Of trigonometry and mortgages…

Today I read a piece by Richard Branson where he spoke of applied maths, the mathematics that you need in real life. I have also been thinking on these lines from quite a while. This has been accelerated by the thought of Rohāmrta starting school in a few years from now. 

I studied math upto the 5th semester of my engineering  course – that’s 10 years of school, two years of pre-uni and two and a half years of Engineering – a total of 14.5 years! I should have been a wizard at managing my finances and making investments isn’t it? Far from it. 

So while all the trigonometry and differential calculus was great, why wasn’t I taught the basics that would help me get through routine stuff like knowing how my mortgage is calculated and budgeting done for the home and office? 

The same goes for most of the subjects that I studied. This is what I feel should change at least for my kid. And I will have to work on it myself. Anyone has any ideas? Most welcome!