We have really exciting news for you! You probably know that Karolina and I started Schulgold about 4.5 years ago because we thought it was terrible how little our own children were learning about money and how to handle it at school. With around 35 years of experience in the industry, we are both ‘in the know’ and we didn’t just want to get upset about it. We wanted to take action.
So we did! Maybe you and your parents have been to one of our workshops, or even the Finance Festival (see also on our main page). An initiative like this takes a lot of patience and perseverance… and just recently, we received the best feedback for our work that we could have wished for:
We were invited as experts to the Children’s Commission at the Bundestag!
The invitation arrived one day in Karolina’s letterbox…but it looked quite official!
“Uh-oh…?”
At first I was a bit… well, you know how it is with ‘official’ letters… often nothing good!
The opposite was the case here:
A genuine invitation to the Children’s Commission of our Bundestag!
Topic:
“Factors that can determine educational and development opportunities: Economic and financial education”
Perhaps we need to give you a little more context. The Bundestag works outside of parliament in so-called commissions. These are basically working groups with a specific topic. It’s like studying math together for an exam. Now, these members of parliament can’t know everything about everything, so they get advice and insight from people who know a lot about it – these are the so-called experts.
Plus, the whole thing is made very transparent and public, which we all benefit from. This is something you might see on YouTube, and now you can actually find the entire session there: Click here to do so.
And because it is also quite official, a so-called verbatim transcript is also published, which can be viewed publicly here: To the verbatim record. Admittedly, it’s not exactly a short text, but our communications consultancy stubbornly claims it’s amazingly readable and interesting in terms of content. So if you want more than this blog article, you’ve come to the right place.
Now let’s get to the main event…
On June 12, at 2 p.m., we arrived a little early at the slightly chilly but pleasantly businesslike halls of the Bundestag. As is usual in such buildings, you first have to pass through security barriers and so on. After all, there are a lot of important people in the building!
Then it started.
The meeting was chaired by….
KiKo, the mascot!
No, of course not.
But it’s funny that Kiko was taking part, isn’t it?
Chairman Matthias Seestern-Pauly opened the meeting, letting everyone know once again that the meeting would be recorded, how much time had been scheduled and so on. He also gave us all a bit of context:
“Whether it’s setting up an account, concluding contracts, making provisions for old age or generally getting a feel for money, financial education plays an important role at any age. This makes it all the more important to sensitize children and young people to this topic and make them fit for the future […].”
We should discuss how the important topic of financial education can find its way into our schools, and from what age it would make sense. Good question!
Then it was Dr. Kluxen-Pyta’s turn.
To put this in context, she investigates the issue from the perspective of employers’ associations. The association represents 1 million companies with around 30 million employees (in other words, almost all of them!). Here she is: 
We found the following statements from her particularly exciting:
“In our opinion, economic education must be part of general education today and is part of the educational mandate of general education schools, because economics concerns everyone.”
“It [Financial education] must play a greater role than before.”
“Young people should decide and act with self-confidence, maturity, expertise and good judgment. […] They therefore need a sound knowledge of the social and economic context.”
“Young people themselves also recognize this need.” She also shared a few
exciting facts on financial education from a survey conducted by the banking association:
- ⅔ of respondents stated that they had “learned very little about economics and finance”
- ¾ of respondents would like to see “more economic knowledge taught at school”
- ¾ of respondents would have preferred to be offered the subject “Economics” at school
Source: Bankers Association survey
There was also feedback on topics that young people would like to see more of:
- Dealing with money
- Retirement provision
- Economic systems in general
- Everyday money knowledge
- Dealing with life risks
From her point of view, it would be ideal to have economics as a school subject. This has already been tested and a look at the results shows the following: There are big (positive) differences between students who take economics as a subject compared to those who do not.
Dr. Kluxen-Pyta would also like to see more education in schools about the connection between companies, the economy and prosperity.
I’m sure you can already guess where this is going…
If you’re well prepared, you can discuss a lot in a short time, can’t you?
In any case, we were very pleased with the good presentation…
…because now it was our turn!
Babett started right away with a typical question that we often hear in our workshops for young people and children:
“Why do kebabs cost so much now?”
