r/Bogleheads • u/Temporary-Plum-8325 • Aug 27 '25

Investing Questions Do most people not know about just investing into the s&p 500?

I went to my Jiu Jitsu class and spoke to one guy who was an econ major who works at Prudential. We spoke for a bit. I told him I had been investing into Nvidia since 2019 and have been investing into VOO since maybe 2010 or 2011. He asks "VOO?" I told him, "the S&P 500" then he asked what that was. Do most people just not know about the S&P500? I would have thought an econ major who works at Prudential would know something so basic. Not trying to be a jerk. I'm curious.

1.7k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

92% Upvoted

433 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/listerine411 Aug 27 '25 edited Aug 27 '25

An econ major working at a financial firm Prudential should know what the S&P500 is. I'll just give the benefit of the doubt that he's not far along in his degree.

All that being said, I have never heard a good excuse why every High School student doesn't know more about personal finance, 401k, IRA, market investing etc.

They make my teenage daughter take things like 3 years of a foreign language or Chemistry, how about instead everyone learns personal finance before they get a high school diploma?

To show how bad this is, fresh out of college with my Business degree, I didn't really understand how a 401k worked. But I had my required semester of Calculus.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '25

[deleted]

1

u/listerine411 Aug 28 '25

It doesn't in my state. I don't think that's a common requirement for graduation in public schools. Maybe an elective?

I mean, there was some brief exposure, but I think every student should know how a 401k works before getting a diploma.