Why you don’t need $1m to retire, page-108

As an ex-business studies teacher, we taught such things at middle school - yrs 8-10. However, kids find it boring as they don't relate to such things. We taught about renting property and the rights and responsibilities of both the landlord and the tenant. Banks provided materials suitable for kids and we used these workbooks widely. When I taught at tertiary level (well, post-secondary) young women who were destined for office work, I used to teach about the value of saving and investing. These girls dreamed only of an overseas trip, buying a car and then getting married. A dose of reality was required. I was very conscientious in my efforts to demonstrate the value of compounding interest on investments, given they had time on their side. I introduced them to the stock market. They took to these things quite readily, especially because they never ever did understand anything in the business pages at the back of the newspapers, and now they did. Also the business segment on the news each evening on TV. I learned that kids have to be closer to when these things have meaning to them personally, and that is not when they are still kids, but when they are getting close to being employed in the workforce - then they are prepared to learn these things.