Upcoming mandatory financial education in France

[ysette9]

I just heard on the new podcast I listen to sometimes that beginning with the school year 2017, personal financial education will be included in the curriculum for grades 1-12. The goals will be to teach them about how money is used in daily lives, give them the knowledge they need to make good financial decisions in life, and to understand the types of financial problems they will be confronted with eventually. They have a website that also includes info and resources aimed at adults to help them stay out of debt. Overall I think this is pretty exciting and I wish they could do something similar in the US (like that could happen)!

[WildJager]

The US military does a small amount of financial education for the troops.  Very basic level stuff, and I think it truly is a useful tool for people who are completely void of financial knowledge.

The problem in my mind arises when more complicated questions get asked (specifically investing).  The people teaching these courses are often the types of served a career in the military, then potentially a follow on career, now are here trying to make ends meet.  They do fine giving the prescribed course information, but go on dangerous tangents if the discussion comes about.  "Real estate always goes up!" right before the housing crisis.  "I love this specific precious metal fund!  It's returned 35% this year.  Invest in this!" right after the housing crisis (the fees on this particular fund where outrageous, regardless of how you feel about investing in metal).

I don't know the best solution to keep overzealous teachers from leading their students astray without having some type of certified prerequisites, but then at that point their salary becomes an issue (no one seems to want to pay much for providing financial education). 

[ketchup]

I had to take a "consumer education" class in high school (US, graduated in 2009).  It was pretty useless.  "Debt is bad, m'kay?  You shouldn't get into debt."  Saving/investing was essentially not mentioned (not even save-to-spend).  Our final project was writing a monthly budget with a bunch of stupid requirements (assume no savings, had to buy a car and without money down, can't have roommates, have to spend at least X on clothes, etc.) that basically limited you into being a good little consumer with no creativity of any kind.

[MsPeacock]

I've been in the Army and worked as a civilian with the military for almost 20 years. The financial education that is provided, is for the most part really  bad. The military also lets predatory lenders and "investors" have access to troops (e.g. Edward Jones, etc.). There is A LOT of bad advice passed around about buying houses at every duty station and such. I'm not sure if the level of financial ignorance is any higher than it is in the general population. There is at least free financial counseling and debt consolidation available through a variety of services to help people out once they have dug themselves into a big hole.

It is overly easy for military AD to get loans even when they actually can't afford them due to the "guaranteed income" and ability to cause problems via their command. Army bases tend to have a lot of pawn shops, payday lenders, and overpriced predatory used car dealerships around them for good reason.

I think mandatory financial education K-12 would be a great thing. My 4th grader has a FANTASTIC teacher this year - she has a "classroom economy" where the kids earn "Mario bucks" in class and have to do things like rent their desks, pay for hall passes, budget, etc.

I also feel very strongly that college loans need to come with the same loan documents that you get when you purchase a car or mortgage. E.g. "You are borrowing $x and y% interest - your monthly payment will be $B for 120 months. The current loan balance for all educational loans is $XXX and your total monthly payments will be $BBBB, with a total payment amount of $$$$$ over the life of the loan."

[Grogounet]

I just heard on the new podcast I listen to sometimes that beginning with the school year 2017, personal financial education will be included in the curriculum for grades 1-12. The goals will be to teach them about how money is used in daily lives, give them the knowledge they need to make good financial decisions in life, and to understand the types of financial problems they will be confronted with eventually. They have a website that also includes info and resources aimed at adults to help them stay out of debt. Overall I think this is pretty exciting and I wish they could do something similar in the US (like that could happen)!

The thing is: what we call "financial education" in France is not the same as anglo-saxon countries. The way to invest, the money challenges are not the same.
IMO, US/UK/Australia are much more advanced in finance, risk taking, debt etc... than in France.
When it comes to managing ones debt, France comes first then, as it's very hard to take basically the same risks as you can in the US with credit cards, real estate, share markets, etc etc... You tend to invest more 'In between the flags".

[Enigma]

I have always heard that France has a high unemployment rate and it is hard to get hired anywhere if you are under 24yrs old because companies are worried you just want to quit and collect unemployment benefits.  In my opinion extremely strong socialist economy....  Not saying that financial education is strictly a capitalist economy thing.  The education just seems a little out of place.

