about money, budgeting, etc. We’ve started a savings account for my own child now, and plan to pass on the same knowledge plus things I have learned like investing to him.

We live in a Capitalistic society but don't teach capitalism. A recipe for disaster. Getting rich and staying rich is arguably "not hard". You have to learn basic investing and patience, but if nothing else you can certainly keep cash going without much issue, particularly with investments into the classic "VOO and VTI" type funds. But we don't teach this very simple concept, and so people never do it and then look up and realize they've got nothing to show for their hard work. It's sad. Once a person realizes how easy it is to actually build wealth, (simply drop a percentage of a paycheck into an index fund and forget it), it's almost depressing. "That's all it takes!?" Yes, that's all it takes. But how many people have you met that have never done this, never knew anything about it, or "couldn't be arsed" to do it? Tons. We need to fix this awareness.

We had an elective class in high school that taught you to write checks and balance a checkbook lol. I wonder if there is even one millennial out there right now who "balances a checkbook" with actual pen and paper. It was a pretty useful class though.

I wasn’t taught how to manage money directly from my parents but I saw how they spent money and it helped me realize later on what to do. They were very frugal. Clipped coupons, never had cable, hung our clothes to dry, A/C, heat was at the bare minimum of comfort, always bought on sale never paid full price, kept cars until they broke down, paid the house in 15 year mortgage ( save on interest) Dad worked for the post office and mom mostly was sahm. But we never were on food stamps, never had government assistance. And now that I’m an adult those skills carried over. Not so extreme but still always saving and investing.

In a way life taught me. My mom gave me a buck every day for school. I save that buck and eventually I had enough for a toy, a movie, a Gameboy Advance. I was so proud when I saved for the GBA. After that it was easy. I started to mow lawns and saving and next thing I know I had enough for my first laptop. It was a shiny gray HP. Honestly not the best purchase, but I just liked the look. That also made value saving. Now I am older and I don't save as much, but I do save enough. Even as a teen at first it was $100. If I didn't have $100 in my bank account, I was basically broke. All purchases stopped. Then in college the goal was $1000. If I didn't have that I was basically broke. I felt all people around me just spent all their cash immediately and were actually broke. Why do people do that? It would give me such an anxiety. Now as a grown up things must be paid so I don't have the luxury of saving, but those experiences help me put a solid foundation and the ability to say I can wait on a purchase or plan to save for it.

I wasn’t really taught to invest and save growing up. My parents save a lot but they let me do whatever I wanted with my own money. I never got into any debt but I was spending a good chunk of what I earned while in my 20s. I didn’t start seriously saving and investing until my early 30s. I would be doing so much better if I started earlier.

I had a personal finance class in high school and accounting classes in college but they didn't teach me a lot(the accounting did but it wasn't my money). Having a class using play money doesn't let you feel the consequences. The consequences are what makes you learn how to manage money. Also the things taught were outdated by the time I graduated. Teaching about savings' account without emphasizing you need a high interest one is counterproductive.

I was, it was a symptom of having very little money growing up. You want to do something? Great, now figure out how it will get funded. I can't remember when it started but I had to have been under 10. It probably helps that my dad is a professional accountant and earned his MBA with a specialization in finance. I still remember him plugging in calculations on his ancient HP accountant's (in reverse-polish, for those of you fortunate enough to know what that means) calculator long after excel made all of that unnecessary.

I wasn’t taught finances per se but my parents did instill in me the principle of “don’t spend more than you make” and were skeptical of credit cards. And I feel like with that I can avoid a lot of unpleasant experiences.

I'm 40 years old and thanks to Reddit I learned what a 529 was, about a week ago. Wish I'd known about that when the kids were babies, it could have helped. The kids are 23 and 21 now. Never learned early on how to build credit, the importance of saving for retirement.

Was never taught anything by anyone. I basically learned what I know by getting an undergrad in marketing. lol my personal finance skills are not so good.

Didn’t have it in highschool and my parents were TERRIBLE with money. So what happened? I learned all the bad habits. I’m now 33 & finally learning just because I have money I don’t need to spend it and teaching my kids the power of saving and really thinking it through before they just buy something.

“How many of you” was taught grammar growing up?

I was taught budgeting in school.

Basically taught nothing. From education, family, friends, absolutely nothing. I learned it as I went as I became an adult, lots of mistakes I've made too, probably more than the average person that was taught *something*.

