James Surowiecki Quotes

There's a great lack of financial literacy and understanding in this nation, even among college-educated people.

Let's also teach people about pensions and savings, insurance and the like. But if they aren't already familiar with numbers that won't be as effective as it might be.

We were not taught financial literacy in school. It takes a lot of work and time to change your thinking and to become financially literate.

Financially, I've lost money and made money, but I know my way around financially.

I am all for trying to teach household finance in schools, starting as early as possible. And when it comes to high school, I think learning about compound interest is at least as important as trigonometry or memorizing the names of all 50 state capitals.

In terms of my profession, I'm passionate about financial literacy. I want to live in a financially literate society. I want kids to understand the importance of savings and investing. I want to try to replicate the great savers who came out of the Depression, the best savers the country has ever seen. It's crucial that people understand the importance of financial literacy, because it's actually life saving.

I very much support financial education in schools.

Not teaching your kids about money is like not caring whether they eat. If they enter the world without financial knowledge, they will have a much harder go of it.

I say all the time I think there should be some courses in the regular schooling system that isn't, even like about credit, things that matter later in life. I learned the harder way: 'Look, I got a $500 credit card in the mail, let's go shopping!'

I don't think there are any students who should not be exposed to a basic financial literacy course.

The thing I have discovered about working with personal finance is that the good news is that it is not rocket science. Personal finance is about 80 percent behavior. It is only about 20 percent head knowledge.

Without any formal personal finance instruction in our high school or college curricula, many college seniors who graduate in the red will continue to make common financial mistakes that only exacerbate their debt burdens.

I'm not a very good financing person. I don't even know how much money I have in my bank account. I never have opened one single envelope from the bank - they freak me out.

Now's the time to teach your 5-year-old kid about financing. If they can add, I suggest that you start teaching them about saving that money. And how their money can add up in the future. I think the more you prepare your children for the future, the better off they'll be.

I mean, I'm very serious with my kids about them comprehending the intricacies of global finance.

I'd say the main way people get into terrible financial trouble is just to spend too much money relative to their income, and that is an endemic problem in the United States of America, and that's the kind of thing that should be taught about in schools.

Young children need to develop good habits that will be useful to them the rest of their lives. It is important to keep the lessons age-appropriate. For example, when your children start earning allowances, that would be a good time to teach them how to put some money in the bank instead of spending it all.

I'm a big advocate of financial intelligence.

Financial literacy is just as important in life as the other basics.

All my money is in a savings account. My dad has explained the stock market to me maybe 75 times. I still don't understand it.

If I had my choice, every high school would be teaching financial literacy along with math and science.

It is critical that kids start to learn the value of money, short-term and long-term saving and budgeting at an early age.

The people who don't know personal finance have TV shows about it.

My parents opened a bank account for me when I was really little, and I think I paid for some of my university education with my savings. I've always been a bit of a saver.

Teach the kids. They need to learn how to handle, grow and multiply money. It's basic and should be taught at an early stage.