BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Minister of Finance Christian Lindner gave schoolchildren and young adults a crash course in financial matters. At the “Future Day” in his ministry on Thursday, the FDP politician promoted private pension provision and investments in shares.
Far too many young people don’t take care of their finances enough, said Lindner. The topic is also “somewhat underexposed” at school. At the same time, someone who makes qualified financial decisions early on has a completely different life at the age of 30 or 35. “If you start making the right decisions early on, they will have an effect over time and make a huge difference,” said Lindner.
The Minister of Finance, together with Federal Minister of Education Bettina Stark-Watzinger (also FDP), has been campaigning for the financial education of young people for a long time. Stark-Watzinger promotes economics and finance as a school subject on topics such as secure investments, savings and retirement provision. However, the subject design of the schools is a matter for the federal states.
In his lesson, Lindner also presented his concept of generational capital to stabilize the statutory pension. “In the future, the state will invest in shares for you on the international capital markets,” said Lindner. The aim is to generate assets of 200 billion euros, the interest on which can be used to reduce contributions.
At the same time, Lindner promoted investments in shares. “I would like more people in Germany to recognize that the capital market, stocks and so on are not dangerous,” he said. Rather, the savings book is dangerous because the often low interest rates cannot compensate for the loss in value of the money here./tam/DP/mis