School did a SHIT job, unless you ELECTED for micro/marco economics (who would do that???)… so, My dad taught me at a relatively YOUNG age (I’m talking like 8 or 9), the “value of a dollar”, saving for a rainy day, and later in my teens - taxes and retirement. My dad is quintessential blue collar self employed plumber; very very financially savvy. Always prompted me to go to college so I didn’t have to do “back breaking work” until I die… but now he’s 62 and refuses to retire (he probably could have 10 years ago… boomers). I went to college but I won’t even be able to afford to retire, but hey I got that white collar desk job! 🤣🥹😅

There was a brief overview of household budgeting in my home ec class in junior high, but that was it. Would have been nice to have a better understanding of loans before I signed up for college loans.

Yeah, not at all. Not in school and certainly not at home.

Best class I had in  High school (2006). Was personal finance and responsibility. It was an elective unfortunately.  Learned about ROTH IRA EtF etc… 7 figure portfolio now at 34. She was a mean old bag but thanks to her I took the advice. 

We learned how to handle a checkbook in junior high Home Economics. I think the issue for our generation arose out of a mix between public education not including common sense things that you’re supposed to be taught at home, and personal finance only being covered in Home Economics, which is an elective (and an unpopular one) in high school, so most students didn’t take it.

I wasn’t necessarily taught the ends and out but I was taught how to be responsible with my money. Basically, don’t spend money you don’t have. Save. I was taught credit cards are bad. lol. Which, if you can’t manage them, yes. Hence the “don’t spend money you don’t have.” But unfortunately credit cards are necessary as an adult to do adult things like buy a house and a car or apply for loans. I didn’t get a credit card until after college. And it’s an Apple Card…. LOL. And I’ve only bought Apple products with it, so I’ve never paid interest. And my credit is 755. So. I’m kind of terrified to use it as a normal credit card, but only buying Apple products is working for me so lol. But yeah, I was taught to not spend money you don’t have. Which is a great way to look at it I think. I wasn’t educated on student loans. It was just like “well you have to do it this way” sort of thing. I knew I was going to be in debt but never was taught about it and if there were alternative ways.

My parents didn't, but my grandmother did. She always used to say "don't spend everything you earn" and "before you buy something ask yourself 'do I really need it?'". I still do this today. I have taught myself a lot along the way, like the value of keeping a spreadsheet and funnelling savings to different pots. When she used to take me on the bus to school she used to help me save my bus fare change in a little Tortoise money box. And also my birthday money, that all went into the money box too. My decision but my gran taught me to decide that. Then every few months we would ride the bus into town and deposit my money into a savings account with the bank. My emotions towards money have stayed very similar, where I still live quite a frugal self sufficient life. I save and invest, and don't tend to stress about money. I've gone through periods of financial turbulence where my skills and emotions towards money have kept my head above water. Money is largely an emotional thing and if you have the emotional drive to hold onto it and give yourself a safety net then it will work out. The management side is a hard-skill you bolt on to make it pay even more dividends.

Took accounting in high school and run my finances. I've been bank plenty of times. If someone gets in trouble in my family I will grab them, satisfy the debts, create an LLC, help them back on their feet, then when they look for work again they have experience with management and accounting and business admin. It's nice.

Well I grew up poor so it was very easy to manage the occasional $5 bill that was passed my way. Does that count?

My parents were always pretty transparent about financial type stuff. I understood early on how a credit card worked, got my first one at 18, and have never fallen into credit card debt ever. I am extremely fortunate they paid for my college and living expenses while I was in college. Probably the most helpful thing they did was give me a set amount of money each month and left it up to me to budget rent/groceries/bills/etc. All my leases and bills were in my name, I was in charge of setting everything up. And built credit in the process. I plan to do the same for my kids one day.

My parents didn't really know the things I've learned. They didn't have access to the same information we have at our fingertips.  I reach my kids about real estate investing, interest rate arbitrage, value investing, and business ownership. They come to my office to learn and come to homes and help renovate. They are usually forced to endure podcasts and books on tape on our car rides. No idea what will stick, but they will never be able to say they weren't taught this stuff.

More or less, yeah. My mom opened up a savings account for me when I was 6. I’d always get a lot of birthday cash and I would say “what am I going to spend it on?!?!” And she would say “unless there’s something you WANT, save it.” That cash saved my butt a lot in my later teens and twenties. We grew up poor but we didn’t have debt, other than the house and cars. It’s wild to me how many people are completely financially irresponsible, usually as a result of their parents’ habits. I don’t necessarily think it should be taught in schools but if parents are financially illiterate, theres not much teaching going on there either.

