Financial Education: Why It Matters and What You Can Do About It

My first instinct is to laugh because the gap isn’t just big. It’s huge! In most UK schools there is little education about money beyond a few references in maths lessons. We teach children how to calculate percentages, but we don’t show them how those percentages translate into interest on a credit card or the growth of an investment. We explain fractions, but never talk about splitting your income between bills, savings and fun. It’s no wonder so many adults feel bewildered when it comes to managing their money.

There is, finally, some light at the end of the tunnel. The government announced in 2025 that the national curriculum would be overhauled to include a much bigger focus on citizenship and, within that, statutory financial education. The Department for Education has said that the final curriculum will be published in spring 2027 and that schools will start teaching it from September 2028. Primary pupils will learn the basics of budgeting, saving and distinguishing needs from wants, while secondary pupils will explore topics like debt, interest, mortgages and pensions. So, our future children may eventually be better prepared for the financial realities of adult life.

These announcements come as a relief to many of us in the profession because we see the consequences of poor financial literacy every day. Money is not just a tool; it shapes where you live, how you eat, whether you can heat your home and the opportunities your children will have. We encounter it at the supermarket checkout, when we sign a mobile phone contract and when we decide whether or not to contribute to a pension. Right now, far too many people make those decisions blindly. The increase in automation has further put people on the back foot. For example, we used to have to work out what change we should receive but card technology and automatic registers have removed that need to apply maths in a real‑world context. The result? People have fewer everyday opportunities to practice these skills, quietly reducing their confidence and their ability to use maths independently.

Why did it take so long?

People often ask why financial education has been so slow to progress in classrooms. Honestly, I don’t have an answer. Some countries have started to take it seriously; Japan, for example, introduced new curriculum guidelines in 2022 that require high‑school home economics teachers to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of deposits, insurance, stocks, bonds and investment trusts, with a focus on asset formation. But even there, surveys show that adults’ financial knowledge remains stubbornly low. Other places, like South Korea, have been praised for their academic achievements yet still score poorly on global financial literacy surveys – only about 33 % of adults could correctly answer basic questions about risk diversification, inflation, numeracy and compound interest. In other words, the idea that educationally advanced countries automatically teach their citizens about money is a myth.

For many years, UK politicians and educators have assumed that numeracy alone is enough. They pushed financial matters into optional degrees at universities or left them to parents. When financial education was added to the citizenship curriculum in 2014 for 11-to-16-year-olds (this is the point where you all scratch your heads and say, “Hang on – it’s on the curriculum already. Yes, yes it is), it was so minimal that a 2025 review found only around one third of students could recall learning about money at school. That’s why the upcoming reforms are so important.

The concept everyone should know

If I could magically inject one concept into everyone’s brain, it would be compound interest. Compound interest is what happens when the interest you earn on your savings or investments receives growth, and that growth receives growth, and that growth receives growth and so on and so forth. Over time, this snowballs. For example, saving £50 per month at a 5 % annual return from the age of 20 could leave you with more than £90,000 by age 65. Wait until you’re 30 and you’ll end up with roughly half that. The earlier you start, the more time your money has to grow.

I learned that lesson the hard way. My first job was back in 2011 in finance (apparently, it was always destined to be!). Automatic enrolment into workplace pensions began in October 2012 and was rolled out gradually, starting with large employers and finishing in 2018. Under the rules, only workers aged 22 or over who earnt more than £10,000 per year could be automatically enrolled, and apprentices often fell below that threshold. I was on an apprentice wage and was 17, so I had to opt in if I wanted to contribute, and I didn’t. I was living for the extra £30 a month, not realising that even those small amounts could have snowballed over the decades. Had someone explained compound interest to me, I just might have decided to start saving early. Instead, like many young people, I missed out on years of growth.

What to do now

The planned curriculum changes will help children from 2028 onwards, but what about the rest of us? Adults cannot rely on schools to fill this gap retroactively, so we have to seek out trustworthy information ourselves. That means leaning on reputable sources rather than the latest viral video. Government websites and regulated organisations like MoneyHelper or The Pensions Regulator offer clear explanations of how products like workplace pensions work, and the new curriculum materials will be made publicly available when they are finalised in 2027.

It also means paying attention to the credentials of the people you learn from. Social media is full of “money gurus” who have no formal training. Something worked for them one time and they are now the oracles of money, preaching to the far and wide. A good test is to check whether the person giving guidance holds a recognised qualification and any practical experience beyond managing their own budget in excel or investing a few thousand pounds in trading 212. As some of you may have seen, we are building a free education hub – MoneyKats – to make trustworthy guidance accessible. We will share videos and resources in plain language so you can dip in and out without feeling overwhelmed.

Be cautious with AI tools, too. Chatbots and search engines can be handy for quick definitions or rough calculations, but they are not the holy grail. In my own experiments, I’ve found that AI answers about financial products are only partly correct. Use them as a starting point and then verify what you learn with a human professional.

Finally, commit to learning the basics yourself. Budgeting, saving, avoiding high‑cost debt, and understanding the value of time in investing are not complicated. There are free courses, podcasts and books that can give you a solid foundation. The most important step is to simply care enough to get started.

Final thoughts

Money isn’t going away. Whether you’re food shopping, paying bills, or planning for retirement, financial decisions are constant. The UK’s decision to promote real world money lessons in the curriculum is a huge step forward, but it doesn’t solve the immediate problem of adult financial illiteracy. That’s why I’m so keen to spread knowledge, now! I don’t want the next generation to say, “Nobody told me about compound interest,” like I did.

For our Colmore clients reading this, you are already in safe hands. However, for others reading this who have already been born and left school, don’t despair! It’s never too late to take control of your financial future. Start small, ask questions, use reliable sources and, when in doubt, consult someone who knows what they’re talking about. Your future self will thank you.