Teaching Kids About Money
The current state of the U.S. economy leaves lots of questions unanswered but one thing is for sure: it’s time for there to be a lesson on finances. Money is one of the biggest issues that any of us will deal with in our lives and yet it is one of the item most often left off of the school curriculum. Why it is that students aren’t being taught how to save, spend, budget, and invest their money? These are things that should be taught early on and for good reason.
First and foremost, most students in high school do not know how to open a bank account or how to fund it. They have no concept of what a bank is and how it works, but should definitely know these things before they graduate. They should also know about credit cards and the dangers of getting into debt in college. No one explains to the children the importance of having good credit and how easy it is to ruin it. No one tells the children to wait until they have good paying jobs to get a credit card and only use it to make emergency purchases. Instead, most college students waste money on things like Personalized M&Ms, 1800 Flowers, or Discovery Channel Store gifts that they aren’t going to use. It’s not that these things are bad; it’s just that they can be frivolous purchases when you are in college and aren’t making any money.
The importance of saving isn’t stressed to students enough. They have no concept of wealth creation or wealth building. Nobody has taught them that you don’t have to spend every dollar that you make; no one has told them that you should create a budget and live by it. Most kids don’t even know how to set financial goals for themselves. In fact, it is my recommendation that every student be responsible for having read The Millionaire Next Door before they graduate high school. It’s an awesome book and will give them some of the tools that they are going to need in order to be financial independent one day. This will also give them some insight as to how people attain wealth.
How to invest money is another idea not discussed in high school that should be. The more you expose kids to things like these, the better off they will be in the long run. They will have a better chance of making better financial choices than their parents which is better for our country overall.