Financial Education: a Lifelong Pursuit

Posted by admin Filed in Wealth Building on Saturday, August 1st 2009   

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Consumer education is a required high school course in Illinois. At many high schools, students who pass a 2-hour proficiency test can skip the semester-long course. This is what my son did, and at the time, I was happy for him. Testing out of consumer ed meant he could take an elective in a field that interested him.

Now that he’s off at college, beginning to make more financial decisions—and mistakes—on his own, I’m having second thoughts. Proving your know-how on a 2-hour test is probably not as good a foundation as a financial course. No matter how thorough the high school consumer education curriculum was, it probably would have covered more than the basics we’ve tried to instill in our children: save your money for something special; you can’t afford everything you want; put some of your allowance into savings and some into the offering plate at church. Probably the class would have included check writing and checkbook balancing, budgeting for living expenses and long-term planning, and other dry but necessary financial subjects. Some of these topics I’m too inept to teach, or I’d be a bad example to follow, or I’ve simply got too many WASPy American hang-ups to have frank money talks. My philosophy echoes my parents’: children should be able to enjoy their childhood and not be burdened with financial problems. However, am I setting them up for financial worries of their own down the road?

At least my son is studying business. Whether or not he takes Investing 101, I do know that he’ll have a thorough grounding in finance and accounting. Hopefully he’ll be able to apply his business acumen to household finances as well. I’ve been trying to be more openly communicative about our family’s budgeting decisions, as well as letting him learn on his own just how far his money will or will not stretch when he’s away at school.

The son who tested out of consumer ed is my oldest, and just like so many other parenting missteps I’ve made, I had to learn on him. I am certainly not going to encourage my younger children to skip this first step toward financial education. No matter what fields they pursue, they will need to understand basic money management and investment.

Elle Wood has learned quite a bit from The Financial Woman, Camille Gaines. Camille shares her love and experience of investing and personal finance. More of Camille Gaines financial”>http://www.financialcourse.net””>financial education courses are available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=””The”>http://www.financialwoman.com””>The Financial Woman and FinancialCourse.net.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/wealth-building-articles/financial-education-a-lifelong-pursuit-1084443.html

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