We need to stop pretending that personal finance is hard

Whilst planning no career change of my own beyond my regular, if fleeting trips to secondary schools to talk about money, I’ve been enjoying reading Lucy Kellaway’s FT updates on her first half term as a maths teacher. Kellaway is well known for her short shrift for maths illiteracy: ‘It is not cute. It is stupid, shameful and, if you have any position of responsibility at all, it is dangerous.’ Ouch!

Similarly, I came across a mathematics teaching blog by Tony Cotton this week. Cotton complained about the stories we tell about maths ­– that it’s a hard subject, thereby somehow elevating those who do well to an almost unobtainable, elitist status. 

I couldn’t help but see parallels here with the financial services sector, whose capacity for jargon has not covered it in glory, but has certainly helped build some intimidating ivory towers – and almost cult like personalities – along the way.