Did you ever wonder why math was so important in school?
Mathematics and other scientific disciplines seem to be national curriculum royalty, with good grades in math being championed by many colleges and workplaces.
But what are the uses of math in real life?
Are mathematically-minded people necessarily more intelligent?
Are they more successful?
You could be incredibly talented in subjects such as music and literature but be stumped when it comes to math.
However, learning math will give you an advantage in managing your finances.
So, let’s find out how good knowledge of math can help you understand money and improve your budgeting skills!
Whatever your age, you’ll have noticed that when it comes to math, there are two types of people: those who love it, and those who hate it.
If you still hate math long after graduating and have nightmares about never-ending polynomial long division or all the theorems you have to memorise, we assure you that it doesn’t have to be like this.
French screenwriter Olivier Peyon made a documentary named ‘How I Hated Math’, which explored our perception of math and the common distaste for the subject.
However, in the report he worked to simplify certain problems, using his creativity rather than, as he called it, rigidity, to find an answer.
Mathematicians are always the first to say “don’t believe in any authority, just check your answer for yourself”. Math exercises at school and in everyday life we use numbers for proof.
Math as we know it and the idea of freedom shared among mathematicians is a bridge to starting the discussion of budgeting.
Financial freedom begins when you escape the grasp of your money, and this can only happen by controlling your budget.
So how should you look after your money and budget using math? Can supplemental math lessons help?
The Link Between Math and Money
In the film Moneyball featuring Brad Pitt, director Bennett Miller tells the true story which is captivating, to say the least. At the centre of the film is a software with precise data and statistics which causes chaos in the market for baseball players.
Billy Beane, the general manager of Oakland Athletics, hires a young graduate to help him in his search for an IT programme containing the details of each and every performance of every US baseball player.
This was big news when it happened. At the time, Oakland was the equivalent of a champion’s league team in football. The software allowed them to hire under-valued athletes for a cheaper price.
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Sometime later, Oakland beat the historic record of matches won in a row by a club.
Whether it’s at school, in sport or in your day-to-day life, math really is everywhere!
Managing your budget, saving money, and requesting a loan are all to do with math. With each aspect, there are estimations and allowances to make, tax to calculate, interest to add, the list goes on! This is exactly why a good command of math is useful for finance.
School teachers and math tutors teach you math as a child, and you carry those skills with you for the rest of your life.
Learn Math to Boost Your Understanding
Math doesn’t only help you make sense of how numbers relate to each other, but it also can help you make sense of and manage your financial situation.
We start to develop our math skills from an incredibly young age, and the basic knowledge of numbers and values gives children the tools to go further, discover calculation and geometry.
Math plays an enormous role in day-to-day life. Each and every business needs math to avoid a state of chaos. With math, you can construct buildings and build roads as well as efficiently manage your personal budget.
This starts from infancy, where babies are able to recognise differences in value. This gives us the tools to tell the difference between coins and bills as well as eventually manage the money in our bank accounts.
And what about arithmetic?
Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. These are the basic skills which come under the title of ‘arithmetic’, and the ones you will use most once you leave the education system.
To know where you are with your money each month, you should set a budget. To do this, you should work out how much money you need for your accommodation, the weekly food shop, summer holiday spending money, and how much you need for clothing, amongst other things.
Math is more than essential when it comes to your money, as it helps you avoid overspending and having to ask to borrow money. Without mathematics, you risk not being able to put enough money away for the future or agreeing to a shoddy interest rate at the bank, for example.
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How Math Can Help Gambling Addicts
Two researchers from a polytechnic school in Milan have been giving math lessons to gambling addicts to help them understand the risks they are taking.
In 2012, the annual Health Survey for England concluded that over 60% of adults had gambled in the past 12 months.
But there is more to this.
Researchers explain that the understanding of probability is an effective way of avoiding addiction. Learning about logical thinking and risk is a recommended escape route for gamblers.
By taking math lessons, you learn to make sense of the chance you have of winning a game.
For example, you have as much chance of winning the lottery as you have of choosing a red football blindfolded from a pitch of 600 million white ones.
Knowing that around 3 in 5 people have risked their own money in the past year by gambling, you should be able to appreciate how math is useful in assessing risk.
And, as we keep mentioning, math is everywhere!
Math vs State of Mind
If you find math useful in managing your money, having a negative state of mind can destroy this in just a few days.
You may be brilliant in your math lessons, however, if you act impulsively, you risk harming the health of your finances.
If you spend all of your money on anything, you are living above your mean
Impulsivity is a psychological issue.
A negative mindset can harm progress when it comes to study skills and math revision.
If you don’t know why you are buying something, then there is a problem.
If you regret a purchase the following day, there is a long-term danger of needless spending becoming a habit.
If at the end of the month, you are struggling financially even when you are able to use math to understand your spending habits, then there is a problem.
Even math teachers can have money problems. Why? Because when you neglect the psychology of spending money, you ignore the need to control your spending.
Let’s take advertising as an example. Are you under the impression that adverts and campaigns don’t affect your spending habits? Do your friends and colleagues also insist that they are unaffected by advertising?
In reality, advertising continues to develop and play a part in our lives, even if it is unwanted, and this is for one simple reason.
Adverts play to our egos and flatter us in order to influence our behaviour.
So how should you avoid giving in to temptation and better manage your finances? The best method is to approach your learning of math with a positive and open state of mind.
The part of your mind that manages your money grows with small gestures. This starts by taking ownership of your actions and establishing self-control when it comes to your spending.
By maintaining a good frame of mind, you will be able to help yourself better manage your finances with math. However, even if you have a good command of math but a negative mindset, inevitably you will be at risk of falling into difficulty.
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Unsolved Math Problems
Mathematics is an infinite discipline, are there remain many unsolved math problems.
The Clay Mathematics Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts have 7 ‘Millennium prize problems’ with a reward of $1 Million for whoever produces an answer to any of them.
That’s $1 million for each unresolved mathematical problem! There are 7 prizes for 7 problems on important issues that have never been solved.
How about that for good management of your finances?
Of course, we are only jokingly suggesting that this is a way to avoid financial trouble.
But what if learning math could help you get out of debt?
Understanding mathematics and having a positive mindset helps you intelligently manage your money.
There are two very simple ways to ensure healthy finances in the long term:
- Don’t spend money you don’t have and live within your means
- Invest early enough to ensure a good pension when the time comes for you to retire
It’s true that freedom begins when you are no longer a slave to the money, however, don’t forget that freedom comes with education and applying the skills you learn.
So, get out your textbooks and get to work! If you need additional help, search for 'math tutors near me' with Superprof.
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This article has given me new insight on math. It helped me to understand that math is important and necessary in everyday living basically we cannot do anything without it.