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Many Americans suffer from "math anxiety," which inhibits their ability to solve problems - a potential issue when it's time to balance a checkbook or save for retirement.
Math anxiety may start in the classroom during childhood but it has a way of following students throughout their lives, said Maddie Parker, a financial adviser at Parker Financial Group in Overland Park, Kan., who started her career as a high school math teacher before switching to financial planning. She has seen people postpone their financial plans and refrain from saving for retirement because they don't want to deal with the possibly complicated equations and complex investing topics.
A fear of math can be debilitating - and not just because it could result in poor math grades. Many students, especially girls, may avoid careers that include a heavy amount of math, especially those in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-gender-gap-starts-in-ninth-grade-2018-08-20 Girls made up just 30% of the top 5,000 ninth-graders in the American Mathematics Competitions, according to research distributed by the National Bureau of Economic Research in 2017. Just 18% of the top 500 ninth-graders were girls, and only 8% of the top 50. That gender gap worsens as they age - by senior year, only 22% of the top 5,000 are girls (compared with the 30% in ninth grade), followed by just 12% of the top 500.
See: 4 steps to conquering your fear of math
Parker, 30, taught Algebra II and geometry to high-school students before switching to financial planning and working with her 76-year-old father, who has his own firm. She also became a Certified Financial Planner. "I have a math background and the CFP puts me in a good position to do financial planning in a way that educates people about the planning and why," she said. Their age difference also helps them work with clients of all ages and provide their own perspectives, she added.
Parker spoke with MarketWatch about her education background, why people are so worried about math and how to mesh the two:
MarketWatch: How exactly would you describe math anxiety?
Maddie Parker: A lot of people would say "I have that" and to a degree, a lot of people do, but it's more than feeling like you don't do well on exams. Kids who have math anxiety almost always have a physical inability to respond to being tested or asked to perform on math-related tasks. It is just built up over the years of different experiences, and it stops them from being able to learn any further.
MW: Is it something adults face?
Parker: It translates from kids to adulthood. When you get out of school, you're less exposed or have less experience being tested so the anxiety may seem like it's gone away but any time math or that skill is required, the anxiety comes right back. I think it has been perpetuated as a weird acceptance in our country, that it's OK to be bad at math. Like, "oh, math is hard and it's OK not to get it." It definitely follows into adulthood and affects people dealing with finances, because they have to do math and they don't know how to do it, and they're stressed or embarrassed to ask for help.
MW: How can math anxiety impact personal finances?
Parker: In high school, you're not required to take personal finance and the math you're doing is unrelated to what you do in real life. And that real life math in your brain is still tied to calculus so you think, "I couldn't do that at 16, I probably can't handle finances now." But it is different math. It's not to say it's simple, but it's different, and it is applicable in such a way that people do find it easier to understand. It is not quite as challenging as graphing logarithmic equations. It's a lot different.
MW: There are many people who say women generally are more likely to have math anxiety than men. Is that something you've seen?
Parker: There are great articles and podcasts and TED talks about the same concepts, of how we're raising our girls to be perfect and raising our boys to be brave. And there was one example at a girls' coding camp, where they have to learn to do coding and the girls specifically would type up all this stuff and then if they couldn't figure it out they'd erase it all and call the teacher over. The teacher would press undo and show all of this work and that they were really close, but because the girls couldn't make it work they wanted to tell the teacher to show them from the beginning. They didn't want to show this not perfect work.
It is just a good example that demonstrates that girls are being raised to be perfect and not in the same way as boys, who may say (like in that example) that they don't care and at least they'll get partial credit. The only way to learn is by making mistakes, but that gets lost on girls when they feel they have to be perfect.
MW: Does that concept translate to adult couples in financial planning?
Parker: It is more apparent for women when they are single individuals. They're more comfortable saying "I don't get it" or it's more evident. They're not as afraid to ask for help. It's when they're with their spouses it is easier to be quiet or let them talk and pretend you understand things because your partner is helping you, but it is still relevant. I always work with most clients together and I will ask them both "do you understand this?" or make sure they're both on the same page.
Also see: 'Math isn't so hard for women post backfires for financial planning organization
MW: How would you say your background as a math teacher benefits you and your clients?
Parker: One of the biggest ways is in my ability to explain things. It's funny, I majored in math and decided to be a high school math teacher, but when I was in high school, I struggled with math. I had good grades and I didn't have math anxiety, but I wasn't some freaky Einstein genius kid who got it all. It made sense when I didn't get something right and because I liked it so much I worked hard to understand it. I was good at explaining things to my friends. But my own struggle made me good at explaining it. A lot of math teachers are geniuses who understand it, and that makes it hard to explain it to students who are struggling.
That ability translates nicely to doing financial plans. I can see what is probably going to confuse them and where they'll get lost.
MW: Are there any math-related topics that clients typically have a hard time understanding?
Parker: It varies, but one big thing we talk about is inflation and compound interest. The need to factor in inflation because a dollar today is not going to be a dollar 10 years from now, and that it is a slow climb. People are amazed at how different the numbers look when I factor in 2.5% inflation.
MW: Is there any way to overcome math anxiety?
Parker: It is important that there be no stigma about it. There's this expectation people have of themselves that they should know more about finance because it applies to their life. I am a financial adviser and I don't know how to fix my car, so I bring it to be serviced by professionals. I don't feel stupid because I didn't focus on that and I know nothing about it.
It can be scary if you don't know who you're going to and unfortunately there are some bad people out there, but if you do your homework to find the people to help you, you don't need to feel ashamed or embarrassed. That's the whole reason you find a professional to begin with - someone who is trained. That's their job.
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