That’s a very good question. It allows us to explain inflation to kids.
Kebab prices are a good example of how knowledge can provide more clarity. For example, a big gap exists between ‘official’ and actual inflation. 
For example, this is something that comes up again and again:
Young people and children want to understand very tangibly how money works in everyday life.
Here are a few of our key statements:
“In our financial workshops, we realize time and again that financial education starts at the kebab store around the corner. Children and young people want to talk about money.”
We shared that adults who have problems with money later in life often don’t really know how money works. And then we shared our favorite example (we always love to use this, and everyone in the workshop loves it):
Financial education using Superman as an example
The following has become very clear to us in the 4+ years that we have been working on Schulgold:
“In our view, financial education is an incredible superpower.”
Why is having financial education like being Superman?
For these reasons:
[1] Strength.
To shape life according to your own ideas.
[2] Being able to “fly”…
Quickly from A to B. Set financial goals and then follow the path to achieve them.
[3] Speed.
See at a glance how much money comes in and how much is spent. This way, children can learn to help themselves and others with money.
[4] Fun!
And Superman stands for fun.
We believe and have seen that you have to package knowledge playfully. If you do this, then young people and children will want to learn.
A courageous story about debt
To make it clear what risks arise when financial education is lacking, we then shared the story of the boy whose aunt had gambling debts and whose family was helping to pay them off.
We held an interactive workshop one Thursday morning. In this workshop,
the topic was debt. The workshop was attended by ninth-grade kids and young people from
a secondary school in Berlin. In the workshop, we asked the kids and young people the following: “What do you know about debt?” Then, within a few seconds, three arms shot into the air. A boy speaks up and shares his story. He’s just an ordinary boy with brown hair, wearing a beige sweatshirt, but it’s completely silent in
this classroom of 25 young people. You could have heard a pin drop. He talks about his father’s sister. She lives in Vietnam and his family is paying off his aunt’s debts.
I then ask him: “Hey, so do you know what she borrowed the money for?” I was totally surprised by the answer. The reason she was in debt was because of gambling!
Next, I asked him, “Okay, so how much debt does she have? Do you know that, too?”
He said, “10,000 euros.”
Then the class discussed it.
It was valuable that this topic had been brought up because everyone realized that this boy’s family was paying back his aunt’s debts. So, in the next breath, we used this debt workshop to discuss overdraft facilities, debit interest and what young people take out loans for.
Suddenly the atmosphere is incredibly lively in the classroom. Several hands are shooting up. Everyone wants to say something and the students take down notes in their colorful workbooks. This workshop is so dynamic!
Then, after 45 minutes, the bell rings – “dum dum dum” – signalling the end of the lesson. We are incredibly grateful and happy that we were able to do a workshop with this class for the sixth time!
We had the impression that this real-life example really made the members of parliament in the room think.
We could only agree with and support Dr. Kluxen-Pyta’s figures:
According to Forsa, 9 out of 10 want financial education at school.
What was our recommendation to the Children’s Commission on financial education?
Our recommendation was to introduce financial education from the 7th grade onwards. From then on, it fits […] perfectly into the lives of the students.
And then we made ourselves even clearer…
We argued that every student should have access to financial education!
Finance must be firmly anchored in the curriculum. We think the following is vitally important:
- Channeling curiosity – not just leaving the input to the internet
- Learning how to handle money using the example of pocket money / first odd job
- Learning to gain and maintain a financial overview
We also think this is so important because
“In our view, financial problems can be greatly reduced through financial education at school.”
These were our content suggestions:
- Budget planning
- Debt clarification
- Pension provision
- Payroll accounting
- (all well-founded + deliciously packaged)
We were also able to express our heartfelt wish:
“We want to change society’s image of money together – to talk positively about money because we simply know that we can do a lot of good with it.”
For this to succeed, we see
3 key factors for the success of financial education
Financial education must
- Be well-founded
- Playfully packaged
- Tie in with everyday reality
We ended our presentation with a powerful question (and we’d love to hear what you think!):
“What would life be like if we learned how to handle money from the seventh grade? How would our society develop?”
