View from the Street: Money talks and young people have to be part of the conversation
Published
Sophie Taylor
Remember Margaret Thatcher’s Tell Sid campaign promoting the sale of British Gas shares in the 1980s? It was supposed to be a watershed moment that turned us into a nation of financially literate, share-owning capitalists.
A generation on and most people would struggle with separating an ISA from a SIPP.
Now Rachel Reeves is at it. Her Leeds reforms, revealed this month, aim to “rewire the financial system” and include plans for a £60 million campaign explaining the benefits of investing to the public.
The reality is that we Brits don’t like talking about money. About our salaries. About stocks and shares. Beyond the price of a first class stamp we are borderline money-phobic.
And yet, all around are signs that we should be talking about money. The number one issue almost every election? It’s the economy, stupid.
The cost-of-living crisis. The financial crash. The credit crunch. Inflation. Interest rates. Taxes. Mortgages. The national debt.
This is all around us, every day.
But could the average person explain the connection between interest rates and inflation?
Two-fifths of all UK adults have poor financial literacy, according to investment company Aberdeen. The firm also found that people who have poor financial literacy are significantly less likely to have savings or a pension than financially literate workers on similar incomes.
This is why it all matters. When we shy away from talking about money, we limit our understanding of how businesses work – how they make decisions, generate profits, or distribute pay. This discomfort can create distance between the public and the corporate world, fuelling mistrust or indifference. If we feel shut out from the language of finance, we’re less likely to take an interest in business news or ask challenging questions about corporate behaviour. It becomes something ‘other’ – when in reality, it affects us all, from our jobs to our pensions to the prices in the supermarket.
Engaging, tailored financial education should be compulsory in schools – and not just glossed over in maths or business studies, which Young Enterprise found is often the case. And we need to start in primary school, before the cynicism sets in.
For kids, comparisons should be used that frame concepts to their worlds. We need to speak to their goals. Complicated ideas should be distilled into concrete examples anchored to something that is identifiable in their daily lives.
A good example is The London Foundation for Banking and Finance’s Money Wise Challenge, which shows how the gamification of financial education could be groundbreaking in helping school kids grasp difficult financial topics. The scheme uses an interactive format – its app-based competition – to simulate real life situations.
Or take HSBC’s partnership with Girlguiding last year, which saw the bank develop a money skills badge for girls aged four to 18. It taught financial literacy and encouraged money-related discussions through practical activities, like creating a budget planner.
Money has for too long been an uncomfortable topic. Data from KPMG UK and National Numeracy found that a quarter of UK adults are “silent savers” who rarely discuss savings or investments with others.
But making financial education accessible and fun, and reaching students as young as primary school age, could break these barriers down. It could start conversations and make the population more receptive to informed risk.
This way, smart decisions can be made as soon as leavers and graduates start earning. It builds a foundation of knowledge that allows them to understand and recognise campaigns like Reeves’ latest initiative later down the line.
It’s also just the right thing to do. Financial literacy is a basic, essential life skill, and more should be done to help young people understand the options available in a way that works for them.
Perhaps Sid would have been more likely to buy British Gas shares had the concept been familiar to him his whole life.
Do you agree? Email me at sophie.taylor@charlottestreetpartners.com