The key about learning is to keep the experience positive. 😊
The common and easy mistake is to make it a pain which I committed too often.
Something comes very easy to some people could be quite challenging to others. It absolutely requires talent to explain how bond and interest work to a 7-year-old in a simple and interesting way.
The reason why learning is fun is two folds based on my narrow and biased experience.
On one hand, I can apply the new knowledge or skill I just learned and see the result right away or soon. For example, I learned how to serve in tennis which is the most daunting part of tennis for me. It took a while for me to grasp it. Every time when I learned one or two tricks or techniques, I felt that I improved a little. It is not a lot, but noticeable. It felt great! This motivates me to continue to learn more and practice more. It doesn’t feel painful at all.
Financial literacy is an applied science. Develop and maintain a household budget, select and open a bank account, file income tax returns on our own and etc. On and on. Every little bit of knowledge or skill we learn can be applied to our real life. I found it quite satisfying. Perhaps we need to give more credit to ourselves. It is critically important to pad ourselves on the back, saying encouraging things or rewarding ourselves especially when we are learning a new subject.
On the other hand, the key is how to manage setbacks and difficulties or all the emotions that come with it. Naturally, I got countless double faults. Now I’ve learned to have ample compassion and patience for myself. 😊 I need that. We all do. Only this way, we will minimize the frustration and negativity. Tennis is a mental game too just like most sports. It requires 100% concentration. A bit of self-doubt will deviate the game. Momentum can just turn on a dime. I focus on what I can improve on my next serve. This way, I can clear the noises in my head especially during a tennis match.
Financial literacy does requires some understanding of economics, business, and finance. Math does help too. Fortunately, there are many systematic and user-friendly online financial literacy websites developed by trustworthy sources. A good case in point is Your Financial Toolkit by Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. It is very comprehensive and interactive. I like Investopedia because I can learn it step by step by browsing almost all topics in investing. I collected a few more here. However, the challenge is that most people do not have the time and patience to do that. They all lead a very busy life and finance might not be something they find interesting in the first place. They want to invest but somehow want to skip the learning part because it takes time. That’s very dangerous because we should not invest in something that we do not fully understand.
Perhaps some of us could consider Robo-Advisor. However, I still think that they should at least understand some key investing basics such as diversification, time value of money, cost dollar averaging, and etc.
I heard that in Ontario, financial literacy has been incorporated into curriculum. I don’t see investing is there. They might think that it is too much for high school students. I think not. Perhaps some basic economics, finance and business should be taught as part of financial literacy for high school student.
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