We Need To Educate People About Investing From Cradle to Grave

Wednesday 06th May 2020 09:57 EDT
 

I’ve launched a free investing course to educate people about investing – www.investing-champions.com . The reason is clear – during Covid more people than ever are wishing they had saved more, and others saw their pensions crash. Some want to save to protect themselves from future falls but do not know where to begin.

Since I started investing with £100 borrowed from my aunt, I have been addicted to the idea some of the most clever people in the world are working to make me money. I own a tiny part of Apple, Microsoft.

The sad truth is our schools do not teach children about compounding, benefits of saving. Oh, we teach consumerism – not saving. We teach Greek history, not saving.

History of ancient Rome and Greece have not helped me in Covid. Saving has. Investing has.

There are few worries greater, after health, than worries about money. The answer is to arm yourself to know what to do, what to look for. The idea is not to get rich quick or overnight.

It is to protect, and to outperform bank accounts, and should your risk appetite allow, make sure you own a bit of Microsoft.

But people know how to open a bank account, not how to buy a share. Of course investing in Microsoft is risky. Or in Amazon. The risk is making a 100x return.

But in seriousness, the risk is that in any given year you do not make a return. That is the definition of risk. And so it is not for everyone. We used to say, ‘not for widows and orphans’.

Imagine you have a child, may I suggest a £500 or £1000 account for them if you can afford it. And then buy them some Google (Alphabet), Amazon and Apple.

You could also give them index trackers (Exchange Traded Funds) with all the benefits of diversification that comes with and fund, and ADRs – American Depository Receipts – foreign companies eg from India and China listed in America – eg Alibaba and Infosys.

Financial education shows how our education system is so unfit for purpose. Our schools are based on an 18th century notion of education. Hopefully, Covid has shown we can have one outstanding teacher reaching thousands of students and sparking their interest. Of course, 1-2-1 is important or 1-20 or 1-30, but we also need to have broadcasts from the best teachers in the UK in their subjects (paying one of them star salaries for their excellence) to reach students is a lot easier than trying to raise the wages of all teachers regardless of ability.


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