managing our money

[Welsh Boy]

Just wondering whether we think it would be a sensible idea to have money management taught as part of the school curriculum. I have just been looking at uk debt statistics and was thinking where will it be in years to come. Can we continue in the same vein or will new practices be brought in? Certainly when I was at school many years ago we weren`t taught such things, I like most of you must have been aware of the campaign that recently gave the government our thoughts on road charging, perhaps we need to ask them to introduce this subject. Just a thought-Tony

[neverending]

I think that we need to do something.The culture these days is to want things NOW and not to save for them.Credit is very easy these days and banks are still loaning money to very young people who do not really realise the implications.My own son had a loan for £3300 from Lloyds TSB,including payment protection, over a seven year period and he is 19 years old.
Its all too easy.
regards

[steve532]

Great idea.
My kids have leant from there dads experiences and will never have a credit card. I have tried to teach them by my mistakes.
just hope they were listening
be lucky


steve

[beresford]

Yes my little brother (he's 20) was tempted with his first credit card by Capital One. Funny enough, the Capital One credit card was my first credit facility and now I'm in this horrible debt situation. My brother has learnt from my experiences and said he will never take out credit (except maybe a mortgage on a property). I think educating kids in their teens at school on money and debt matters would prove worthwhile - I'm 25 year old and face the next 4.5 years under an IVA which I think is very scary as this situation in the UK is only going to get worse.......before it ever gets better

[scaredkez]

i agree the children of today need some form of money management /budgeting skills taught in school, hopefully mine will never go down the same road as me, and will have learnt a valuable lesson off us both, it is to easy to gain credit but maybe in light of all the iva programmes and BR that will happen banks will again make it harder to obtain credit but i can't see that happening for a long time, i still get letters now and phonecalls offering me the earth and i tell them i am going bR and they say we can help you lets talk through your finances, it is so stupid
kerri

Please view my blog at: http://scaredkez.blogs.iva.co.uk/

[beresford]

Kerri I totally agree with you. The banks make it too easy to obtain credit. This also applies to mortgages; I think it's Abbey that's currently advertising the fact that they are prepared to lend customers up to 5x salary. Not to be all doom and gloom but what if the property market crashes? This will just leave a lot of people in the country with huge mortgages and with negative equity in their property, thus inevitably leading more people down the insolvency route. Sorry it's not like me to be so negative but I have been thinking of such scenarios of late.

[Welsh Boy]

beresford

I don`t think it`s the fact that large income mutiples are available, take the PM for example I read recently that he has outstanding mortgage debt of circa £5 million with joint incomes of what £500k ( I am guessing here). I haven`t heard of monies lent on projected future income before but there we are. My real point is that I personally think far more dangerous than this is the opportunity to be heavily geared to the point of 125% ltv of your property, this to me is dangerous ground to be in but it`s only my opinion.

Tony

[kah]

I agree with much that's been said here. We are also dealing with the first effects of the ever increasing student loan system. Students begin their working lives with debts of what? 15k and rising?
Not much point schools teaching kids not to get into debt.

[Kiska]

after working in a school i think this is very much needed,

toom many kids think the 'big wide world' is so easy

x x x

[Oliver]

I totally agree that money management should be taught in schools. Everybody should be able to understand the way in which financial products work, eg, interest calculations, APRs etc etc ......

Best Regards
Oliver

Thomas Charles and Co Ltd.
Experts in personal debt solutions.
Read customer feedback at: www.thomascharles.com/about_us.asp

[R1CHARDT]

i agree completely

also - it should be a longer process to obtain credit

i got a 20k loan with three clicks of a mouse button.

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Rich.

[Oliver]

It's scary when you put it in that context.

I think everyone involved needs to take responsibility for the debt problems we are seeing in the UK (by far the worst in Europe). This ranges from people taking responsibility for the money they have borrowed (which the vast majority do), and the banks taking responsibility for not ensuring there is a high enough level of responsible lending.


Best Regards
Oliver

Thomas Charles and Co Ltd.
Experts in personal debt solutions.
Read customer feedback at: www.thomascharles.com/about_us.asp

[R1CHARDT]

Banks - the modern day mafia.

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Rich.

[iva experts]

I agree that education would help alot but I also think the age that you are allowed to obtain credit should be changed.
Doesn't anyonelse think 18 is too young?

In my experience I have seen a number of cases where the clients are from 20-24 years old and already have over £20,000 debt. I think if the age limit changed to 21years old this may help.

In saying this I dont think the banks would agree to take this stance, also this may cause problems in regards to gaining Student Loans etc.

Best Regards. IVA Experts

[Welsh Boy]

I personally don`t think credit is such a bad thing and if you look on the literature of financial institutions you will never see the wording "we are a registered charity". My reason for initially posting this topic is because I feel education is so important for all of us where finance is concerned, I also believe that there will be a huge pension problem in the future in this country and once again if we were better informed/taught at a school age we could have a more educated view of this often complicated subject and react accordingly.Tony