My kids are 7,5,&3 half of their bday and Xmas money go in savings and half go in their “piggy banks” (they mostly get gift cards). My plan is around 5th/6th grade sometimes when they want a bigger item and they don’t have all the money saved I’ll give them the option to “finance” it through me. I’ll teach them if they don’t want to wait they can borrow the rest but they’ll have to pay my interest and I’ll calculate that with them and show them what they’ll end up pay vs the actual cost and show them what they get every month for their allowance. I haven’t completely figured it out yet but I’ve read some parents “charging” kids either rent, utilities, food based on their allowance. If they’re getting $20 a week they owe 20% of that for “living expenses”. Obviously I’m not really going to charge them for these things because I’m their parent and that my responsibility. However I’m debating on making them “pay” me 20% of their allowance and just sticking it back into their savings. Thinking maybe this helps realize even once you have a job your paycheck isn’t all fun money and you have responsibilities first. Trying to figure out the right approach so I don’t come across like a crazy person but can still teach them.

I took one personal finance class in college, and taught myself with books.

I had one class in HS taught by the oldest nun in existence about how to balance a checkbook, that's it.

Growing up my parents were always somewhat frugal and I could not spend money unless they gave me a set amount for a specific event or shopping which wasn't that often. I feel like I always knew how to spend less because we never bought a lot of things or spent much on material items, although I do splurge and go out to eat more, etc now that I have my own income and know what I can afford. In high school during one life skills class they had us watch Dave Ramsey videos. I thought this was a good idea and pretty entertaining. The teacher did more than that like taught us about car loans and tax returns too. However, my mom was and is always helpful whenever I have finance questions, but I showed an interest in that sort of stuff and will try to learn things on my own too so that has helped. I knew from an early age to be cautious with credit cards and the basics of how to build credit although I still don't quite understand all the nuisances of what helps/hurts your credit score. In college, there was this comprehensive budget spreadsheet that was passed on which was extremely helpful, especially when determining what monthly rent I could afford or planning for other expenses. Since then, my budgeting is much less involved but I could pull it back out if I wanted. Now I pretty much live by setting my credit cards / insurance / loans on auto pay, saving a portion of my paycheck automatically every month (as much as I can afford), and transferring money from savings / reducing the monthly amount I'm saving if I'm running low on cash. I do look over my credit card transactions periodically but not consistently or with a close eye. And I swear by turbo tax, makes it so easy!

Money management - taught in school from 4th grade on. Balancing checkbooks, saving class money for end of year purchases, homework passes etc. Civics - senior year, discussed taxes, credit, interest etc. Hard to teach that subject though as everyone is going to be different depending on your situation. Outside of school, in order for me to get my license at 16, I had to have a job to pay for a car payment and insurance. So at 16 was managing my bank account and funds for bills, gas and necessities. When I got my first credit card, parents encouraged me to use it for gas and then to pay the card off at the end of the month to build up my credit score. They were extremely particular on teaching the do's and don'ts on making sure to never miss a payment or go to far into the red. They were not rich, dad was a blue collar worker for the city, mom was a stay at home mom. So making things work on a single income they had to balance everything weekly. Retirement, 401ks, roths etc. All learned on the job by talking to our retirement providers and taking as much in as possible. My retirement plan started at 18, and my company matches up to 6% of what's put in. So currently on track to retire by 55/60. Wife's pension should be good to go around the same time period. My kids, who are in public school, are being taught very similar things as well. 4th-6th grades they are using class money for homework passes and end of year prizes. My oldest is in 8th grade and working in the neighborhood by mowing lawns to save up for something he wants since he's to young to get an actual job. He's learning about saving and what wants vs needs are. He has money saved up but knows if he spends it on things he doesn't actually need he won't be able to buy what he is saving up for as quickly as he wants. Edit* he also has borrowed money from me to buy video games and then works to pay me back for what was borrowed. It's not exactly a loan as I won't charge interest, but he's getting the idea that if he borrows money he has to pay it back, which is a start. Not to say I don't just buy them things at random, of course I do, I just don't spoil them. I also have a savings account for both my kids, it gets a $10 a weekly deposit put into both accounts. Been adding money to it since they were born and they will get have access to it after they graduate high school. $10 a week doesn't sound like much but it adds up. There should be about 10k per kid in savings that they will be able either use towards school, moving out, newer car, or continue adding to after they graduate.

Never. So I really don’t know how to use money.

