Too much debt? Nah, it's just 'something everyone goes through'

A sad little country that has lost its way.

This is why we can't just twiddle our thumbs and wait for a financial education solution from up on high that's not going to address the real issues and attitudes towards money.

Young people can ill afford to learn the hard way.

I work for MyBnk, an education charity, who delivers quality programmes directly to secondary schools and youth groups, holistic, expert led and designed to fit into a schools’ curriculum or welfare-to-work programme - it works.

http://www.mybnk.org/programmes

I have no problem with teaching personal finance in schools, but this strikes me as something that was staged to make "da yoof" look bad. It's easy to be judgemental about "the youth of today", but I think that the definition of "basic personal finance" needs to be considered here.

I'm not at all surprised that the young people questioned here don't know what the basic state pension pays out each week. It's not really relevant to them, is it? I certainly didn't know what it was when I was their age and I'd struggle to believe anyone that claims they did.

It's a similar situation with the minimum wage for 18-20 year-olds. They're only likely to know if they have a job and are in that age bracket. I certainly couldn't have said what the current minimum wage for this age bracket is if somebody stopped me on the street and asked me (though I still know what it was when I had a job at the age of 18).

An average amount of debt that a student has after going to university? Again this is very difficult to judge, because the costs vary so much depending on individual circumstances (the tuition fees charged, whether the student lives with parents or not, how much is spent on beer, etc.). An average figure is hard to guess, even if you have a rough idea of the costs.

With regards to debt, well mortgage is a form of debt and many people I know have mortgages. I don't consider that unusual in the least. Perhaps you need to be more clear on the "key term" of debt...

As said, this appears somewhat staged to make young people look bad. I don't think adults would have fared better answering these questions, and I certainly don't think that most adults, if they are honest, could have answered these questions when they were their age. I also don't think that this is evidence of Britain being a "sad little country that has lost its way" - would young people from other countries have fared better?

At least some students can do some basic arithmetic and have made the decision that the cost of a university education is difficult to justify for a large number of students.

The university route is a way to ensnare oneself in debt and and get trapped in a system that is unlikely to pay suficiently well to justify the cost in time and money.

Not all young people in this sad little country are being taken in by the hype of "uni". Applications for university have fallen this year.

I don't remember previous generations being any more financially savvy - the difference was cultural not educational. Instilled by parents with ...never a lender or borrower be......with much stricter criteria for lending in the first place.

And,of course, free higher education - before those who benefitted pulling up the drawbridge after them.

Steve P. I heartily agree with your well stated comments.

I certainly couldn't tell Matt Edmondson (whoever he is) what the exact minimum wage is - although I do believe it depends on your age, no-one can tell me with any certainty how much debt my daughter will face when she leaves university, what interest rate she'll pay, and whether the government will tax her extra for having the nous to try and pay off her debt sooner than the amoral commissars running this country wish her to.

I don't know what the basic state pension is, and I partly agree with those respondents who felt that "debt is something that everyone goes through"- to the tune more than £50,000 for every man woman and child in the country under the financial "stewardship" of the last government.

I would have given higher marks to those students who answered "debt is something that everyone is unlikely to ever get out of".

Full marks go to those students who replied "this survey is a load of Bollocks"

I learnt most of these things from my parents as I was growing up. I was fortunatealso in that I went to a commercial school where much of this stuff was covered in the maths. lessons and now I know what the proportion of the state retirement pension I'm entitled to (after contributing an extra lump sum of £000s extra) is by experience. In my turn, I made sure my children understood the financial facts of life - my son even managed to save from his student grant! The notion of deferred gratification and doing without until you have saved up needs to be reintroduced to today's youngsters. By making them borrow thousands to get a university education the government is storing up trouble, and not just for the students.

These are the people who are going to drive our economy forward to compete effectively with the likes of China, India and all the other emerging economies. The future is indeed bright.

The youth of today were raised by parents of the last generation.....

These questions were terrible, and I could not answer any of them..... Why as none have any relevance on me...

What they should have asked were questions about, if they had a personal budget, do they save, how they split their wage packet, do they have any plans for savings etc.....

