Vicky Biccy's Blog

Why did no one tell me?

Recently, I've been asking questions about various money-type issues. How do you pay your council tax? How much do I really have to spend on a hair cut? How would I go about registering as self-employed? What's all this interest they're sticking onto my student loan? How do I work out a budget and stick to it?

I could be alone in my complete ignorance of normal financial procedures, but I've got a feeling there are a lot of people in the same boat.

Chatting to my housemates about this, I mentioned how ridiculous it is that I've got through school, university and a few months into graduate working life without any substantial instruction on how to manage money. 'There's just no education about finances for young people in the UK', I moaned. One of my housemates agreed, adding that she has no idea about this stuff. Our friend looked at us, slightly confused, and said 'But they taught us in school!'

Apparently, in her PSE lessons, they were taught about savings, and how to plan ahead for short term and long term expenses. She has also received continual advice from her budget-concious Father on how to manage her finances so that she won't run into trouble. She had thought that this part of education was normal. In my experience, it's not at all!

My parents are good at managing money, but we never sat down and had a conversation about income tax. In my PSE lessons, we learnt about personal hygeine, and the dangers of smoking and drugs. I moved on to university with a vague notion that I could escape paying back my student loan by simply moving abroad for 3 years. Apparently, that's not true. Uhoh.

I guess I'll just have to work it out for myself.

Created on Fri 30th November 2007 15:31