It is so important to put every little amount away. Even for those who are more fortunate to have much more one does never know when something can happen.
Absolutely true. Yes, some people are living "so close to the financial edge" that they genuinely are making good choices and still cannot save ... but most of us could cut back on groceries, get rid of cable TV, skip dinner out, wear those old jeans and shoes another year and
could save more. All of us experience the occasional financial crisis (big or small), and it's smart to put aside something from every single paycheck, to pay off your mortgage, to hoard canned goods. Be ready for an emergency.
i'm in my mid 50's, went to college in the 80's-it was SO EASY to get lines of credit/credit cards and run up a mountain of debt back then.
Absolutely true. I remember the credit card people were always set up outside the bookstore, at the mall ... everywhere. And they gave you gifts just for applying for credit cards.
Phones were another way students our age got themselves into financial trouble. Obviously, we didn't have cell phones, but about half of all the dorm students had land-lines in their rooms. A whole lot of students didn't realize just how much long distance cost, and they'd run up $300-400 phone bills in their first month away from home. Jobs all paid minimum wage back then, which was $3.35/hour ... and I knew a slew of freshmen who ran through their entire summer job savings in a single month or two because of their phones. Not a problem today because "long distance calls" have ceased to be a thing.
I am 40 - I graduated High School in 1996 and I didn't learn a single thing you mentioned above in school.
I learned tons of things about financial responsibility in high school, and today -- as a teacher -- I know those same things are being taught in high school. I remember my algebra teacher making us repeat out loud, "I want a simple interest loan with no pre-payment penalty". I see my sophomore homeroom students completing worksheets about credit card debt. I was supervising a final exam just today in a Civics class, and I noted that some of the questions were about budgets and financial priorities.
So why don't these things "stick"? I think it's because teens assume they're not important. They're all going to be big-time singers, football players, actors. They seem to think that doing well financially has to do with making the right choices ... and those who know they aren't going to make it in the NBA seem to think they're making reasonable choices by saying they'll be lawyers and neuro-surgeons. The reality portion has to come from home.
You can still be bankrupted in this country by medical bills, even with health insurance.
Yes, and that's scary.
There are plenty of people who will credit their own success exclusively to their hard work and intelligence, without acknowledging that where you start has a huge impact on how far you've come.
It's not impossible to start from the back of the pack and "catch up". I was a free lunch /Welfare kid, but I realized in high school that education was my ticket out ... and I made good choices. In retrospect, I can see now that I could've done better. If I were suddenly 18 again, I'd join the military -- full time, reserves? I don't know which, but it would've been a good choice for me.
Even if it was taught in school (not in my schools), it boils down to how the knowledge was/is applied. My mom taught me how to balance a checkbook, but I certainly blew it off for years. I'd like to slap my younger self.
My mom didn't exactly set a great example for me, but one thing she did do right: The summer before I was a high school senior, she took me to the bank and helped me open a checking account -- and she encouraged me to use it. Whereas most of my dorm mates came to college with a brand-new checkbook, I had a whole year of checking account practice before heading out to college. I did the same thing for my kids ... except that I updated their experience to include a debit card.
And many parents are to blame by buying kids everything they want whenever they want it.
One of the best decisions my husband and I ever made: We decided to give our kids less than we could afford to give them. Oh, they never went without anything they needed, but they had less than their peers, we taught them to appreciate what they were given, and we taught them to work /save for luxuries.
It makes me so proud when he comes home and tells me the things he's learning, "Mom, society today just thinks debt is natural and just part of life."
I do think that's a big difference between my generation and my daughters' generation. When I was in college, I was perfectly aware that borrowing was a choice, but I never really considered it. I never felt sure that tomorrow would be better than today, and I was willing to double-up on jobs /do without rather than sell a portion of my future. Most of my college classmates were similarly debt-averse.
Today borrowing seems to be the first choice rather than a last resort.
I was typical in starting college without a car of my own, but my daughters were unusual in being car-less.
Almost all my college friends had jobs and were responsible for at least their own spending money and books, whereas my daughters were unusual in having part-time jobs.