Lagom is a Swedish that roughly translates to ‘Just Right’. It does not mean average, sufficient, moderate or adequate – it means the right amount for the circumstances. It is an expression of comfort and has elements of the concept of “Gemütlichkeit” or coziness.

Lagom as a Teaching Aid

Financial literacy programs need a good dose of Lagom. They often try to cover too much material in too much depth. Families need an understanding of financial matters but not at the tax accountant, investment banker or economist level.

By way of an example, a binder from a financial literacy program included 13-pages dedicated to how credit report scores are calculated. The material was interesting from an academic or professional perspective but could be condensed down to a half page or less.

Lagom Financial Literacy teaches ‘sufficient knowledge’ for a person to reasonably carry out their financial-responsibilities within a particular context; additional knowledge is available or provided as the context changes or the individual’s interest in the subject increases’.

Definition of Lagom Financial Literacy

Exactly How Much Lagom Are We Talking About Here?

Financial Knowledge is context sensitive. For one family, a basic understanding of a broad range of financial concepts may stretch their intellectual capacity and the degree to which they ‘care’. Another family may seek out more advanced topics. It is tempting to navigate a ‘Goldilocks’ course between these two extremes. Frightening the first family with too much detail and boring the second with too little. Lagom Financial Literacy has Goldilocks but she knows when to stop teaching according to the following scale.

0. Lack of awareness. This is the cognitive-state many families have coming into financial literacy training. There may even be a hostile lack of awareness because they are actively trying not to learn how bad things are.
1. Basic Understanding and Awareness of the Rest. This is the minimum ideal state that all responsible adults should have in regards to financial-literacy topics. Financial advisors, accountants, family members, etc. can help them with the rest.
2. Capable Dilettante. A dilettante is a person who cultivates an area of interest without real commitment or knowledge. An individual may develop a passion for a topic, for example, investing in investing in the stock market. Lagom Financial Literacy aids these individuals by providing additional content to satisfy their curiosity or become a Maven.
3. Maven. A maven is a trusted individual in a particular field, who seeks to pass timely and relevant knowledge on to others in the respective field as a profession or pure enjoyment. Those having a Basic Understanding of a topic may turn to Mavens.
4. Subject Matter Expert (SME). An individual who has advanced knowledge of a particular field although often at a very narrow and specialized level. A SME may not be a Maven as the latter has an assumption of the ability to teach and share knowledge.

How Much for the SME in the Window?

Some individuals pursue a topic for pure enjoyment. Others pursue it to make a living. An accountant, lawyer, financial planner or banker exchanges information for a fee. They are at least at the Maven level and with some at the Subject Matter Expert level. The upside of using these professionals is that they are bound by ethics and professional standards.

It takes time to develop this level of expertise. The graphic above is a conceptual representation of this work. I have purposely not defined what the unit of effort is but fans of Malcom Gladwell will recognize the number 10,000 under the Maven [1].

Thoughts on the Lagom-Financial-Literacy

What are your thoughts on the scale? Are the leaps to large, does an exponential scale make sense? Could you use this in planning for adult learning efforts? As always, drop me a comment with your thoughts.

Notes and Further Reading

1. The 10,000 hours refers to the amount of time it takes to become proficient. Gladwell proposed this concept in his book ‘Outliers: The Story of Success‘. He has since defended the concept which includes the often over looked detail that you need to spend 10,000 AND have an underlying natural ability for the thing. I guess I can stop practicing my jump shots because at 5’10” I will never make the Olympic basketball team.