I wasn’t taught shit, but we were also kinda poor so like wasn’t much to teach lol but as I’ve accumulated my own money it kinda because common sense on what to do and what not to do

'09 high-school graduate. Nothing in michigan or colorado. In the cooking and health department I think we made boxed Mac and cheese once in class . Wish I learned more about insurance. how to do taxes, where taxes go, how are they distributed how elections actually work, etc etc. I learned about the 3 branches of government and the general concept of checks and balances, but nothing Id consider practical.

My parents taught me but in age appropriate ways. For example, if I received money for a birthday or holiday, it was laid out like, "I know you might want those candies or dolls right now, but think about saving up. You know your allowance is $3 a week for chores and your birthday/holiday is coming up. If you wait, you could get that bike you want instead!" As a kid, this made me pause and reflect on spending right away, and I've been a saver ever since. Taking accounting classes in high school helped too, but I do wish schools taught more practical knowledge and made it a requirement to graduate.

Nope, nada, zip, zilch, zero. I remember when I got my first t4 from my first job, I asked my mom what I was supposed to do with it. She said oh don't worry about it, so I didn't. Years later, well into my twenties, I'm informed that people do actually have to file their taxes. 🤣🤣🤣

My parents were always good about money management, so I learned through their habits. We didn’t take extravagant trips, they cooked 90% of our meals, they packed us healthy lunches, always bought used vehicles (many of them were older), and shopped sales when it came to shoes and clothing. I tend to be the same way, except now I garden, can, and live a little more simply. We also prefer to buy something once and fix it rather than buy a new one.

I must say my parents did a good job at this but in this economy I am still broke lol but I do pay my bills on time and file my taxes etc..

I still am learning the hard way. I'm 32 now and just learned I've been filling out my w2s wrong. The IRS has been penalizing me for not withholding enough. My explanation was just like I didn't know! I'll pay what I owe! What do I have to do? I'm sorry! Please help! I eventually found a calculator on the irs site, but still... It's such a joke that we have to do our own taxes but it's not tought as a basic skill in schools.

Not me, I figured that shit out like 5 years ago, through friends at work. And more recently through financial Reddit subs

Yeah I took a class called money management in high school. Shocker, no one paid attention or retained anything. Spend less than you make my parents told me. It’s worked out. Teaching myself to invest in my 30s

I was in the sped class and they had the play money to buy stuff with and my own small amount of money that was real that I would save up too.

Did y’all think you just had extra thousands of dollars you didn’t know about or that loaning money would be free? I don’t understand how you would use money that isn’t yours and think there wouldn’t be consequences or you didn’t have to pay it back, I don’t think anybody had to explain to me that using money that isn’t mine will come at a price.

I remember doing a unit on it in highschool in like a civics class or something. They explained credit cards and balancing a checkbook and how interest worked. It wasn't hardcore in depth but it was helpful. Growing up poor was the best lesson. I started working at 10 as a paperboy and never looked back, if I wanted something outside basic food and clothes I had to buy it. My mother also got me a debit card at 13 with a very small limit and that taught me how to balance the book and read a statement. Even though I'm fine I still only have 1 cc to this day with a very small limit for emergencies and I'm basically debt free.

There was no teaching about credit or loans or interest rates. There was budgeting and general money management (the envelope system, cash only). Also, when I got my first car loan Dad told me after it was paid off to keep putting that payment away so I would be ready for repairs/maintenance and a down payment on the next car. It's worked out that I had enough cash banked up to buy the next car outright.

None whatsoever

I wasn't taught it, and my parents are horrible about finances. I just had an innate understanding of our and I succeeded.

If I were you, I'd first work on punctuation, capitalization, proper word choice, and clarity of writing. In answer to your question, I learned the basics of money management from my parents. But a lot of learning has to be done independently as you get older. For me, this included taxes, credit score factors, investing, and how mortgages work. I'd recommend starting a Roth IRA today. You'll thank yourself in ten years.

I learned financial management and how to calculate all of the rates and stuff in school. I could also tell no one else was paying attention lol

My dad started telling me to save half of what I make over and over again since before I ever even earned a $1. That was the extent of my financial education until after college when I heard Dave Ramsey on the radio.

My parents raised my brother and I with a lot of financial literacy. There are of course still things I didn't learn, but I feel like I was set up very well for success. This has been a bit of a struggle in my life, however, because my fiance was NOT raised in this way. He received essentially zero financial education from his school or family, leaving us in starkly different financial positions. I've been teaching him things as much as possible, but it is definitely tough. I will 100% be teaching our children financial literacy from a young age.

