Teaching Kids about Finance

All too often parents and teachers do not have a good grasp of
financial principals themselves and so it can be very difficult for
them to break down and teach these principals to children. In order
to improve my ability to teach these ideas to children I am looking
for advice on how to teach financial principals such as budgeting, use
of credit, saving, and investing to children. Personal experience or
current resources (both electronic and conventional)would be great.

Thanks
Laura

On 6 Nov 2003 13:57:21 -0800, Laura wrote:
All too often parents and teachers do not have a good grasp of
financial principals themselves and so it can be very difficult for
them to break down and teach these principals to children. In order
to improve my ability to teach these ideas to children I am looking
for advice on how to teach financial principals such as budgeting, use
of credit, saving, and investing to children. Personal experience or
current resources (both electronic and conventional)would be great.

This is not a slam on you, but I've always wondered why people
seem to find budgeting, etc, to be such a mystery. I mean, it
all boils down to:

A. Figure out how much money is coming in, from all sources.
B. Figure out what is necessary, and what is luxury.
C. Figure out how much money is going out for necessities.
D. The difference between C and A is what you can spend
on savings, and luxuries. If the number is negative, you
need another job.

Granted, there is leeway in how much you might want to allocate
to retirement savings, college savings, rainy day funds, etc,
but the principal is the same.

After all... how else would you do it?

In article , user says...

On 6 Nov 2003 13:57:21 -0800, Laura wrote:
All too often parents and teachers do not have a good grasp of
financial principals themselves and so it can be very difficult for
them to break down and teach these principals to children. In order
to improve my ability to teach these ideas to children I am looking
for advice on how to teach financial principals such as budgeting, use
of credit, saving, and investing to children. Personal experience or
current resources (both electronic and conventional)would be great.

This is not a slam on you, but I've always wondered why people
seem to find budgeting, etc, to be such a mystery. I mean, it
all boils down to:

A. Figure out how much money is coming in, from all sources.
B. Figure out what is necessary, and what is luxury.
C. Figure out how much money is going out for necessities.
D. The difference between C and A is what you can spend
on savings, and luxuries. If the number is negative, you
need another job.

Granted, there is leeway in how much you might want to allocate
to retirement savings, college savings, rainy day funds, etc,
but the principal is the same.

After all... how else would you do it?


Ya mean you don't borrow, then apply for new cards, then shift balances, then...

You sure dont' know high finance, do ya!

;-)

Banty

In the Federal Reserve Bank's catalog of public info., click on
"Teaching Materials. There are free comic books about our financial
system. Pretty cool!

http://app.ny.frb.org/cfpicnic/frame1.cfm

In article ,
(Laura) wrote:

All too often parents and teachers do not have a good grasp of
financial principals themselves and so it can be very difficult for
them to break down and teach these principals to children. In order
to improve my ability to teach these ideas to children

How about you work on your spelling while you gather ideas on the finance
stuff?

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Jeez; if only those Ancient Greek storytellers had known about the astonishing
creature that is the *Usenet hydra*: you cut off one head, and *a stupider one*
grows back..." -- MJ, cam.misc

On 6 Nov 2003 15:02:28 -0800, Banty wrote:
In article , user says...

On 6 Nov 2003 13:57:21 -0800, Laura wrote:
All too often parents and teachers do not have a good grasp of
financial principals themselves and so it can be very difficult for
them to break down and teach these principals to children. In order
to improve my ability to teach these ideas to children I am looking
for advice on how to teach financial principals such as budgeting, use
of credit, saving, and investing to children. Personal experience or
current resources (both electronic and conventional)would be great.

This is not a slam on you, but I've always wondered why people
seem to find budgeting, etc, to be such a mystery. I mean, it
all boils down to:

A. Figure out how much money is coming in, from all sources.
B. Figure out what is necessary, and what is luxury.
C. Figure out how much money is going out for necessities.
D. The difference between C and A is what you can spend
on savings, and luxuries. If the number is negative, you
need another job.

Granted, there is leeway in how much you might want to allocate
to retirement savings, college savings, rainy day funds, etc,
but the principal is the same.

After all... how else would you do it?


Ya mean you don't borrow, then apply for new cards, then shift balances, then...


Well, if you manage that just right, you CAN get your FICO score bumped up
a noticable amount... I'm sure that's why it seems to be a popular money
management technique. ;-)


You sure dont' know high finance, do ya!

Guess not. I hope I get it figured out before I retire at 48. ;-)

It is interesting though. Back when my wife and I were DINK's, we
knew several couples, also DINK's, who took in noticably more money
than we did, and were STILL living paycheck to paycheck, where we
were essentially just banking my wife's salary. A very large
proportion of the difference seemed to be because of house purchases -
we are perfectly happy in a small ranch, while the others "need"
several thousand square feet. And the difference between a $600.00/mo
mortgage payment and $2000.00/mo mortgage payment means one *heck* of a
lot of difference in how you can live you life.

For that matter, one family we know just "had" to go from a 2200 sq ft
house to 3700 sq ft, to accomodate their 2 kids. Never mind that
they occasionally need to put their house payment on a credit card....

user wrote in :

[snip]
This is not a slam on you, but I've always wondered why people
seem to find budgeting, etc, to be such a mystery. I mean, it
all boils down to:

Lots of maths! People don't like maths problems. And this is a
scary one, because if you get it wrong, you can lose the roof over your
head.

