Most of Us Lack Financial Intelligence
Despite being vital for both personal and societal prosperity, we receive no training in financial intelligence.
Most people think that to become rich, it's enough to be talented and capable.
But in fact, the world is full of such people, and most of them are poor.
What they are missing is financial intelligence, a comprehensive aptitude for financial subjects like accounting, investing and so forth.
Unfortunately, we're raised without this intelligence.
Our school systems are set up to train people in a variety of useful subjects, but financial intelligence is not one of them.
Children aren't taught about subjects like saving or investing, and as a consequence are clueless about topics like compound interest – as clearly evidenced by the fact that, today, even high schoolers often max out their credit cards.
This lack of training in financial intelligence is a problem not only for today's youth but also for highly educated adults, many of whom make poor decisions with their money.
For example, politicians are generally regarded as the brightest, most well-educated people in a society, but there's a reason why countries end up in staggering national debt:
Most of the governing politicians have little or no financial intelligence.
Ordinary people, too, can be astonishingly bad at handling their money matters, as evidenced by their lack of retirement planning.
For instance, in the United States 50 percent of the workforce are without pensions and, of the rest, nearly 75 to 80 percent have ineffective pensions.
Clearly, society has left us poorly equipped in terms of financial knowledge, and so it is up to the individual to educate him- or herself.
When we find ourselves seeking wealth in times of great economical change, it becomes even more necessary to independently pursue a good financial education.
Most of Us Lack Financial Intelligence
Despite being vital for both personal and societal prosperity, we receive no training in financial intelligence.
Most people think that to become rich, it's enough to be talented and capable.
But in fact, the world is full of such people, and most of them are poor.
What they are missing is financial intelligence, a comprehensive aptitude for financial subjects like accounting, investing and so forth.
Unfortunately, we're raised without this intelligence.
Our school systems are set up to train people in a variety of useful subjects, but financial intelligence is not one of them.
Children aren't taught about subjects like saving or investing, and as a consequence are clueless about topics like compound interest – as clearly evidenced by the fact that, today, even high schoolers often max out their credit cards.
This lack of training in financial intelligence is a problem not only for today's youth but also for highly educated adults, many of whom make poor decisions with their money.
For example, politicians are generally regarded as the brightest, most well-educated people in a society, but there's a reason why countries end up in staggering national debt:
Most of the governing politicians have little or no financial intelligence.
Ordinary people, too, can be astonishingly bad at handling their money matters, as evidenced by their lack of retirement planning.
For instance, in the United States 50 percent of the workforce are without pensions and, of the rest, nearly 75 to 80 percent have ineffective pensions.
Clearly, society has left us poorly equipped in terms of financial knowledge, and so it is up to the individual to educate him- or herself.
When we find ourselves seeking wealth in times of great economical change, it becomes even more necessary to independently pursue a good financial education.
#MostofUsLackFinancial