The need for financial history education
I recently read that it’s important to say something at least seven times for it to really stick in people’s minds. Therefore, if you’re feeling like a broken record then you’re probably saying what you need to say the right amount of times.
My broken record moments come whenever I talk about the need for financial history education. I often say that financial literacy is incomplete with understanding financial history. I truly believe this.
There was a time in my life during which I thought I was financially literate because I had read a ton of personal finance books, and was on my way to building personal wealth after growing up poor. But it wasn’t until a friend sent me this, did I really start my journey into truly becoming a “financial literacy expert” -- even though it’s still hard for me to consider myself an expert. There is so much history on how our government both blocked and boosted wealth-building for different groups of Americans that I am still uncovering.
Why is learning financial history important? Honestly, I wish it wasn’t important. I wish we didn’t have to dig into the centuries of economic discrimination, wealth blocking, and injustices that have impacted different communities throughout the history of the United States. I wish I didn’t now know that much of this harm was never acknowledged or repaired, nor is it addressed much in our school history books.
I wish that we could leave it in the past but we can’t — because the past lives on in many ways. It lives on in dramatic and growing racial and gender wealth divides, discriminatory loan rates, home value differences by the make-up of a neighborhood and the skin color of each homeowner, the tax code, how public benefits programs are structured, who is most likely to be incarcerated, educational inequalities, the way our economic system is structured… and so much more. These are all important to understand for my work as a financial planner, financial coach, and financial educator. Honestly, and I’m embarrassed to say this: this knowledge was critical to my past work as a public school teacher and nonprofit professional as well. But I didn’t know it then, and now I understand that my impact in those fields was limited by my own ignorance of financial history.
I guess the term “financial history” is imperfect because the “history” isn’t actually relegated to our past.
This information must be something that all financial professionals know.
Many people have told me that I am unique in the financial services industry because of my values and passion for economic justice. Related to that, “we need to clone you” is something I often hear. It used to flatter me to hear this because I liked that people saw me as unique — and I was still hopeful that with more networking, I’d find a community of many who also cared about financial history and understood its connection to our unjust present. Then eventually, hearing this frustrated me because I soon realized that many financial professionals (including those who work with people living in poverty) do not know and/or have never had the opportunity to learn about this history. To be sure, some do know this history. They tend to be people of color who have been economically and personally impacted by racism or gender discrimination, during their own lives or within the their recent family histories. Unfortunately, they are “unique” as well due to the limited representation of people of color in financial services fields.
Now, hearing the remark that we should have more people like me who understand the need for economic justice and who through that knowledge can creatively build paths toward that reality, emboldens me. I am hopeful again. That’s because I believe I’ve cracked the code — and it doesn’t require cloning technology. The key is much simpler: accessible financial literacy education that includes financial history.