Can We Teach Money Management In High School?

Outside The Beltway
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How can people making double the median wage be living paycheck to paycheck?

I make less than $50,000 a year. As I type this, I’m drinking coffee from a $200 Nespresso machine. In my living room, I have a $1900 surround sound system, a $500 Blu Ray DVD player, own my own home, and drive a decent car (2012 Toyota Camry).

And I pay $50 a month to use the YMCA gym.

And the crazy thing is I’m not living paycheck to paycheck.

So why is it that people who are making over 3x what I earn are struggling to get by?

How about instead of teaching kids how to put on a condom, we teach them to live within their means, balance a checkbook, and invest for their future?

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Err… actually that one will go a LOOONG way to saving one some serious cash down the road :wink:

And absolutely not mutually exclusive with teaching all the other good things that you suggest.

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its a generational thing. Gen Z doesnt work and like bells and whistles stuff
any money management classes in high school these days will be in one ear and out the other…

Allan

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If they’re gonna teach them how to budget, they should teach them how to work.

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They have Financial Literacy classes in high schools right now.

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Then make them mandatory.

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7

I hear ya

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I think its a huge misconception and unfair stereotype that the younger generation does not want to work.

At work Positions we post externally get hundreds of applicants from under 30s. Multiply this across all our locations and that is thousands.

I do recall my dad saying my generation was lazy and its a stereotype that will continue as younger generations age up.

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You sound old LOL.

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its not a misconception.

from the chumura website

“The current labor force participation rate among Gen Zers ages 20 to 24 is 71%, roughly four percentage points lower than Millennials and six percentage points lower than Gen X when they were in the same age range (see figure below). This trend is also persistent in Gen Zers ages 16 to 19 with a current participation rate of 35.9%, roughly five percentage points lower than Millennials and 15 percentage points lower than Gen X when they were in the same age range. Explanations such as pursuing higher education,[3] seeking nontraditional work, and opting to postpone looking for work to seek other fulfillment may partially explain this trend.“

Allan

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Fair point but those % points are hardly earth shattering.

It would be interesting to see the underlying reasons defined.

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I did recently reach the age of 40, so there’s that. lol

But I’m specifically talking about things like shop class. Just teach them to make things with their hands and they’ll do great things all on their own.

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Ha 40!!! Happy belated birthday.

Agree 100%, learning practical skills is so important. I spend a lot of money on tradesman for work I should be able to do myself.

Learn a trade skill and you can always earn money and goos money at that.

In the 80s in England there was a move away from trade skills/apprenticeships, everyone was encouraged to go to university. My mates who bucked the trend and became plumbers, electricians live very comfortable lives now.

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14

teach democratic money management from the house of representatives …

I earned $5, paid $7 in taxes and spent $1000

utopia

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I’m talking about people who make twice the median wage. They clearly know how to work, just not much else obviously.

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A man of modest means, who has something left over at the end of each month is wealthy and content. A highly paid professional, who spends 10 pence more a year than he brings in is poor and never satisfied…

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No, we can’t. Public schools will teach all the options of money management. Kids will find out that the difference between working hard and eeking out a living and riding the government gravy train is a couple of thousand dollars and will choose to ride the couch.

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Living on welfare isn’t money management.

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You underestimate public schools.

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Not a bad mantra for life. Though I will admit at times (like most people) I have overspent but always recover.

I have taught my kids to live within their means but at the same time life is to be enjoyed. Pointless being the richest man in the graveyard.