Thursday, June 18, 2009

a thought

i read an article and it just occurred to me how money illiterate we Malaysians are..

Our education system teaches and educates us..help guide us to our next step in life (so called).. but as usual, our education system lack lots of things..and one important thing we never thought about is that students are not educated to deal with money.. One thing is for sure.. No money, No talk..that is how influential money is in our lives now.. Sounds to me like everybody wants to strike their first million at 30.. their first super car at 25.. What many dont know is that 90% of Malaysians age 65 and above are broke..

This shows that we don't know how to plan ahead.. to save money..to invest..are these skills not as important as learning to fix pipes as we learnt in Kemahiran Hidup? Heck, i think so.. As Tony Fernandes said, business is all about timing and long-term strategy.. But we are not educated in school about all these..

what is the point of learning up just before we are going to use? long-term strategy is about learning it when young..at our age.. Ppl like Warren Buffet, started investing since he was 9! and here we are at our teens spending like no bodies business..every bit of pocket money we get, spend.. Handphone credit, new clothes..saloon..hanging out..ciggarattes and to earn back that much of money, teens start selling drugs..illegal betting..stealing..

and to think about it, in my school fees every year, there is always this amount for the Koperasi.. and when i was in form 3, the koperasi Club called all of us, and gave us a free cream-o..our "divedent"..i pay every year as a stock holder, and i get one cream-o biscuit after 3 years!? c how we get cheated..and only this year after learning accounts i figured it out.. see why the education ministry should also teach us how to finance?

Getting great grades and a string of A1 is just mastering the skill to build a foundation of a building.. to help us have a good start..but what about building a complete building? what is the point of starting well in a job and yet not know how to deal with money?

By educating students from young, standard of living can be greatly inproved.. imagine a society with the "know how" of spending and investing.. wow.. then ppl won't get fooled by dangling carrots like "cheap cars".. ppl will know that sometimes, buying an aset can sometimes be a liability as u spend years paying up for the loan..and most of all, i think loan sharks will be out of business.. less red paint around..