Even with this questions, i dont think the story would be any different :-)

I think the whole thing seems to be that people today, not all people but a big majority, seem to think that debt is something which only applies to other people. It really is time to get real.

Kids come out of university with degrees and degrees of debt, but for what? 3/4 years of good social life and a degree which will help them achieve ???

Debt in any form is corrosive, yes even a mortgage, although it does need to be expected that if one is looking for home ownership a mortgage is an inevitability for most.

The point is that stigmas which used to exist , they used to lock up debtors, no longer do. Are we any better off? Happier? Better quality of life?

The threats to our existence are great as we have all been encouraged, particularly through the 80's. 90's and most of the noughties to accrue debt. Great when the economy is growing but now its ground to a halt how are the debts to be repaid?

It should be taught by example that debt is not the answer to 'the good life' as with all things the day of reckoning will come. We are in a period of rapid transition and the changes will mean periods of unemployment for many more. How then will the debts be cleared?

Yes teaching kids the value of money and the value of fiscal prudence is a good thing, a great thing but...they need to see it being practiced by many more than they currently see, including the government, society in general and the people around them.

Do we really think that will happen?

Steven Fieldfare has a point about how previous generations may have coped with these questions - young people are having to navigate an increasingly complex maze of financial services.

Everyone from universities to Wonga passively encourages debt, negating any stigma and thus warps attitudes towards money.

The need for financial education is becoming a right.

More rights?!! What about teaching obligations!?

Just as we expect young people to be able to read, write and add up when they leave school, we should expect them be able to manage money.

Financial education is not in the curriculum, teachers are not trained do deliver it. What optional lessons there are are light touch and many schools do not take it up.

IMO this is not a teaching issue, this is a cultural issue. And should be addressed by parents, not by the government bulldozing finance lessons into schools.

How can you teach teenagers the value of money when they do not value money themselves? You can teach them the wonders of compound interest, saving for a pension and basic retail banking jargon, but for the majority they will not be able to apply it, stunting their understanding and IMO making it a rather pointless lesson to have in school.

Parents definitely have a role to play, but if they don't have the skills or confidence to teach their children how to budget or understand the consequences of poor financial decisions, then who does?

I work for a charity who trains young people to run their own in-school and online saving and lending bank. Along with education programmes, the message does get through and positive habits and attitudes develop.

Have a look

http://www.mybnk.org/programmes

I also agree with Steve P and Steven Fieldfare. I am a pensioner myself and I can't remember what the basic state pension is! Why should an 18 year old be bothered, it will be different, maybe not just in relatively by the time he hits 65 or whatever the pension age is by then.

My parents brought me up to buy only what I could afford and try to save at least a little all the time. I started work at 19 and was rather proud of saving £100 out of about £13 a week by the end of my first year. That was quite good money but I did have to pay for my season ticket to London.

The important thing is to budget and work out if you can afford something. I am sure there are prudent, solvent young people about today, just as when I was young there were always the girls who bought new clothes on payday and had no money left days before the next payday.

A basic understanding of compound interest should be taught in schools, possible as part of maths, but prudence is best instilled by parents or other role models. The problem is that debt has been encouraged for years now, so that parents are quite possibly as spendthrift as the teenagers.

Most of today's students were raised as "I want", "I want", "I want" and "I'll get" ever since they were in their prams. Don't get. Moan, cry and drive mums round the bend until they get. Go shopping any Saturday and you will see it.

When they grow up they still want , want. TVs in bedrooms, ipods, mobile phones, computers, music albums, even cars. Growing up further and off to college. Student loans and credit cards Great. Down to the local hostelry and drink drink, drink. Well, why not? Isn't that why you go to college and university?

The only thing they need to be taught at school is if you borrow and spend you still still have to pay it back. Why blame schools unless they fail to teach basic arithmetic because basically that is what elementary finance is all about. And anyway, I suspect some of the younger teachers are still paying back their own miss-spent student loans.

What students of all ages really need to be taught is responsibility, responsibility to their families, themselves and to world a t large. And that goes for our bankers and politicians as well.

I appreciate that there are many who do not fall into this category but there is a fair sized multitude who do.