Romeo and Juliet ... the case for financial literacy
Gregory (Greg) Quinn
DQ (Decency Quotient) Inspired Financial Services Leader ? Sales, Advice & Client Experience Strategy/Enablement ? Enterprise Real Estate ? Talent Champion ? Speaker & Writer
This morning, I read an article by Rob Carrick that referenced a survey by The Canadian Payroll Association that 4 in 10 people are feeling financial distress (see https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/personal-finance/article-save-more-and-ease-your-feelings-of-financial-stress/ ). 4 in 10 people are feeling financial distress—4 in 10!
My daughter is working through ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in Grade 9 English. She is not enjoying Shakespeare and asked C and I if we’d ever used Shakespeare in real life. Both C and I answered that we have not done so. Her question led me to share with her that there are three high school courses that I draw on regularly in my adult life:
- Typing 9 (oh the pain of having to sit idly by while a person hunts and pecks their way through an email—the horror). Expert level career tip: if you can’t ‘touch type’ and want to dramatically improve your personal efficiency and through-put, learn to touch type. You will save untold hours.
- Algebra (complex analytical what if scenario and financial models use basic math and algebra … I haven’t run across much geometry in my professional or every day life)
- English (not the Shakespeare part … the writing, composing and communicating parts)
I took a full suite of Science, English, English Lit, Math, etc. in high school. All those courses were valuable and I’m not arguing against them since I think that it is important to understand how the world works and to learn about a broad range of subjects including STEM and the Humanities. That said, I can’t help but think that there were a few gaps in the curriculum in terms of important life learning that doesn’t get covered in school. In my view, first among those gaps is financial literacy.
4 in 10 people feeling financial distress is a shame. Every single person needs to develop sound financial literacy—it is a foundational life skill that is necessary in order to thrive in our society. That doesn’t mean that everyone needs to learn everything, but people need familiarity with the basics and then the confidence to seek out expert guidance/support to manage through the complicated bits.
Parents: primary responsibility for our kid’s financial literacy has to start with us. I know from personal experience that it’s hard to do so (I’ve earned a few eye rolls during financial teaching moments). We don’t need to have all the answers, but we need to ensure that we set our kids up for success with a basic knowledge about money/finances and the confidence to build their own personal financial management skills. Make financial literacy important at the kitchen table. Take your kid(s) to the bank. Take your kid(s) to meet with financial professionals. Involve your kid(s) in making financial decisions and get them engaged in developing their own financial literacy.
Financial Professionals: continue to play a leadership role in helping people to manage their financial stress. Teach us but don’t overwhelm us with industry speak (we tune you out). Help us to build our financial literacy and recall that what you do matters, and it matters a lot ( https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/what-you-do-matters-lot-gregory-greg-quinn/ ).
Educators: the reason that schools teach our children English Lit, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Math, etc. is that doing so requires well developed expertise that isn’t readily available at the kitchen table. Financial literacy is complicated—there’s a lot to learn about taxes, saving, investing, borrowing, credit history / credit reports, credit cards, retirement savings (RSPs and/or TFSAs), building an emergency fund, leasing vs. buying, renting vs. home ownership, insurance (property, casual, life, etc.), estate planning, charitable / philanthropic giving, management fees … I’m sure that the list of the ‘basics’, ought to go on for many more lines of text. We need you to apply your expert ability to teach our youth financial literacy as a core part of your curriculum.
4 in 10 people are feeling financial distress. Absent wide spread progress in the development of financial literacy, those numbers are not going to change and that’s not going to help our communities to thrive.
I’m entirely supportive of D’s exploration of Shakespeare and am not above admitting that I'm better for my own personal struggles with it back in the day. I also can’t help but feel that she would be well served to be working through a curriculum that included a healthy dose of financial literacy.
Real Estate Professional
5 年Hi Gregory, financial literacy is something to be passionate about! Have a look at Junior Achievement,?https://www.jacanada.org/jaswo? ?
Coaching Global Leaders, Executives and Expats in building creative and effective teams. #Global #Talent Optimizer. Stand Out from the Crowd!
5 年Totally agree that FinLit is very important. ?However Shakespeare teaches you about life, love, treachery, and humanity. ?Can't do without the lessons learned from great writers. ?All that being said typing was the most practical course I took in high school!
Director First Nations Bank of Canada, Board Chair CHEO Research Institute
5 年I seldom disagree with GQ and most of what he says here is bang on. Especially the part about financial literacy. The only point I’d make here is that the skills he identifies are generally weighted to so called white collar roles. We need more talented blue collar folks. Plumbers, welders etc. My point being while I might have used my algebra along the way in my career at a bank, my geometry came in mighty handy when I was building my deck at the lake. Or my shed at the lake. Nothing like trotting out the old Pythagorean theory from time to time to make you appreciate what good old Alex Checevich taught me in geometry a few decades ago. But GQ is right. Financial literacy matters to everyone and it should be fundamentally part of any curriculum either at home or in school.