When I was a senior in high school, if I'd followed the curriculum, I'd have taken Calculus.
At that point, I had enough math credits, a tough class like that during my final year wasn't too appealing. I took what I thought would be an easy-A. It was called "Math For Life" or something like that. I learned more in that class that I actually use on a daily basis than just about any other during my educational stint.
What did they teach us? Money skills ALL high school seniors should know...
- How to balance your bank account
- Budgeting
- How credit cards and paying interest work
- Compound interest
- We ran 401K calculators (to show us the value of contributing early
- Basic stock market info
- Saving for retirement
- Building credit
That's just the stuff I remember off the top of my head. I have a brother who's 13 years younger (and much smarter) than me. He hadn't taken the class. As soon as he graduated, I went through a lot of what we learned. He's told me several times how much it helped his early financial decisions.
This isn't a brag, it's a testament to having learned this stuff early...I put all my purchases on my credit card each month, but ONLY buy something if I have enough money to cover it in my account. That's something all kids should learn. Being an adult is tough enough.
Here's what Florida high schools are doing...
If you live in Florida or know someone who does get ready for their kids to become a lot better at money management then you ever were because proposed bill would require all high school students to take a half credit course in money management in order to graduate!
The bill will make Florida the sixth state in the US to have a standalone money-management course, but we think it's genius because we never learned a lot of money terminology and other processes until the past few years!
Each course would focus on making students balance a checkbook, budget their money, pay taxes, figure out loans, and use credit cards!
The classes will potentially start for students entering the 9th Grade in the 2019-2020 school year.
SOURCE: WTSP
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