School Tied: Why Your Money Woes May Be Linked Back To School

A common question you’ll hear from someone when you don’t know how to do something is “didn’t they ever teach you that in school?” For those who have trouble managing money, you might be quick to answer that question in a more surprising way than you initially would think. No. When it comes to balancing a checkbook, figuring out how to retire or even the ins and outs of saving money and having a paycheck that works wonders for the present and the future, you have to admit that school is severely falling short in teaching kids, young adults and teens exactly what it means to save money wisely, spend it even smarter and learn to make the most out of every dollar they can. Early on, kids should be privy to the ins and outs of budgeting first and foremost as this is the easiest and quite frankly the most overlooked skill you can have in your repertoire. You can argue that allowance, set forth by parents as a weekly paycheck so to speak for doing chores, is doing just that, but the idea is to use real-world example to show kids exactly what it means to have rent, car payments, utility bills and anything else worth noting. Almost as paramount as the budget are credit cards, debt management and planning for the future. As for the retirement aspect, telling a 10 year old that they need to prepare for retiring might be a little premature, but you’d be shocked to know that a good portion of college students know very little about IRAs, 401Ks or how those can be easy ways to make money based on their contribution through an employer that is matching you cost for cost, or how to know exactly what percentage of your paycheck you want to or are permitted to invest when every calendar year changes and that number can be adjusted or increased. Credit cards rank as the most notorious means of debt that is currently on the market. You can’t underestimate how important it is to teach a younger adult that credit isn’t the salvation you’d believe it to be, how interest rates can be shopped around, whether to balance transfer your debt to death or just how you can fall quickly into a debt to income ratio that is ridiculously bad for you. And let’s not forget to teach these kids what a credit score is and what comprises it. No matter how you slice it, students are positioned quite firmly behind the eight ball when it comes to finances and how to manage them. Adding that to the curriculum could be the change needed to put them on a path toward saving money and financial freedom that is sorely missing.