Madame X over at My Open Wallet has a list of rules when it comes to Personal Finance. My favorite is Rule #17 - Do the Math. Such a simple and honest premise. One can hardly imagine that it wouldn't be part of any financial decision.
The problem? Have you looked around your office lately? Do you know very many people who understand basic math very well? I know I don't. It's no surprise to me that there are so many people who are in financial crisis with debt or mortgage problems. They surely just don't understand the consequences. Not only can they not understand what the banker or lender is telling them, they don't even have the know how to "Do the Math" themselves.
Even reading personal finance blogs, I've been amazed at the number of posts regarding how to figure your taxes or how to calculate interest or payments, that sort of thing. Granted, much of that is coming from reader questions, but it still goes to show we have massively failed generations of people in teaching them how to do math and manage their money.
If you'd like some help learning and/or would like to help your kids learn, check out my previous post on the subject.
Starting Young
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