I was thinking this morning about how it is never too late in life to learn. I just got some great (!) education of my own with the recent economic downturn. Never in my wildest dreams did I…well you know the story and, chances are, you have you own.
When it comes to money and finances and their importance to our well-being, lifestyle and prosperity it takes a second place only to health concerns. Why, then, do we spend so little time teaching our kids the basics? I suppose it’s just old habit. We’ve been buying them stuff for so long, from diapers to bicycles to I pods, that we (and certainly not they) have given little thought to “what happens when they’re on their own?” In our own case, our kids never really had to work until they were in high school and we finally cut off their spending money. For our college age son we provided the breath of life and Maslow’s foundation –education, food and shelter. Anything else, from beer to concert tickets is money that he has to find…uh, I mean earn.
Things are changing, though. Even though only three states, Utah, Missouri and Tennessee now require students to take a finance course before graduation, 17 other states, according to the JumpStart Coaltion give students some exposure through curriculum forays into economics, social studies or math. I recently flew to Salt Lake City to watch the Funny Moneyman, James Cunningham entertain and teach the kids with a couple handfuls of real money and a well-stocked depository of jokes and gags. About 300 college students showed up, and I could tell by their questions that they did, as our blog sub title says, need help.
I am now working with a great team of young people to create MYmoneybites.com (no link yet) to add to the learning, especially at the college level. Stay tuned, you’ll hear more hear about that.
And…teach your kid one thing, just one thing, about money…today.
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