Cross her off then

The person who taught it while I was in high school was not a high school teacher. She was some sort of special hire that was on contract with the school district.

Lotto scratch off playas

Same can be said for any subject. At least teach people some useful tools for their life before they go off an ruin it.

When I said I side with Rick on this, I also mean in the sense that these are not difficult "skills" to figure out on your own. This isn't engineering or biochemistry. It's mostly common sense and having will power.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Are you saying that atheists don't practice virtue?

Character education is all the rage in many public schools. But when kids grow up and see that money and status are treated as more important by our culture, then they will do whatever they can to achieve them.

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I mean, you can learn all you need to know to do halfway decent in like 3 hours on the internet now.

There are forums where people will literally tell you everything you should be doing.

If you make even decent money it is a choice to live without at least $1,000 in an emergency fund.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Common sense and self discipline? Those are two things that immediately come to mind when I think of America today.

So you want a common sense and self discipline class then? You're talking about teaching people useful tools and those are really the only ones required for decent financial planning.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I have fielded so many questions from friends and family. And you are right that the answers are easily available on the Internet, but non-financial folks are generally scared to even dig into things like investments and taxes.

My step dad had money sitting around in their zero interest savings account. He asked me one day where he should invest it. After asking a few questions about risk tolerance, I came to figure out that my parents were completely in fear of the market. That's fine, many people are. So I asked him how much was left on his home mortgage and what interest rate he was paying. He was at 6.5% and had more than enough money in his account to pay off the mortgage. I told him to pay off the balance in full because you'll get a guaranteed 6.5% return (their interest expenses was not high enough to be tax deductible).

A few years later, he told me it was the best decision they ever made. He slept sound at night knowing he owned his house outright.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

You know it gets me all hot when you talk time value of money.

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No, it is not. People, especially students, do not understand how many bills they will have to pay each month for utilities, nor how much they will be. They do not understand how to set up a monthly budget because they do not know what to include. They do not understand how mortgages work or how to price out a mortgage that actually works for their income. They do not understand how car loans work or why buying is better than leasing. They do not understand home or car maintenance or HOA fees. They do not understand retirement accounts - how they work, what is the difference, or the best way to maximize them. They do not understand paying taxes and how much they would actually bring home after they are taken out of their pay check. They do not understand a lot about being financially responsible. Something they are expected to be in just a few short years.

Hell, maybe if they learned about student loans and the actual costs of college, they wouldn't take out so many dumb student loans. Balancing a checkbook is common sense. Understanding the full ramifications of being financially independent is something completely different. It would be an invaluable education for all high school graduates.

My parents generation (born before/during WW2) is probably the last with a majority that had that in their top 2-3 financial goals by age 50-55. Of course that's also the last generation that believed that the companies that employed them had their better interests in consideration.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Agreed. Five minutes of every class should just be them writing on a chalkboard "You will have to pay this back. It is not free money."

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Which strangely may be going negative......

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Hawaii (fuck) You

I wasnt being a smart ass. I thought back to my own schooling and virtue and character just brought the Religion classes up in my mind.

I didnt know about character education

Hasn't it already in Europe?

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The value system in the country has changed. That pre-WW2 generation grew up in a time of scarcity. Now, most of us have grown up in a time of plenty. I am guilty of it. I feel like the world's worst father/husband if I tell my family, "no, you can't have that." I fought the teenager cell phone thing longer than anyone to the point where my kids were supposedly the last middle schoolers to not have a smart phone.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

I heard something like 25% of the developed world has negative government bond rates.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

It's not a matter of who is to blame. The fact is that for at least half of the country capitalism is not working, and they are angry about it. See Donald Trump and to a lesser extent Bernie. Maybe it is simply a manner of a lack of education or a fear of looking weak, but I doubt it.

It seems more likely that wages are being driven down by machine taking people's jobs and outsourcing, and the market is not correcting itself to replace these jobs or drive up wages.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

Once again, not having savings can be a choice.

I posted a link from the same site that seemed to indicate that even as wages increased, such as the 90s, that the savings rate didn't improve or even went down.

It is possible that for this generation that savings just wasn't a priority compared to other generations that had lived through some truly scary economic times.

But, like I asked before, are you going to take money away from people in order for them to have more savings? Doesn't really make sense either.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I can't stand fighting my kids on the consumption issue....it's me vs. the rest of American culture...

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If there's such a thing as deserving kids, mine fall in that bucket. They are well mannered and do great in school. They are also appreciative. But I still think they need to learn that you don't get everything you want. Moreover, you need to work hard and save to get stuff you really want. My daughter just got a summer job and had already been earning money babysitting. So I feel like she understands the linkage between working and reward.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

The last recession kind of ruined sports for me. I always enjoyed playing sports far more than watching or being invested in professional sports but after feeling like being in an economic chokehold, I just cannot take the new generation of sports stars and their constant, self congratulatory garbage. Just shut the fuck up and play the game you get paid insanely well for.

I saw people do special things in Afghanistan. Making a basketball shot is not special.

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"Mattress technology has come a long way"

- Dan Bernstein, 2016

I couldn't imagine only having $1,000 in my emergency fund.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

If you're 40ish and you don't have a year's salary, or at least a minimum of 6 months salary in the bank in cash you're doing it wrong.
If you're 30 you need to be building that nest.
You should never, ever, under anything other than extraordinary circumstances, carry a balance on a credit card. I mean medical emergencies and what not happen and cause balances to carry, that's normal. But you don't take a vacation you can't pay for in cash. You don't buy a tv or xbox you can't pay for in cash.
Shit like that is simple.
This turd is obviously a moron. It seems like he's explaining how he's victimized by having lived beyond his means and not saving a meager 400 dollars.
If you don't have 400 dollars somewhere and you're older than 19 you're an idiot.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Idk. Theoretically, I guess but that'd be a hard plan to put into action.

I don't know if it's an education problem as much as it is a human nature problem. I mean, most people know not to eat too much, but yet half the country is obese. The temptation to spend, to keep up with the Joneses, is more powerful than the urge to save up for a rainy day.

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This is true. But aren't those temptations what keep the wheels from flying off the axles? Denis always says stuff like "this is America, I don't want to be like Europe," which is fine because Europe is not without its share of problems, but the Swedes have a word called lagom, which roughly translates to "just enough." It's a cultural trait of the Scandinavians to find sufficiency in less than the most and the best all the time. Not much of a concept stateside, not even in Minnesota. But then at the same time, how can one say that fault lies at the feet of the people who are under great societal pressure to buy houses that are too big, things they don't need, schools they can't afford, and so on? "People are forced into making bad decisions. Fuck 'em!" isn't a sustainable approach.

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No. It isn't.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014