I believe that financial education should be mandatory for all, starting in elementary/junior high. Included in this education is some treatment of ethics. After the Wall Street Enron, Tyco blow-ups a few years back, many MBA programs added courses on business ethics. When I was working on MBA back in late 90s there were no such courses. There is a general lack of ethics by many in the business world, for many their motto is a “sucker is born everyday”.
I’m trying my best to instill in my young kiddos that you should always do right. I was recently at a store and a cashier overpaid me by a few bucks, I made a point with my son present to point out her error and hand it back. I talked with him about it afterward. I guess I can only hope that it makes a difference.
By the way, from a personal finance knowledge standpoint, getting an MBA was invaluable. For me it was a structured learning environment and I pick things up better than doing it on my own. Most can learn the softer “MBA” skill set on the job or reading the portable MBA, it is not rocket science. Even the finance stuff does not use anything much more mathmatically complex than amoritization, compounding interest, etc. An MBA course work does give you a broad in-depth knowledge of how the business world works.