[ysette9]

I think personal financial education is always a good thing. It doesn't matter if your taxes are 20% or 50%; you still need to live within your means and handle debt responsibly. I'm not sure what the unemployment rate has to do with any of that, though you are correct that the rate is higher than in the US. Personally I want to educate myself more on the differences between their job market and protections and ours to understand the differences in employment and unemployment rates. It does seem at first blush that loosening up the standards may be a good idea to bring down the unemployment rate. I think we in the US have gone too far where we have plenty of jobs for people, but at the bottom they don't pay enough to keep people out of poverty. There has got to be a middle ground.

[MakingSenseofCents]

I think personal finance education is extremely important. While some say that children won't remember personal finance if it's taught in school (like with the majority of other subjects), I do think that it would be a great intro to personal finance and that room should be made in the school schedule for it!

[Grogounet]

I have always heard that France has a high unemployment rate and it is hard to get hired anywhere if you are under 24yrs old because companies are worried you just want to quit and collect unemployment benefits.  In my opinion extremely strong socialist economy....  Not saying that financial education is strictly a capitalist economy thing.  The education just seems a little out of place.

:-) yes, indeed, France has a quite substantial unemployment rate, around 10 - 12% ever since I remember.
Number one reason why youngsters cannot find jobs is not social benefits... :-) That's diploma. Diploma (ie master) is still your biggest asset to find a job. In Paris, if you have a master or equivalent and some experience, the actual unemployment rate is close to 0.

Education is very different, the frame is a lot tighter but I really believe there is benefit in both French education and the one I give to my kids here in Australia.

Saying all this, whatever the country, I would encourage`personal finance at a global scale. The next generation will be a global one and have exposure to things we didn't have. It will be crucial for them to have this skill.

[GilbertB]

I have always heard that France has a high unemployment rate and it is hard to get hired anywhere if you are under 24yrs old because companies are worried you just want to quit and collect unemployment benefits.  In my opinion extremely strong socialist economy....  Not saying that financial education is strictly a capitalist economy thing.  The education just seems a little out of place.

:-) yes, indeed, France has a quite substantial unemployment rate, around 10 - 12% ever since I remember.
Number one reason why youngsters cannot find jobs is not social benefits... :-) That's diploma. Diploma (ie master) is still your biggest asset to find a job. In Paris, if you have a master or equivalent and some experience, the actual unemployment rate is close to 0.

Education is very different, the frame is a lot tighter but I really believe there is benefit in both French education and the one I give to my kids here in Australia.

Saying all this, whatever the country, I would encourage`personal finance at a global scale. The next generation will be a global one and have exposure to things we didn't have. It will be crucial for them to have this skill.

I disagree.
I was in positions were I hired, contracted and trained a lot of people in France.
For me there are two main problems:
Firstly: The school system, while being good, looks down on anything the is not doctor-lawyer-management. This is weird, because dispite knowing at lot of people in these positions, the only true millionaires I know are two electricians a traditional house builder...
Nobody tells the smart kids that Working with your hand is a great option, so we have a glut of people that are highly trained but not in synch with reality: at the low end have the BAC but can't hold a hammer, basic coding, real maths and on the high end, loads of MBA marketing managers but not enough engineers...
Secondly, we have a great health care and tax system that is ok priced BUT amazingly complicated and splintered... for example there are "caisses" for each work branch, in each region. Great for steam and horse communications, totally nuts today! This makes the paper work for creating/operating even a 3 person firm insane.

NB, I am all for this legislation and social protection, it's only the implementations that is crazy coconuts.

[shanghaiMMM]

I think mandatory financial education K-12 would be a great thing. My 4th grader has a FANTASTIC teacher this year - she has a "classroom economy" where the kids earn "Mario bucks" in class and have to do things like rent their desks, pay for hall passes, budget, etc.

Just Googled this, I love it! Might have to try it with my class :D

[Paul der Krake]

It's actually pretty hard to do real financial damage in France, because credit is hard to come by. Credit cards are barely used and personal loans have low interest rates- at least by US standards. Salaries are low, but the national savings rate is around 15%.

They have a website that also includes info and resources aimed at adults to help them stay out of debt. Overall I think this is pretty exciting and I wish they could do something similar in the US (like that could happen)!

The US government has tons of resources online. USA.gov and FTC.gov come to mind. People hate on the tax code, but IRS.gov is pretty spectacular too.