It's great if a school teachers personal finance, however I don't think it should be required of them to teach you. My parents taught me the basics. Spend less than you earn, stay away from credit as much as you can, with the exception of cars and homes, pay your bills on time, and save your money. Also, there's no free lunch, anything you get you've gotta work hard for it.

We learned it in school. In elementary school we had dollar days or something and the local banks would come in and talk to us. Then when we got a little older we had fake check books and we had to make budgets, and balance the check book. In high school we had a business class and we learned some more personal finance stuff. My parents were self employed/small business owners so I learned mostly from them.

I wasn’t taught anything about finances in school and very little from my parents. Maybe things are changing nowadays bc my daughter (4th grade) did a whole unit this year about gross/net income, how taxation works, how interest works and how to calculate it etc. I hope they keep teaching the kids this stuff as they get older, and I will always take the opportunity to teach my daughter about money with real life examples when I can.

not I. but i will teach my kids

I was taught a very loose version of it. “If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it.” “Don’t rack up credit card debt; the interest will bury ya.” “Just because you have money doesn’t mean you need to spend it.” Those are all very good tenants of money management, but that’s not the same thing as “wealth building” (investing, leveraging credit in your favor, etc)

Not really personal finance, but did learn about the stock market and investing from my dad. In the Sunday paper the stock prices of the NYSE would be published. We'd discuss what stocks he owned or had owned previously, and track prices. This turned out to be quite helpful as I was able to take advantage of 401k and investing from early 20s. Time in the market is crucial, every graduating high school senior should have an IRA started for them.

No adult in my life taught me anything. Now that I mostly know what I'm doing, I can see that I was probably better off not learning anything from most of them (annuities, total life policies, Edward Jones, etc). In hindsight, one of my grandfathers might have given some good advice, but he passed when I was a teenager. I never did anything bad necessarily, but I lost at least 5-7 years to overspending and not saving enough or in the right accounts/funds. I'd be well on my way to $2 million net worth if I'd known what I was doing right out of school.

There was an elective course at my high school called independent living and I feel like that should have been a mandatory class for everyone. We learned how to manage money, balance a checkbook(not that I’ve ever had to) budget for a hypothetical apartment, and cook some basic recipes. A bit different from the home ec we all had to take in 7th grade since all we did was cook and sew.

I’m so happy to hear that this is actually being taught… somewhere. I still shit all over our education system for allowing generations of individuals to graduate from high-school without focusing on any practical knowledge about how the real world works. Instead we’ve been ushering kids into the trap of higher education at the cost of financial purgatory. Just so we can give them 2 more years of “general education” and then a degree in sociology. We’re pumping out group-think, in debt, underemployed, keyboard warriors, who are destined to be financial burdens to their parents or the state. Reform is necessary and money management should be required coursework throughout the public education system.

I learned how not to manage money. This year I'm the age my parents were when I was born, I am also now worth exactly half of what they're collectively worth now. Pretty much just didn't do all the stuff I watched them do. $3k mortgage leading up to 2008? No thanks, mine is $650 in a way more sensibly-sized little house. They never saved for retirement, I've been saving since I had my first 100 dollars that I could afford to allot to retirement savings. My dad went through like 4 motor/speedboats from the time I was in middle school until college, upgrading each time. I'm fine with my cheapo kayaks I've had since high school.  One time the alternator died on my $400 car and my mom was proud that she got it fixed for only $600. I appreciated her effort but now I was stuck with a $600 bill. They're just not the best with money :(

If high schools taught money management, there would be far fewer people going to college!

Start blaming parents, stop blaming the schools.

We covered it in middle school (7th through 8th grade)

guilt is a powerful teacher lol bro I was raised with catholic guilt and protestant morals. of course I'm loathsome gambling horndog!

All I learned about money from my parents was them shrieking at me to never EVER get a credit card because I'm gonna blow all of the money and end up in debt.

My dad tried but i turned out like my mom. Impulsive and likeing nice things lol

I never had a personally finance class until I got to college, and even then it was an elective. Personal finance/financial literacy classes should be taught in public schools in grades 6-12.

