youthmoney

The Times previews the money education anouncement expected this week. With Ed Balls, newly appointed secretary of state for Children, Schools and Families, being such a finance & economics prodigy, the long-overdue move should be well handled. Well, fingers crossed.

Opposition leaders don’t seem to have quite got the root of the problem. Michael Gove thinks the best thing is “to get basic numeracy right”. David Laws for the Lib Dems is bothered about tuition fee debts, skyrocketing house prices and pensions.  

Well, yes-ish. These are not irrelevant. But, as with all education, the trio of “skills, knowledge and attitude” all need attention. Skills and knowledge are admittedly in a ropey state. That’s true of adults, including teachers, as well as the young.

Yet there’s a powerful argument that attitude is just as acutely important at the moment. What, fundamentally, do young people think money is for? What relationship do they want with the stuff?

Young people need to be helped to a mature, balanced attitude to money. They need self-knowledge as well as market knowledge. They need a vocabulary and understanding to discuss it calmly with each other, especially future partners. Without it, even advanced arithmetic skills or financial product knowledge won’t add up to a bag of beans.