Why don't we teach personal finance in school?

[Lucy]

I completely agree with the need to teach personal finance. I work with college students on building success skills and this is one of the biggest areas they need help with. In my classes and workshops, I find that many students are struggling with credit issues, getting overextended because they don't know how to budget, and many are on the brink of losing their financial aid and worse. This is such an important topic, I think we need to make it a priority to teach kids some skills before they start to get in trouble (like the students I see). And as much as we can reinforce it at home the better off we'll be. As for teaching it at home ... absolutely if you can, but so many parents never learned these skills themselves, so let's get it into the schools, too.

[amfennelly]

I would love to see more personal finance issues taught in schools - but then again, when I read resumes of college grads who can barely write, I say, hmm, would I rather they be literate or financially literate? It's a tough trade-off. There's got to be a good way to integrate basic personal finance topics into all levels of math, right?

I remember the "accounting" classes that were for the non-academically tracked kids in my high school .. too bad they weren't offered to ALL kids. (Of course, I felt the same way about auto shop - how many times would knowing how to change a tire have been more useful to me than the quadratic equation!??)

[habh44]

The schools here teach this. When I was in high school it was called "consumer math". I was not allowed to take this as it was for the "dumb" kids. Besides back in the day, one of the things that parents taught their kids was how to balance a checkbook, save money and stuff like that. Guess parents don't do that anymore. So, the schools aren't doing it either? No wonder we have a country now overun with the younger generation in credit card debt before they graduate from college. Scarey situation.

[Banker101]

My name is Ben, I'm new to the forum and I work for one largest national banks in America doing customer service over the phone. I speak with peeople all across country. I'm trained in Retail (Checking, Savings, Money Market, CD's, Safe Deposit Boxes,) and in Credit Card. This is also an introduction as this is my first post.

But to address what you all are talking about. It is is so true that America needs to step up the game and mandate education on personal finance. The more I work for a bank, the more I hate the american education system - I blame the educational system less for habitual overdrafters they fall under the category of having a learning disability.

Public schools are funded by the government, and have to stick within their curriculum set by the government or face having their public funds revoked. With that said, Why does the government not incorporate and mandate personal finance into our schools? Because their has to be a clear definintion between poverty and wealth in order for our system of government to work. It sounds like the government does mandate personal finance just about the time our system is about to crash. Which might explain why the ladies were taking shop, while the guys were taking home economics in the 70's. It was during that time frame that people were trading in their muscle cars for economical import cars - because gas prices were going up and so were the goods transported via gas powered vehicles.

A government run agency called the "Comptroller of the Currency Administrator of National Banks" has a website that I am completely happy to have found. http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/faqs/banking.html for banking 101, and http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/faqs/credit_cards.html for credit cards 101.

This is a government website. So attention "Personal Finance teachers". Study this incorporate this, and put it on tests. Every question should be on the test. And parents, until our schools step up their game, find a way to make this information available to your kids. I have a 6 year old in Kindergarten. As soon as he's old enough to do basic math, he is going to be included in my bill paying activities. If your a parent who thinks your child shouldn't know anything about the bills, it's time to put that old world thinking aside - because our schools aren't teaching it. And your children are learning via the crash and burn method. If you want the best for child don't put them through that.

By the way, I may be young. But I know more about personal finance than the teachers who teach it. If I hadn't of learned through the crash and burn method of personal finance I would have money in the bank. I owe almost all that I know about personal finance to my employer. If only I knew then what I know now.

For example: Take a 12 month balance transfer of 0% put it into a High Yield Money Market making the payments with that balance keeping the interest for yourself. Keep repeating and rate shopping - look for high rates on savings, money market, or CD's; or even better see if there is a bonus for whatever you've saved like with Wachovia's Way2Save and Bank of America's Keep the Change. Once you've banked enough money you can have a few credit cards going, a few bank accounts going, and the credit cards can pay each other off when you need them too while you keep the interest going during the term of their promotion. You can make money with your credit without using your own money, but the credit that you've been approved for. But the idea is to have enough in the bank to pay off this debt should something negative happen to your credit report. It's called securing your own debt.

If you can figure out what I just talked about, and incorporate it into your life successfully then you'll be doing better than I am. And the most important thing of course is teaching your kids about banking and credit cards. Oh and always - always read your disclosures. If you have questions call customer service or send me a message.

[kav122]

oh, that reminds me! There are some awesome little booklets that the Federal Reserve of NY puts out that are free: www.newyorkfed.org/publications.

about how inflation works, etc.

[Kathryn]

Originally Posted by Ms.LNV

One of my college friends had $18,000 in credit card debt by the time she graduated. I know my grad school friends also had a lot and while things are difficult to pay for as a student, there's a lot to be said for budgeting and setting financial goals.

Do you really think this problem is a result of lack of knowledge or information? or just plain...well, call it what you will: foolishness, living in denial, whatever...

Personal finance basics like "money in must be greater than or equal to money out" and how to set up a simple budget to make that happen...not only is that not rocket science; it's not even 9th grade algebra. I frankly think that anyone smart enough to be in college in the first place should be smart enough to figure out how to balance a checkbook or set up a budget or file a 1040-EZ tax form without taking a class on it.

[fluffysamantha]

I think you have to undergo these lessons. For you to be aware of the things on financial issues.

[ThePennyMine]

In my high school, the closest thing we had to personal finance planning was "CAPP", which just briefly covered finance (we had a project where we had to make a budget, though we never had to attempt to live within the budget's means. We only had to come up with numbers and we passed).

My parents taught me a lot about finances when I was a child (and I recently wrote about it!) and it's something that I think every child should be taught from a very young age. The younger children are taught financial responsibility, the more likely they are to be able to live financially responsibly on their own when they enter the world.

[mattdeesgirl]

The high schools in the school district I work for in the Metro-Detroit area offers personal finance. More importantly, we offer independent living that teaches banking skills, credit card awareness, budgeting skills, etc. We still offer "home-ec" type classes, too: Foods & Nutrition; Gourmet Cooking; Culinary Arts; Child Development (they take home a life-like doll that is programmed to cry etc.). These classes are all real eye-openers for the students. I think a lot of the kids might think they are taking a "blow-off" class, but the skills they learn in these classes are invaluable and will be useful throughout adulthood. **I do not teach these classes. I am actually an English teacher, but I agree that these classes should still be offered. I do not consider our district to be out-dated by offering these classes.

[vacationofwealth]

It really does boggle my mind that in high school and college we dont learn about real life practical skills such as finances, real estate, negotiation, etc. Basically we learn how to get a job and how not to become a leader. I mean even personal development should be taught in schools. Teaching one to become self sufficient is the key to knowledge and breeding leadership. Unfortunately those skills aren't taught until one figures them out on their own.