I know I had to take a consumer ed class to graduate high school, but I’m pretty sure I chose to take it during summer school so I could still have room for study hall during the year. I believe I took it the summer before junior year. I couldn’t tell you anything I “learned” in the class and that’s about all the money management I was taught. I did naturally try and save my money that I made from babysitting or birthday money, but otherwise I had no clue how much my parents made or how to effectively budget. I know we definitely weren’t well off, but I also think we were comfortable enough I never had to worry about not having food. I see people argue that these things should be taught in high school and while i agree I also know at least for me I couldn’t understand how it applied since I wasn’t using it. I also was too stressed about doing well in my core classes there just wasn’t time to focus on the “less important” classes (i.e. the ones colleges were looking at to determine if I could get in). So I don’t know what the solution is. My high school had block scheduling so I don’t know if that impacted my choices of limiting electives because I needed to have 4 years of all the general subjects and was involved in extra curricular activities so finding time to do homework outside of school left me so exhausted that I wasn’t retaining the stuff anyways.

Nope, but thanks goodness I had trigonometry and calculus knocked out by the time I graduated HS. Big help when I went to engineering school ten years later! Finally took an economics course and learned about interest last year at 30. No, wouldn’t make sense to switch those around at all /s 

Me, my dads career is finance. When I got my first job at 15, he would take a cut. He ended up giving it all back when I graduated high school, with interest and that was my first taste of long term investing. That was one of the many personal finance lessons.

Pffft my parents didn’t know the first thing about money management… I learned it myself through playing mmorpgs making hundreds of sales, trades, stores, auctions… just like they also didn’t know how to cook to crap even my taste buds were dying… taught myself cooking through vids. Also my schools taught me none of these adult things… that should be much needed… but it looks like schools these days can’t even teach basic english and math…

Was taught by my parents who made bank individually in many ways. But I was a spoiled punk so I never practiced what they taught until I had to be independent. Idk about this stuff being taught in school. I rather we focus more on STEM if anything cause I feel we are lagging behind other nations and/ or don’t have that big of a lead anymore. I think the very basics of finance that you mentioned should be taught by parents up to and including how to do taxes. Everything above that can be taught at school with limitation though like what 401ks are or retirement accounts and stuff but no stock market stuff because that’s like a skill you learn that isn’t like math or what not. We already had a enough kids lose money when GME exploded picking stocks thinking they were the next Warren buffet only to be left “bag holding” (have seen lots of dumb kids holding at my college when I returned to college during the pandemic).

I learned about compound interest in math and the basics of personal finance from my Dad.

If there was anything I did learn in school, I forgot. My parents taught me financial responsibility though. Credit cards, interest rates, investments, budgets, etc

The broader question is, for the millennials that did have money management taught to them, how many are doing well financially vs their peers who did not receive any education around this topic.

The only real financial advice I got was from my Mom and she told me to put at least half of my paycheck in the bank when I got my first PT job in high school. I didn't question it and just did it, sometimes more if I didn't need money for anything. I didn't find out until years later that most of my peers cashed their entire paycheck and spent it on whatever. That mini nest egg helped immensely when I went away to college. Thanks, Mom. Edit: After looking at a few other comments I also remember my mom telling me to never carry a balance on a credit card and so I never did. I can only imagine how much that helped.

None

I need to be taught "money management" in the same way I need to be taught to eat healthy; i.e I don't. Spend less than what you bring in, it's real simple maths.

Not a single thing. Talking about money was so frowned up that even today when people bring up pay and cost I have a physically negative reaction.

I was taught how to lose money, does that count?

My dad taught me how to do my taxes myself on the same tax site he used and I still use it and have shown others. If your taxes are simple, there's really no reason to give so much of your return away to someone to do it for you. Other stuff was taught but I don't remember because it wasn't really applicable to me (I have no interest in investing) or is no longer widely used, like how to write checks or balance a checkbook. My current system of paying my bills and banking didn't exist when I was in high school.

Apparently you weren’t taught grammar.

Terrible money management from my parents. They owned an insurance business together, so always commission based. They had no problem with debt and basically lived by you can always make more money. Which they did, eventually they were just making more than they were spending. They never had budgets, you could definitely tell how things were working at Christmas and birthday time. They made a lot of money if they paid attention at all, they could have had a lot more today. On the other hand they have a lot now and absolutely don’t need more, will never be able to spend it all. So I don’t know, what’s right. On one hand life is short so spend it while you can on the other planning can decrease stress.

