”Dept is ugly said granny”

Intergenerational finance education in families

Authors

• Ritva Nätkin Tampereen yliopisto
• Laura Sahlgren Tampereen yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33350/ka.120078

Keywords:

family generations, finance education, getting into dept

Abstract

The article investigates the finance education and the relationships between family generations by qualitative research methods. The data is gathered by Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, in October 2021, and it was called “Rahakysely/Money Inquiry”. The article asks how the sandwich generation, 74 respondents out of 355 all of the respondents, describes the financial education, like advice and ideals, they give to their own children who are at emerging adulthood. They ponder how the financial education they have got in their childhood home, effects to it. Young adults, the children of the respondents, were born in the 1990’s. Age of 18-29 years is a strategic stage of life to get financial education and to learn financial skills. Inequality becomes also visible in this stage of life. One youngster is financially supported by the family, but the other one has a dept burden on his/her shoulders. In the data, the normativity of the maturing ideals was strong. Good salary and well-established status were regarded as a desirable adulthood. It can be the case of the value talk common in the data where the ideals have an important role. The data can be characterized as middle-classed because the respondents are mainly well-to-do, highly educated and living in the capital area. However, the financial skills seem not be transmitted in intergenerational relationships in a very self-evident or straightforward way. It depends on the family culture how much the individuality and agency of the child were emphasized both in the education the sandwich generation got from their parents and the advice they gave to their own children.