Financial literacy: she has been talking to her son about finances “since he was a little ass”

“For us, money is not a taboo,” proudly says a teacher from Laval, who has discussed financial issues with her son since he was very young.

“We’ve been talking to him about it since he was a kid!” laughs Carole Bolduc, 59 years old, in an interview with the Journal.

Unfortunately, financial common sense is not the most widely shared thing in the world and a significant part of the population often only learns late in life the basic financial knowledge that an adult will need to use during their life.

For M^me Bolduc, the fault falls partly on the school, which does not “make enough space” for this subject.

“The school should talk about it more, because young people are not aware of what it means to spend, how much life costs and how to prepare for it,” argues the teacher.

“And even when we have knowledge, we continue to make mistakes. Except we know how to get back together!” she adds.

Learn from your mistakes

Carole Bolduc speaks from experience. A few years ago, she and her husband took out a loan to pay for a car, and found themselves with a disadvantageous interest rate, after following “bad advice”.

“The important thing is to learn from it, to make more informed decisions and have more peace of mind,” she says.

This is what she has been saying for a long time to her son, who is now 24 years old.

“Five years ago, we wanted to redo the swimming pool and build a solarium. We were in the dream and in the project. It was our son who encouraged us to be more careful and to commit to smaller payments to ensure that we could cope with unforeseen circumstances,” she relates, with pride in her voice.