I just read through the posts on Higher ed debt started by myob.

It is so long, I figure nobody is revisiting it - but I have a comment I feel is pertinent to that topic.

Several people on that thread said the public schools need to do a better job guiding high school students and teaching them financial skills and reasoning.

I agree that these are critical. Therefore, I would/did NOT wait for/trust any (especially public) school to teach them to my children.

It is the responsibility of PARENTS to guide and teach their children. Hopefully, we are assisted by the school system - but look at the difference in success rate between students with parental support vs those without it. (and look at the success of home-schooled students!)

I think one of the greatest things we could do is require time spent in high school (say 40 hrs?) observing/volunteering in the job the student THINKS they want to do for the rest of their life. Then they can get a more realistic idea of what it is really like BEFORE embarking on a long and costly path to a degree. Make these hours a requirement to apply to the college or trade school. And make them work in a few different career field that would be supported by the degree they think they want.

God help the kids whose parents are clueless, but those who know better need to take personal responsibility for themselves AND THEIR children! No excuses! Teach them! (and maybe volunteer to tutor / mentor those who are really trying but have clueless parents)

DJ,

There's a lot of good stuff in what you wrote. Personal finance has become a required course in many high schools now, but here's the rub.... there are a LOT of required courses. Kids don't always learn. They're too busy being full of hormones, pop culture, music and sports to take much else seriously.

I offer as evidence: We have compulsory Math and English/Reading education from grades K-10 in Missouri, after which students may legally drop out of high school or continue on and take electives. That's ELEVEN YEARS of math and language training for every child in the state. Yet how many people read or write much post-high school? How many can do more than basic math?

I think what we find is most young people do not take interest in personal finance (or much else) until they are on their own and seeing the use for the skills, which is usually post-high school. So I'd propose a variation on what you have suggested: mandatory personal finance the first year of VoTech or college. Sure, some are still suckling on the breast of parents' wealth, but many are starting to get out in the real world of renting a place to live, paying for groceries, gas, and vehicle, etc. They start to really see for the first time where money comes in (jobs, scholarships, and those disastrous student loans) and where money goes out.

If I were king for a day, I'd make 1st semester distinguishing between wants vs. needs, basic economic theory of capitalism vs. socialism vs. communism, and the ongoing class project is building a zero based budget and sticking to it as the only requirement to pass the class. Require them to have a bank account and open it up to the professor for scrutiny against their monthly budget to see if they really were sticking to it. Second semester would get into investing surplus wealth in stocks, bonds, real estate, etc. By the end of the class, I'd require them to have saved up $XXXX (this would start during 1st semester budgeting) and have opened up a basic brokerage account and purchased and sold a handful of securities, then presenting a class report on why they made the decisions they did and the outcome. We'd also have guest speakers come in and present topics like: "My life 5, 10, 15, and 20 years after college: mistakes, lessons learned, and triumphs."

You know, real world stuff. The only down side is this would miss anyone who doesn't continue on to post-secondary ed. I haven't figured that part out yet, other than to say the ones who will be successful w/o a degree or certificate will figure out the financial stuff anyway, and those who will not be successful never would be regardless of how much mandatory training you try to give to them. Some folks just never do "get it." But in the absence of perfection, we go for vast improvement. I think requiring the kind of education above would improve a VAST number of lives.

The apple does not fall far from the tree! So parents who are engaged in their activities and schooling have kids that do much better in the world. Those that have deadbeat parents, don't get far. So that is why personal finance needs to be taught in high school. Some parents don't know or take the time to pass on that information. The way to get kids to work, participate in the American dream and make something of themselves is to break them out of the entitlement attitude they see so often. In fact a lot of well to do parents foster the entitlement attitude in their children. They never have to work to get anything, and they have everything.

I also believe money can be made in the trades for those that want to work. Apprenticeship and jobs should be showcased in school as well as "going to college". It should not be shamed if someone does not want to go to college immediately (because they don't know what they want) or maybe even ever. Learning should be a lifetime activity. Read, watch you-tube, work with someone, try some things.

Interesting story - one of my tenants had a child that started Kindergarten. There was a day's lesson on fires, the importance of having a plan, having a meeting place, having smoke alarms. It was then that the parent asked for newer smoke alarms and one new one installed. HAPPY to help them, but it told me the parents were not paying attention and the child having a lesson in it, brought it up to them.

Well, 6X6, I’m still glad she had ya! I think you have a lot you could teach kids, more than you might think. Big brothers could use a big brother like you.

To the topic at hand, the lack of teaching financial skills, or, the lack of paying attention to lessons being taught is one of the reasons I do some teaching as part of my landlord business. I may not affect many people, but, I do know have have made some difference.