A global report ranked South Africa as one of the worst countries when it comes to maths and science education... My concern is that there is little global concern regarding the lack of financial education in the schooling system even though money is something we all have to manage or should I say mismanage for most. Financial education is the elephant in the education room. It is almost like if nobody talks about it, then it will not affect anyone.
I am not saying we should not improve maths and science standards but there are careers and businesses that you can be very successful at, without a deep understanding of maths or science. Come to think of it, there is not much from maths and science that I have used in my professional working life.
However, whichever work or entrepreneurial path you choose as an adult, you will have to deal with money. A doctor does not get paid in medicine, they get paid in money. School teaches us to get jobs that will enable us to earn money but that is about it. Even those with degrees are found to battle to understand the game of money. The truth is that formal education does not teach us how to understand money, how to protect it and how to make it grow.
An equation has two sides. When it comes to money there is a lot of focus on the spending side of the equation and not much focus is given on the making money side. Most people have one income, usually their salary. There are various ways to make money and we should have multiple incomes coming from different avenues. I am sure if school had some passive income classes, many of us would at least have one passive income supplementing our salary.
Most people only learn from formal schooling and from their parents. So if the school system does not teach us relevant money habits than it is up to parents to take this on but if your parents were also not rich, they probably only know how to earn as well. This is one of the reasons that across many generations, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
So if the minority is rich and the majority is poor, the logical step would be to find out what the minority knows about money and what they do with that knowledge. Success with money leaves clues, if you know where to look.
The question is where do YOU look for this knowledge?