Financial education in high school
Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 8:52 am
So it's the end of the school year. Grades are locked in, 3rd graders have graduated, and 2nd graders are on the school trip. My school organizes for someone to come talk about finance and money for our 1st grader. 330 students are in the gymnasium to listen to the speaker for close to 2 hours (5th and 6th period).
The talk starts off well. He talks about how the age old advice in Japan of storing money in a bank doesn't work anymore. Has kids find a compound interest calculator on their phones so they can see what compound interest can do, and what it can't do with Japan's pitiful savings interest rates. Talks about the need to save for yourself, because the Japanese pension doesn't provide a huge amount. Shows videos talking about rising prices of consumer goods and inflation, and gives a very simple explanation for why the yen is so weak at the moment. He also warns against loans with high interest, because the same rules apply. And he finishes out by mentioning Nisa and ideco (names only). So far so good.
After a short break, he begins the second half talking about bitcoin. What it is, what is the blockchain (but doesn't do a terribly good job of it). He then goes for a bit of audience participation by asking who wants to be managers or proprietors of business, but he has over estimated how interesting he is, and the vast majority of students have zoned out. No one raises their hands for any of his questions. So he pivots, first he talks about how to spot scams. Investments with a huge profit on a quick turnaround, sending large amounts of money to an individual and what not, good advice.
Then he decides to tell them about investment vehicles that are available to them. Again mentions Nisa and ideco, and the tax benefits they provide, talks about bitcoin as an investment, says that he doesn't invest in real estate but that is an option ... and then things start to get wild. He talks about depositing cash in savings accounts in developing nations to reap the rewards of high interest rates there. He talks about buying gold and whisky, and tells students (who are 16) about how whisky can appreciate in price (in his example going from 60,000yen to 3000,000yen for a bottle). I was blown away. Not a single mention of risks involved with any of these "investments". He asks if there are any questions at the end, of course no students ask questions, but a teacher asks more about the whole investing in a developing country thing. "How can I open a bank account in Vietnam?" or something, and he proceeds to tell people that you can't do that as an individual, because non-residents generally can't open bank accounts. But what you can do is create a company in that country, open a bank account in that company's name, and deposit via that. Again no mention of the fees involved with that, and the inherent risk of investing in a foreign currency, or the general risk of developing countries. Then he goes back to bitcoin, and drops the fact that he has around 200,000,000yen worth of bitcoin. He says he's not telling the kids to buy bitcoin, but they probably should, because it's the future.
After it was finished, some kids came up to ask him questions individually and I heard more talk of bitcoin and etherium, more kids wanted to know about depositing in foreign banks, so he suggested they make friends with foreigners on instagram, and create companies with them to deposit money. I was having trouble keeping my expression blank so as not to insult our "guest".
It was a wild ride, where I know genuinely believe kids want to open bank accounts in developing nations and get rich off bitcoin after hearing it.
Thanks for listening to my TED talk.
The talk starts off well. He talks about how the age old advice in Japan of storing money in a bank doesn't work anymore. Has kids find a compound interest calculator on their phones so they can see what compound interest can do, and what it can't do with Japan's pitiful savings interest rates. Talks about the need to save for yourself, because the Japanese pension doesn't provide a huge amount. Shows videos talking about rising prices of consumer goods and inflation, and gives a very simple explanation for why the yen is so weak at the moment. He also warns against loans with high interest, because the same rules apply. And he finishes out by mentioning Nisa and ideco (names only). So far so good.
After a short break, he begins the second half talking about bitcoin. What it is, what is the blockchain (but doesn't do a terribly good job of it). He then goes for a bit of audience participation by asking who wants to be managers or proprietors of business, but he has over estimated how interesting he is, and the vast majority of students have zoned out. No one raises their hands for any of his questions. So he pivots, first he talks about how to spot scams. Investments with a huge profit on a quick turnaround, sending large amounts of money to an individual and what not, good advice.
Then he decides to tell them about investment vehicles that are available to them. Again mentions Nisa and ideco, and the tax benefits they provide, talks about bitcoin as an investment, says that he doesn't invest in real estate but that is an option ... and then things start to get wild. He talks about depositing cash in savings accounts in developing nations to reap the rewards of high interest rates there. He talks about buying gold and whisky, and tells students (who are 16) about how whisky can appreciate in price (in his example going from 60,000yen to 3000,000yen for a bottle). I was blown away. Not a single mention of risks involved with any of these "investments". He asks if there are any questions at the end, of course no students ask questions, but a teacher asks more about the whole investing in a developing country thing. "How can I open a bank account in Vietnam?" or something, and he proceeds to tell people that you can't do that as an individual, because non-residents generally can't open bank accounts. But what you can do is create a company in that country, open a bank account in that company's name, and deposit via that. Again no mention of the fees involved with that, and the inherent risk of investing in a foreign currency, or the general risk of developing countries. Then he goes back to bitcoin, and drops the fact that he has around 200,000,000yen worth of bitcoin. He says he's not telling the kids to buy bitcoin, but they probably should, because it's the future.
After it was finished, some kids came up to ask him questions individually and I heard more talk of bitcoin and etherium, more kids wanted to know about depositing in foreign banks, so he suggested they make friends with foreigners on instagram, and create companies with them to deposit money. I was having trouble keeping my expression blank so as not to insult our "guest".
It was a wild ride, where I know genuinely believe kids want to open bank accounts in developing nations and get rich off bitcoin after hearing it.
Thanks for listening to my TED talk.
