[Retric]

There is a real difference between giving your kids the tools to succeed and forcing them down a narrow path.

IMO, everyone should know the basics of a wide range of things from cooking to statistics. It’s just a question of diminishing returns. Failing to understand the basics of say investing is really costly even if all they do is dump 90% of their money into a low cost S&P 500 fund and forget about it that’s vastly better than what most people do.

The same applies to school, teach your kids the basics of reading and math let’s them coast for years.

[skeeter2020]

> IMO, everyone should know the basics of a wide range of things from cooking to statistics.

maybe, but the person here is 5 years old, and probably shouldn't be doing statistics nor cooking.

>> teach your kids the basics of reading and math let’s them coast for years.

Why would this be considered a good outcome?

[stevekemp]

Cooking is something that very small children do enjoy, though their input is a little limited it's not impossible for them to help.

Our child started stirring soup, mixing dough, and putting icing on cookies around the age of three. When he was four he started chopping tomatoes, and placing them on pizzas, as well as the other toppings.

I'd not trust him to touch an oven, though he sometimes watches the cooking occur and says "Daddy it's ready now", but I do let him stir things in a wok, or chop carrots/cucumbers/similar things.

[Retric]

> Why would this be considered a good outcome?

Because it minimizes stress and let’s them better explore their interests be that dinosaurs or dolls. Even little kids find reading and arithmetic useful.

[beaconstudios]

most people don't have enough savings for investing advice to matter. An understanding of the job market would be pretty universally useful though.

[Retric]

Even questions like should I buy the expensive car battery or the cheap one is an investment.

[beaconstudios]

true, but you were talking about investing in the financial sense before. Having good money sense should definitely be taught in school, but few will benefit from an education in investing.

[Retric]

Got it. When talking about the basics I don’t think of the two as distinct.

It’s like you don’t need to understand business very deeply to understand the longer you’re talking to a salesman the more you’re getting hosed in the transaction. Rather that should be obvious from the underlying economics that allow businesses to function.

So sure just about every 401k is going to have a handy calculator designed to convince you to hand them more money every month. But, that’s not the basics that’s a sales tactic.