My company in Europe got bought out by an American tech giant recently and we've gotten tons of new employees from overseas. I was shocked how much they knew about everything, especially finance and economics. I'm not just talking about the millionares and megacorps. It seems like the average American seems to know a ton about money and economics compared to people here in Europe.
We are much more relaxed and talk non-sense at work, even useless things to "improve" the company are discussed and the bureaucracy was hell. I'm shocked how efficient and fast Americans are at working and making changes. I learned a ton from them and even got into stocks that I was skeptical before. How did finance culture become so huge there?
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It seems the importance of budgeting, personal finance, how money works, and investing was drilled into me over the years. So you have to learn it.
I will say I know more about personal finance than I do macro-economics though (I failed it twice in college).
Upvote for not asking why we are *ill*iterate.
Capitalism
I don’t think most are
We like our independence. Therefore, we like having money. Therefore, we like keeping our money. Therefore, we like growing our money.
I’m wondering if financially literate people might be overrepresented in the tech industry?
I think that’s moreso the employees of said company. My workplace is relaxed and talk nonsense lol.
The way that the American financial system works in regards to personal finance is that it has a high ceiling and a low floor. If you put in the effort, understand the market, understand tax burdens and loopholes you can really maximize your financial return. In Europe I would say it’s the other way around, a high floor with a low ceiling. In most countries the government takes care of filing taxes for you, there’s a broad social safety net, etc. Combine that with a culture that isn’t a striver culture the way the US is, it’s not surprising that this is what happens.
I had to take economics as a half year social studies course to graduate my senior year of high school. It covered budgeting, stocks, bank accounts, and taxes.
Most Americans are not particularly financially literate. You’re working with a very specific subgroup – Americans high enough up with a tech giant to land overseas jobs. They’ve been chosen for their knowledge and efficiency at changing things up – you shouldn’t assume all Americans are like this. This isn’t a representative sample.
I think it’s really important to note that you’re working with white-collar, tech-corporate Americans, who aren’t representative of the general American population as I’d argue Americans are not financially literate
We don’t. You’re dealing with a small microcosm of Americans who work in tech and travel internationally for work. Not your average American.
The Americans who are relocated to Europe by their corporations tend to be educated and wealthy. The average American is not being offered a position in Europe. You’re getting the cream.
Most arent. but you are talking about a tech giant. THey are amazing at it.
I’ve been in companies that got bought out and the drastic change in benefits, reviews, etc was insane.
But america being such a capitlist country, it is kind of embedded in the way we think of how to grow our money. Again, most of us are not literate, but becuase USA tends to move the global economy so much we do try to learn how it works. Everywhere we go it gets embedded in us, grow your stocks, get a 401k and retirement accounts, etc. Even if we dont fully understand it we try to .
We don’t get any free rides in the US, you can’t exist as an adult in the US without financial literacy because we have very few social safety nets, so if you are financially illiterate your probably mooching off someone or homeless.
You are talking with the best and brightest. We don’t usually send the average American overseas for work.
Financially we’re on our own. Our healthcare is tied to employment. Our retirement mostly is 401k. Anyone with money is in the stockmarket.
Wealth and opportunity. Most American professionals have excess funds to invest towards retirement, in accounts they manage. This incentivizes them to know what they’re doing to maximize returns.
It’s seen as humiliating and a personal failing if you’re poor in this country. Advertisers realized that and marketers at finance companies ran with it; the financial “literacy” you’re describing is actually an increase of risk tolerance caused desperation and commercials about how any moron cna invest wisely.
Small sample size, employees working for an American tech giant are not your average American. High achieving Americans are highly financially literate because it’s honestly not that hard to learn and is extremely valuable knowledge. You also need savings to be able to invest, so Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck don’t have much use for extensive financial knowledge.
Also a (un)healthy dose of capitalism and entrepreneurial mindset baked into the American identity
You’re meeting the exceptions.
We have to manage our own retirement savings.
Disposable income, lack of reliance on welfare systems (because they exist to a much lesser extent), cultural values of independence and responsibility, and a cultural virtue of excellence are all probably factors
Your sample is not representative of most Americans.
That said, American companies can move pretty fast in terms of organizational and operational change in a way that can be surprising to non Americans.
Because we have such a crappy safety net, we need to be more financial literate. Or it may be that this company just attracts individuals who are very financially literate.
Less bureaucracy and easier access to credit. Also less reliance on government programs by working Americans. I looked into buying property in Ireland and was awestruck of how ham fisted the lenders were. They only cared about salary and didn’t give a damn about investment portfolios or other forms of collateral. This may not seem important, but it discourages investment by normal working people and hinders their ability to buy new homes. Hence lots of Europeans don’t learn about basic financial decisions.
Lack of socialism here. Most retirement plans now are purely stocks now. So most people have at least passing knowledge of stocks now.
1. You have a self-selecting group who are competent enough to work at a tech giant and work as an expat.
2. If we’re not financially literate, we might starve to death. Social safety nets are very thin.
Always funny when Redditors who read this websites propaganda realize most Americans aren’t dumb.
American society is a big corporation itself. Our culture sadly revolves around money, working, making money and spending money.
Top topics of conversation are what you do for a living, top dating questions are, how much do you make, what car do you drive or what do you bring to the table
America is big on business.
Kids are groomed to admire hustle and hard work.
Our government eshews social safetynets because Americans need the freedom to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
There is good and a lot of bad to our culture.
Our government views us as commodities.
It’s mostly because if you aren’t financially literate to a small degree our govt will allow you to die on the streets homeless.
On your second point of working quickly I was also told this as an American who worked in Dublin for a while. My Irish coworkers would always say stuff about the speed and efficiency at which I worked. Which one is part of my personality but two I think Americans abroad are always trying to out best face forward. I’ve had convo with other Americans who have worked abroad and I think subconsciously we are trying to beat the dumb and lazy accusations so we over perform even when it’s not needed or expected.