Things That Should Be Taught In Schools, But Aren’t

What have you learned that sticks with you?

 

Do you remember the last time you used algebra? Yeah, me neither.

 

Fortunately, high schools are making a much bigger effort to teach personal finances. Whether you learned these skills in high school or not, here are some key concepts that every high school student should know:

Money Management

 

Although many schools are now covering basic finance subjects, there should be more emphasis on how to manage money, including budgeting, saving, paying bills, and even doing taxes.

 

With so much of the country in heavy debt, living paycheck to paycheck, and paying for everything with a credit card, so much of this could be avoided if proper money management was taught at a young age in school- so that these healthy habits could be formed early.

If you’ve have a financial setback, this article may help.

Here are some specific points:

Change is hard

 

The reason that people don’t diet, don’t exercise, and don’t resolve bad personal relationships is that change is hard. As a result, we don’t really, truly change and grow unless we’re in real pain. When we’re at that point, the pain of change is less severe than that pain of not changing.

 

Discipline and time

 

With discipline and time, I think most people can accumulate far more wealth than they think is possible. But growing wealth requires change- which is precisely why most people don’t make the effort. The changes I’m suggesting involve an old friend:

Delayed gratification

 

Some decisions are relatively small:

• Dropping a subscription music service and just listening to the free version (Pandora, for example).
• Making coffee at home two days a week, which means that you stop by Starbucksless often.
• Buying afew more generic products when you go to the grocery store and Target. (I’m not going generic on salad dressing, however).

 

Since these are smaller decisions, the amount of gratification you’re delaying is small. You don’t mind listening the commercials on Pandora (I certainly don’t- I just turned down the sound), and the coffee at home isn’t bad.

Use this site to apply for a loan Find My Rate at Social Finance Pay off credit cards or invest in a major purchase.

So, what do I get?

 

OK- so what do I get out of all this delayed gratification?

You build wealth- which can give you peace of mind.

Here’s a practical example: By making changes to your spending and building a savings account, you create a $1,000 emergency fund. If your car brakes down, you can pay for the repair.

Entrepreneurship

 

In today’s world, thanks to the internet and social media making it easier for people to follow their passions, more and more awareness is coming to the fact that not everyone is cut out for the traditional path of leaving school, going to college, and working a 9-5. It’s also becoming far less desirable for many people.

 

Unfortunately, the people who realize this still feel somewhat alienated by society because, this isn’t viewed as normal within the school system, so they’re not pursuing their true passions and talents until much later in life- and often wasting years doing something they don’t really enjoy.

Many freelancers and business owners may have times when cash flow is a problem. Use this site to apply for a loan Find My Rate at Social Finance in order to cash flow your business until you can collect receivables from customers.

Managing Life

 

Lots of people are now leaving school well  educated in many areas, but when it comes to the practical aspects of daily life, they really struggle. Things like applying for a mortgage, booking appointments, job interviews, or even getting in touch with someone like Insurance Doctor to get themselves covered can seem completely foreign to so many high school graduates these days.

 

Education is Key

These are just a few of the things that really could help people, if every school taught these concepts.

This post is for educational purposes only.

Ken Boyd

Author: Cost Accounting for Dummies, Accounting All-In-One for Dummies, The CPA Exam for Dummies and 1,001 Accounting Questions for Dummies

Co-Founder: accountinged.com

(email) ken@stltest.net

(website and blog) https://www.accountingaccidentally.com/

(you tube channel) kenboydstl