In nine years of experience in providing personal financial advice, I have trained thousands of persons from all walks of life about the principles of money; I have coached highly paid doctors and lawyers and counselled lower-income workers.

There is one factor that unites the majority of persons who seek my assistance – they are facing financial distress because they are unaware of the basic steps that they should take to successfully manage, multiply and maintain their money.

I can recall the frustration of a professional who earns more money in one month than most Jamaicans will see in a year, as he painstakingly tried to organise his finances to get out of debt. “I can’t believe that I don’t know how to budget,” he sighed, “why didn’t they teach us about this money stuff when we were in school?”

Educating young people about personal finance must be considered a priority for our country as we struggle to find our way out of a major economic crisis. If we are to chart a course for growth, we have to ensure that our citizens are properly equipped to manage their finances, understand how to invest wisely and make the right decisions to preserve their money for the future.

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Last week we examined some of the lessons that I wished I had learnt in school, which included training on budgeting, spending, saving and managing debt. Let’s look at some other money lessons that would be a part of my dream syllabus:

Entrepreneur Basics

Unfortunately, our school system focuses primarily on teaching people how to get a job; it doesn’t cover something even more important – how to create our own sources of income. If everyone leaves school and expects someone to employ them, who is going to establish the successful businesses that can hire others?

While entrepreneurship might not be a suitable profession for everyone, I believe that we can all learn how to generate extra money by providing a product or service of value to others. If more people understood how to do this, they wouldn’t be so dependent on debt to meet budgetary needs, and would have enough means to save for their financial goals.

At the primary level, the curriculum should focus on activities such as identifying simple problems and needs in the community and teaching children to be creative in finding ways to solve them for profit. For higher level students, the syllabus should include the steps to setting up a business, tax requirements, business accounting, marketing and strategising.

This course would be very practical, with the students being placed in groups and actually running a small business over the period. Think of all the profitable entrepreneurial efforts that could be unleashed into our country, as the creativity of our young people is given free rein!

Investing Basics

While many people desire to make their money work for them through investing, a lot of personal wealth is lost when people make inappropriate investing decisions. They also miss out on great opportunities because of lack of information about them. I remember that before I learned about the stock market, I honestly thought that people only lost money in this investment!

Secondary and tertiary level students should have the opportunity to receive an early education on how to multiply money by investing in assets. This knowledge would also encourage them to put aside some of their income into investments as soon as they started earning. Another component of the course should be guidance on how to avoid money risks.

Retirement and Estate Planning

A large percentage of our population will never be able to retire comfortably because they did not focus on saving for this major life change. There is also considerable ignorance about the importance of making plans to transfer assets upon death, which leads many beneficiaries to suffer needlessly.

It’s never too early to instil a sense of responsibility in our children about the things they should be doing to maintain their money for the future. This will encourage them to get an early start on retirement saving and to make informed decisions about life insurance and making wills. In fact, they can help to pass on these lessons to their parents.

Money and Life

A school syllabus about personal finance should not only look at quantitative aspects of money, such as money management, making money and maintaining money, but also at qualitative concepts. While we want our children to attain financial success, they shouldn’t be solely money-focused and forget that people are more important than money.

Training on philanthropy should be included to educate our children on the importance of giving back to others and society. Even the poorest child can learn that volunteering time with the elderly or less fortunate will reap wonderful rewards. It’s also crucial to teach children that true happiness does not come from material wealth.

Copyright © 2010 Cherryl Hanson Simpson. No reproduction without written consent.

Originally published in The Daily Observer, April 15, 2010