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By David on March 05th, 2007

Should They Teach Personal Finance In High School?

My wife and I were discussing this the other night and both of us thought it was ridiculous that they don’t teach a personal finance class in high school, at least not when we were in school. Is it any wonder that when kids go off to college they rack up so much debt? According to Nellie Mae, the nation’s largest maker of student loans, the average undergraduate has $2,200 in credit card debt! (bankrate.com)

There are a lot of classes that I took in high school that were certainly not beneficial to me in my adult life, but I can bet that a finance class that teaches fiscal responsibility and retirement planning would be a benefit to many of these young students. Instead of going off to college and binging on shoes, clothes, beer, cars, televisions, etc, maybe they would think twice before piling on the debt. I am guessing that most of these students graduating with a ton of credit card bills assume they will just pay off the bill when they get a job, but this is often not the case. I know it wasn’t for me. My parents tried to explain money to me, but I guess I was not listening as I racked up a ton of bills by the time I graduated college, and it took me years to pay it off..and this was on top of my student loans. I bought just about anything I wanted and I paid dearly for it. I had minimum payments of several hundred dollars a month for at least 4 years after I graduated, and this put my retirement and home savings on hold while I was trying to dig out of debt. This is certainly not the way one should walk out of college, already owing a ton of money.

A simple personal finance class with discussions on retirement, the negative impact debt can have on a person, automobile financing, and saving for the future instead of buying for the now should be implemented in every single high school across the country. Did I really need to learn trigonometry if I had no interest in any fields that would need it? I would think that learning how to control one’s money would be of more help to most people. Thoughts? Did you have finance classes in high school? If you did, did they help? I would love to hear about your experiences!

education
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By David on March 05th, 2007

Buying On Sale Does Not Save You Money!

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Rather, it costs you money, and probably more than you would have spent in the first place.

I was having lunch with a friend on Saturday (who shall remain nameless) and we were talking about how much stuff he had gotten lately on sale at a few electronic stores. He could not believe his good fortune that a few things he really wanted (but did not need) were on sale and how much money he had saved. I quietly pointed out to him that he did not in fact save anything; but rather he had spent money that he could have kept in his bank account only because these things were on sale.

These were not things that he needed….the LCD TV he bought replaced his perfectly good 32 inch “regular” TV that would have worked for years and his new cellphone replaced the one he just got 5 months ago. I do not have a problem with people buying things that they need or that they have saved up for, but it pains me when I watch people that don’t really have the money buy things that they don’t even need just because they are on sale. This guy drives an old beat up car that costs him hundreds of dollars a month in repairs…every month, that is. He lives in a crappy little apartment here in Los Angeles and has been wanting to move for almost a year now, but says he cannot afford to. So when he complains about not having the money to do what he wants, but then goes on to tell me all the great stuff he got on sale….well, its hard to feel any sympathy for him. I have known him a very long time and I have tried to point these things out to him, but it is all about instant gratification with him and no long term planning. Thus, the Sunday paper and all it’s advertisements are the highlight of his life because so many things are on sale that he “needs”.

When you see things on sale, it does not REALLY mean that you are saving money if you do not need what is on sale. It means you are spending money, and you should give some thought before buying that newest gizmo just because it is on sale. Spending money when you don’t have to is not saving money…..

I tried to tell him he would be better off spending his cash on a new (used) ride, but that TV was calling him, so I backed off…I try not to get too involved with friend’s personal decisions unless they ask my opinion, but this kind of thing pains me to no end!

shopping
0
By David on March 05th, 2007

Carnival Of Personal Finance #90 Goes Big Time.

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Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge has put up the Carnival of Personal Finance #90 this morning, and it is obvious a lot of time went in to her categorization! This week’s posts are divided into categories as follows:

#1) The Big Top Carnival – represents my editor’s picks.
#2) Intermission – blatant publicity for two good blogs but stuff I might normally reject
#3) Balance Transfer Booth – a natural grouping of posts
#4) Carnival Sideshow One – articles I liked a lot but not quite ready for the Big Top
#5) The Parking Lot – another natural grouping of posts
#6) Carnival Sideshow Two – all the rest of accepted articles.

So, needless to say, there are a lot of posts to check out. I was lucky enough to have my post “Finding Out Your Parents Financial Situation Can Be Stressful..” included in The Big Top, thanks Mapgirl!

Some of the other posts that I found of great interest are -

Wise Bread tells us how to survive and thrive in a job we hate. However, I would have to add that no job is worth being unhappy about and unhappy employees should look for new work!

Money, Matter and More Musings considers the question “Who is the richest of them all?”.

Free Money Finance wants us to think about the total compensation when considering job offers. I work from home so being able to do that is a HUGE add on to my salary!.

Grad Money Matters has an interview with Trent from The Simple Dollar, Jim from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity and J. D. from Get Rich Slowly.

Enjoy!

carnival • estate planning • favorite links
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