Re:Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common
by nunez on Monday December 31, 2018 @03:46PM
(#18796900)
> As someone who didn't learn the very basics of personal finance at the optimal point in life, I feel like it should be part of our standardized education. I'd like to think that would make things at least marginally better.
I agree, though I fear that this would only affect people that care enough. It's hard enough to incentivize students to get their work in on time, let alone learn how to balance a budget. Also, our society links spending money with personal self-image. (Buy this Lexus so that your kids love you. Buy this Armani cologne so that you can have weird sex with hot models in anonymous oceans. Etc.) Separating the two would require much more than personal finance classes.
> Another thing I'd love to see, would be for banks to fundamentally reorient themselves to be their customer's advocates/financial guardians, instead of being yet another party encouraging people to borrow more than they ought to.
Banks offer this service if your balances are high enough. Chase Private Client (and/or Sapphire Banking; not sure if they are the same now) assign you a personal banker that can help you maintain and improve your financial health, for example. JP Morgan Private Bank assigns you an entire (shared) team for this purpose; they can even act as middlemen to authorize purchases for you if the amounts are high enough. The former (CPC) requires a minimum balance of $75,000; the latter requires $1-10M (they don't publish their minimum requirements for this).
It sucks that you have to be financially stable for banks to help you, but it would be unprofitable for banks to offer this service to everyone with an account (have you ever waited for a teller during peak hours?). Banks are starting to use "machine-learning" based platforms to provide generalized advice platforms, though, so that people can have some resources to help them achieve financial well-being. Nowhere near enough, but it's something.
I agree, though I fear that this would only affect people that care enough. It's hard enough to incentivize students to get their work in on time, let alone learn how to balance a budget. Also, our society links spending money with personal self-image. (Buy this Lexus so that your kids love you. Buy this Armani cologne so that you can have weird sex with hot models in anonymous oceans. Etc.) Separating the two would require much more than personal finance classes.
> Another thing I'd love to see, would be for banks to fundamentally reorient themselves to be their customer's advocates/financial guardians, instead of being yet another party encouraging people to borrow more than they ought to.
Banks offer this service if your balances are high enough. Chase Private Client (and/or Sapphire Banking; not sure if they are the same now) assign you a personal banker that can help you maintain and improve your financial health, for example. JP Morgan Private Bank assigns you an entire (shared) team for this purpose; they can even act as middlemen to authorize purchases for you if the amounts are high enough. The former (CPC) requires a minimum balance of $75,000; the latter requires $1-10M (they don't publish their minimum requirements for this).
It sucks that you have to be financially stable for banks to help you, but it would be unprofitable for banks to offer this service to everyone with an account (have you ever waited for a teller during peak hours?). Banks are starting to use "machine-learning" based platforms to provide generalized advice platforms, though, so that people can have some resources to help them achieve financial well-being. Nowhere near enough, but it's something.