A. Figure out how much money is coming in, from all sources.
B. Figure out what is necessary, and what is luxury.
C. Figure out how much money is going out for necessities.
D. The difference between C and A is what you can spend
on savings, and luxuries. If the number is negative, you
need another job.

Granted, there is leeway in how much you might want to allocate
to retirement savings, college savings, rainy day funds, etc,
but the principal is the same.

Well, if A-C is negative, you might also need to spend less on the
neccessities you require, or recategorise some of the neccessities
as luxuries. And just because your parents had it when you were
growing up does not mean to sy you get it now.

Nobody wants to be told "this thing you want is a luxury and you can't
have it." And there is a lot of advertising around (over here anyway)
that suggests that credit is your right, and not a problem.

FWIW, a couple of weeks ago, the CEO of a UK bank said he would advise
his children not to borrow money on his bank's credit cards. This was
considering a damning indictment of his product, and reminded journalists
of the head of a jewelry firm who said his products "wouldn't last a
lunchtime". But the headlines didn't say anything like "bank manager
tells people that credit cards are an expensive form of debt".

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

On Fri, 07 Nov 2003 14:06:36 +0000, Penny Gaines wrote:
user wrote in :

[snip]
This is not a slam on you, but I've always wondered why people
seem to find budgeting, etc, to be such a mystery. I mean, it
all boils down to:

Lots of maths! People don't like maths problems. And this is a
scary one, because if you get it wrong, you can lose the roof over your
head.

A. Figure out how much money is coming in, from all sources.
B. Figure out what is necessary, and what is luxury.
C. Figure out how much money is going out for necessities.
D. The difference between C and A is what you can spend
on savings, and luxuries. If the number is negative, you
need another job.

Granted, there is leeway in how much you might want to allocate
to retirement savings, college savings, rainy day funds, etc,
but the principal is the same.

Well, if A-C is negative, you might also need to spend less on the
neccessities you require, or recategorise some of the neccessities
as luxuries. And just because your parents had it when you were
growing up does not mean to sy you get it now.


I was making the assumption that people would be able to accurately
define a "neccessity", but then I just read a posting in a financial
group in which someone tried to claim that cable TV was a necessity,
so they could watch the news.... so I guess I was making an
unwarrented assumption. ;-)

People also seem to have trouble thinking creatively, when it comes
to saving money. When I was a poor college student, I wanted cheap
meat. So my roommates and I made a deal with a butcher to buy
half a cow at something like 30 cents a pound. We had a deep-freeze,
and so it stayed in there, and we ended up eating incredibly cheaply
all semester. Just had to debone it and learn some rudimentary
butchering skills, and we could have steak several times a week. And
if nothing else, it taught me that I was not suited to be a butcher,
at least when it comes to wielding a hacksaw. ;-)


Nobody wants to be told "this thing you want is a luxury and you can't
have it." And there is a lot of advertising around (over here anyway)
that suggests that credit is your right, and not a problem.


Uh oh. I think the discussion about rights is two threads to the
south. ;-)

FWIW, a couple of weeks ago, the CEO of a UK bank said he would advise
his children not to borrow money on his bank's credit cards. This was
considering a damning indictment of his product, and reminded journalists
of the head of a jewelry firm who said his products "wouldn't last a
lunchtime". But the headlines didn't say anything like "bank manager
tells people that credit cards are an expensive form of debt".


This is another one of those cases where my first thought is,
"How could you NOT know that credit costs money, and that a lot
of credit cards cost you a HUGE amount of money, in the end."

But perhaps you were right, in your initial comments. People
don't like to add and subtract, to get real answers, instead, they
rely on what other people tell them, and disregard ulterior motives.

user wrote in :

FWIW, a couple of weeks ago, the CEO of a UK bank said he would advise
his children not to borrow money on his bank's credit cards. This was
considering a damning indictment of his product, and reminded journalists
of the head of a jewelry firm who said his products "wouldn't last a
lunchtime". But the headlines didn't say anything like "bank manager
tells people that credit cards are an expensive form of debt".

This is another one of those cases where my first thought is,
"How could you NOT know that credit costs money, and that a lot
of credit cards cost you a HUGE amount of money, in the end."

It was pretty much my first thought as well. But it made the front
page of at least one tabloid here.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

On Fri, 07 Nov 2003 19:25:00 +0000, Penny Gaines wrote:
user wrote in :

FWIW, a couple of weeks ago, the CEO of a UK bank said he would advise
his children not to borrow money on his bank's credit cards. This was
considering a damning indictment of his product, and reminded journalists
of the head of a jewelry firm who said his products "wouldn't last a
lunchtime". But the headlines didn't say anything like "bank manager
tells people that credit cards are an expensive form of debt".

This is another one of those cases where my first thought is,
"How could you NOT know that credit costs money, and that a lot
of credit cards cost you a HUGE amount of money, in the end."

It was pretty much my first thought as well. But it made the front
page of at least one tabloid here.

Tomorrow's headline:

"Water found to make people wet. Health authorities urge
caution."

;-)