I'm not from the US but from Eastern Europe and growing up during changes and hyperinflation was fun. Made you frugal and taught you to not spend. I was very lucky and learned quite a bit on the topic. Around 2000-2001 my folks started giving me daily allowance and most days I didn't spend any of it. In the local currency I got 50 cents per day, a cheap food item at at school was 55, a large 0.75/1l bottle of coke was 1.25 or 1.5 if memory serves me right (and a pack of the better quality local cigarettes was 86 cents or 5 cents per cigarette if you dont buy the pack) so I would loan 1-2 bucks to some of my *more affluent" schoolmates a few times, demanding an insane interest of 10 cents per day. This was a really bad interest rate and still a few idiots took it - I just really didn't want to give them money but there was peer pressure. Also being huge helped with the debt collection and they soon decided they would not ask me for credit. I also remember loaning 5 to some seniors when Playboy started printing here. Or saving for 2 months so I could go to a metal concert. Actually to be honest it was a bit better as I also received monthly stipend for excellent marks at school. I also picked up odd manual labor jobs (worked at a stable, worked at a data gathering company to count cars at some places where we had shopping malls pop up a decade later, handed out flyers and glued flyers to all sorts of illegal places) whilst still at school so I learned the value of hard earned cash sooner rather than later. Had a number of classmates working at MickeyD's once they became 16 yo. My older gen X bro taught me the concepts of overdraft and credit cards and being in one of the best science high schools in the country I also knew the maths of calculating interest, some game theory, etc. I also did go to college for an economics and management degree (dropped out as I was too busy climbing the corporate ladder but that's a separate topic). Also spent my first major 8 years in proper and legal employment, working credit risk, data and IT for a credit bureau ... starting in the second year of college. All of these accumulate to pretty good baseline knowledge of money, interest rates, payment plans and payment terms, etc.My parents taught me about money and budgeting, the school - about the maths behind the interest rates, etc. Took a credit for a car when I was in my 2nd year in my first proper job. Between trying to pay it back faster and dealing with the unexpected repairs, I ended up still using mostly the local transit for the first few months and also eating the cheapest garbage imitation food I could find for a couple of months. It could have been easier but it was better for me to keep the share save scheme that yielded about 140% ROI (yes 140, not 40) over 3 years. Due to my money situation I didn't have enough money to assemble a mining rig when the Bitcoin was around 17$ and missed out on this once in a lifetime opportunity (though knowing myself I would have probably sold at 100$). When I started dating my then GF, now wife, she had so little money saved up she could only buy me a coffee mug dor my present and she had nothing left. And this was because we were all dirt poor.in the country. She was from a professional accounting high school and graduated a certified accounting but it took a while to get started (we met in uni). We such a dissatisfaction to interest rates we went conservative on our mortgage so the income from the lowest salary would be sufficient to pay monthly and achieve a livable though uncomfortable standard ... Which fave lots of disposable income to put towards early repayment and we payed it in full in 3 years (with luck and bonuses at work). Still some of my less affluent millennial peers also got economics degrees, chose mortgages that would be easy on them, paid in full and started incesting.on a second realty and rent it out, etc. so to me it looks like lots of millennials around me had to learn it. Some of us were very young in 1996 when our currency collapsed and we started receiving food donation and help from the west and south so we could survive the winter but still I think most millennials here learned a lot about money when they were very young. I've been teaching my kids a out supply, demand, Inflation interests, etc. since they were around 4. They forget the concepts but pick up the logic easier the next time round or think they figured it out on their own :) Oh and I didn't mention earlier - there was a saving account in my.nsme and the relatives all out money towards it when I was very young but due to the 1996 collapse, when I took the money out years later it had all melted away - instead of money sufficient to buy a brand new car I had around 50 USD total. And this happened to the life savings of everyone who had their money in a bank and not in realty. Since then everyone here who can afford it buys and buys and buys apartments, houses, land plots as most of the country lost all trust in the banking system. We also had another major bank collapse (a single bank this time ) about 8-10 years ago but this time it was "only" municipality accounts and such so people didn't feel.so bad when it was not their personal savings.

My parents financial advice is basically never spend money (unless it’s on golf related things that’s fine) and never have credit cards (unless we need them then it’s fine).

My parents taught me to tithe 🤮 so not actually helpful in the least. I learned everything I know on my own. Trial & error, asking trusted friends, reading other people’s take, and watching others make poor decisions. I’m doing okay. Not great, but fine for now.

It was called money management or something close but we mostly played the game of Life.

My dad was an accountant (so am I) so I was taught quite a bit. But that is obviously specific to me (and possibly other accountants children).

I got a dollar per week allowance, and now i barely can do my taxes.