This was followed by a round of questions. Here are a few highlights and quotes:
The Children’s Commission at work: 
Mr. Gereon Bollmann, for example, stated:
“I was in an A-level class. A student (18 years old) asked me “Where do taxes actually come from?” This question demonstrates a frightening lack of knowledge and, on the other hand, the importance of your program and the proposal you have made here.”
Mr. Paul Lehrieder, on the other hand, asked:
“If you talk about pocket money at school, doesn’t that quickly become discriminatory for poor children or children from socially disadvantaged families?”
Our answer to this (in essence), is the following:
“We have never experienced any points of contact where anyone felt ashamed or uncomfortable. We always create a framework so that it works voluntarily. The good thing is that the question of ‘How valuable do I feel with and without money?’ is simply not relevant at that age. This only comes later. Yes, the figure for pocket money may be higher or lower. At the same time, the issue of shame is not there yet. It’s also really nice to see what kind of synergy is suddenly created in the classroom to talk about money.”
In fact, making sure that unease around money is not something that is learned to begin with would be a significant improvement that financial education could achieve. Karolina also had 2 important points regarding the risks of a lack of financial education:
“You have to realize that the average (!) debt of young people between the ages of 16 and 18 is 1,400 Eur (via Klarna financing in particular). Almost 99% of all children get financial education information from the internet – TikTok, YouTube, social media.”
Sarah Lahrkamp asked whether there is evidence of the positive difference that financial education makes. Babett responded:
“There are numerous studies done with adults on how much stress the topic of money causes if one doesn’t manage it well. This also impacts health and quality of life […]. Financial education contributes significantly to a healthier and more fulfilling life.”
She also summarized this a little more clearly:
“If people don’t have a good relationship with money, they ‘vote’ it out.”
All in all, it’s safe to say—even without explicitly agreeing on it—that we three experts were quite unanimous on the essentials.
Of course, you may notice the slightly different perspectives and slightly different approaches, but they complement each other very well.
- In principle, one should offer financial education from the 7th grade in all schools, and if appropriately adapted to the age group, possibly even a little earlier.
Dr. Donate Kluxen-Pyta focuses a little more on the following topics:
- Ensure that financial education is gender-sensitive (to combat the so-called gender wealth gap).
- International exchange. Naturally, you don’t have to “reinvent the wheel” if others already have good solutions.
- Sustainability with business. A deeper understanding of this ensures more helpful solutions.
From our side, the focus is more on:
- Packaging everything in a fun and enjoyable way so that kids want to get involved and stick with it.
- Turning the topic of money from a kind of “monster under the bed” into something openly discussed and positively charged.
- Paying particular attention to applicability in everyday life and counterbalancing the fact that the financial knowledge gap is otherwise filled by some social media or other.
We think that if this were implemented, the world could look very different 10 years from now…
What do you think?
- What else should we tackle?
- How do we ensure that the ‘right’ things are learned?
- How can we, in Germany, learn to deal with money in a more positive way, especially when there is so much pressure on the subject at the moment?
Write us a comment or an email! We love to hear what you think, read everything and look forward to your contributions!
What do we hope to achieve right now?
Quite simply, it may not start out perfectly (what is perfect at school, after all?), but…
…it would be great if – in the near future – we could see
financial education taught at school.
We would truly celebrate!
Will you be celebrating with us?
Here are a few more answers to questions that some of you have asked us:
Was it fun?
Definitely! It was great to be able to bring the results of our many years of hard work to the table in this way. It feels really good.
What should one wear?
Well, in our case, that was easy to answer. We always wear our #moneychecker hoodies at our workshops, given this it was the only logical outfit for the day. In the past, we would probably have been more formal, but it was also about young people and children, and you don’t go to school in a suit, do you?
How do you prepare?
It’s a bit like in university. On the one hand, it’s very intense—and then, again, it’s not really possible to prepare it all. We had 15 minutes to convey our findings, so you obviously need to plan what is particularly important. Regarding handling questions, naturally, one can never know for sure how it will go, but we are two smart women and have been doing this for a long time!
What would you like to be asked for your expertise on?