Money

Planning & budgeting

Financial literacy

Opinion

Most Australians are ‘bad with money’. The reason why is frightening

We love to think the problem is ignorance – that Australians don’t manage their money well because nobody ever taught us, with the blame pinned on the education system or our parents.

It’s an easy narrative with an apparently simple solution set: implement lessons in schools, publish more how-to guides, create more calculators.

But after decades of working in financial services, I’m convinced the real issue isn’t that most people can’t understand money. It’s that they won’t look at it.

How else to explain why so many 30 and 40-somethings can’t give a ballpark estimate of their superannuation, or define simple investment concepts such as the risk-reward trade-of

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