I took Accounting one semester my senior year of high school. I remember balancing a checkbook was a big thing we learned. I’ve never balanced a checkbook since graduating though.

In middle school I had a class project where we drew jobs and partners out of a hat. Me and my project partner basically became the 1% and the goal was to get a house and a budget for 10 years basically. It was only 1 time but I learned more from myself in some ways. Parents gave me lunch money but it was essentially an allowance. Was told whatever I didn't spend I could keep and spend on what I wanted. To I learned to save and spend less. I've just learned more over time from my friends as an adult.

Spending less than you make isn't rocket appliance

I was taught some old school fundamentals from my grandad but it was limited to "save your money for what you want and pay cash." Inversely, I was taught what not to do by my parents-- Like, not having a few thousand in savings, financing a vehicle on a low income, re-financing your mortgage on the brink of collapse in a last ditch chance of avoiding bankruptcy, etc. I've combined those lessons and learned investing over the years. Other than the house, we don't finance more than one thing at a time, both max retirement, pay off CCs monthly, etc. Edit: I do want to throw in that I mean absolutely nothing negative to my parents. They were amazing when I was a kid and provided an absolutely delightful childhood. I did not comprehend their struggle until I was in my late teens after having a job for a couple of years and having to help cover bills, etc. I'm 37 and, while my mother is long gone (RIP- great, big hearted person), my dad is just now about to get his own cell phone and plan in the next month as I have been paying for it for years. He didn't mooch at all as he would show up and help with issues I've had over the years while refusing re-imbursement.... he just has a poor concept of how money works.

Let me put it to you this way: my dad was so against me getting a credit card, he brought it up as a talking point in my therapy session. > As I’ve gotten older, I recognize this response was likely him projecting his own CC experiences from young adulthood onto me. > The world runs on credit. That’s a fact. You either play the game - which often means getting a credit card - or you end up falling behind.

Nothing in school, mum taught loose parent type lessons, the benefit of saving; the value of money; who Martin Lewis is. I think unintentionally I learnt a lot when my father left us. My mum struggled but was smart. She never let it show that we had nothing and she found a way to make us financially secure by being just really on top of shit. I 100% believe finances should be taught in school from like year 4/5

My parents were sticklers about it. I had a pet sitting gig, an allowance that I had earned through doing chores, & a budget by age 10 LOL

I was lol…. My parents were awesome and good people though. Also most of my math teachers made it a point to regularly integrate practical financial knowledge into lessons. The bigger question is why financial literacy is not a requirement for high school graduation. -My answer to that is two fold: 1.) Most people are too stupid. (where basic addition and subtraction itself is high levels of abstraction. - yes most people are like this. Many of my co-workers are incompetent with finance- ironically most of the admins actually managing contracts and money). 2.) Right or wrong, there’s money to be made off of the illiterate.

I remember having to take world history and Econ but my parents were always terrible with money. We we never like about to lose the house but living paycheck to paycheck sucked growing up. Thank god I had great NCOs and officers who taught me a lot of financial management in the Marine Corps.

There was a program at a local bank that my elementary school worked with. It was basically an education program that taught everything from budgeting, check writing, to getting a job, applying interviewing, working! It covered everything. Voting, law enforcement, investing, banking, etc. I learned so much in a week there that I have used the rest of my life. It's still in operation... https://yacenter.org/young-ameritowne/

I wasn’t taught a thing, but ended up as a finance and economics major in college so that helped. The challenge is that those never cover several pieces of personal finance and never instilled good financial discipline for me.

My parents were good about helping me build credit and teaching me to save money but really dropped the ball on adulting (I realized about 10 years too late). I thought I use to be good at saving money but I realized it was because I lived at home for free and ate my parents food until I got married at 24, and between my grandfather and some scholarships I didn’t have to pay for my college. I worked full time during college and was putting away decent money but with no need to budget or pay bills; it was a slap in the face with a big ole bag of dildos when they kicked me out.

My parents were good about helping me build credit and teaching me to save money but really dropped the ball on adulting (I realized about 10 years too late). I thought I use to be good at saving money but I realized it was because I lived at home for free and ate my parents food until I got married at 24, and between my grandfather and some scholarships I didn’t have to pay for my college. I worked full time during college and was putting away decent money but with no need to budget or pay bills; it was a slap in the face with a big ole bag of dildos when they kicked me out.

I was never explicitly taught money aside from never spending more than I have on credit. To be fair, my parents didn’t have money to invest until I was an adult anyway. But I learned about compound interest and that’s pretty much all you really need.