Patrick Jenkins is the FT’s deputy editor and chair of FT FLIC
The gap between those who have — millionaires, billionaires, prospective trillionaires — and those who don’t just keeps on widening. Federal Reserve analysis shows the richest 0.1 per cent of Americans now own 14 per cent of the country’s household wealth, up from 10 per cent 15 years ago.
Even in the more restrained UK, tax authority data this month showed there are now more than 5,000 Isa millionaires in the country — those whose investments through an Individual Savings Account tax-free wrapper are worth £1mn-plus. And then, of course, there is the epitome of excess: Elon Musk, already the richest man in the world, who was recently awarded an otherworldly $1tn pay deal by Tesla (equivalent to the median annual salary of 16mn Americans added together).
It is against that background that we today launch our seasonal appeal, in aid of FLIC, the financial education charity seeded by the Financial Times in 2021. The Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign, to give it its full title, aims to promote a foundational understanding of money among both children and adults.
A world in which those who understand money can accumulate vast riches, while those who don’t are left behind or spiral into unaffordable debt, can only damage the broader economy and threaten sociopolitical cohesion. Educating everyone to understand the foundations of finance — from compound interest to stock market investment and pension saving — has never been more important.
