Photo Credit: JESSICA WEAVER
BY VIRGINIA PENIAS
It’s never too early to start preparing for your future. While electives like childcare, band, and film sound like fun, they won’t get you as ready for the real world as finance classes will. Finance classes give students the opportunity to get their foot into the door of adulthood. With jobs being difficult to acquire nowadays, having some knowledge about finance is certainly beneficial. Mastering organizational skills, learning to manage money and gaining knowledge about future investments are some of the topics covered in finance classes that can help kids become successful adults.
There are two words that students often get mixed up: need and want. There is a big difference between “needing” those new shoes that were released last night at midnight and needing new shoes because your old ones are starting to fall apart. In today’s society, many students get all the things that they ask for from their parents. High school students are young adults and most of them know how to spend money, but they don’t know how to save it. Managing money is something unheard of to most teens. The majority of high school students work at minimum wage paying jobs (minimum wage in Florida is $7.67). The average ticket price at the movie theater is approximately $10. Students just end up spending whatever money they make in a matter of weeks. Money management is a skill most students lack. But fortunately for them, finance classes would teach them how to make the right choices.
People often “live in the moment”, but do they ever think about what happens after high school or college? The real world happens. That’s when you truly become independent and when you are forced to pay for your home, your food, your clothes, your children’s necessities, doctor bills and anything else you may need to make for you and your family. Unfortunately, this stuff doesn’t just come to people; we have to work for it. To make adulthood easier, saving up the money you make as a teen could certainly pay off in the end. Taking finance classes in high school could set students on the road to success by teaching them about future investing.
Organization is key to a successful lifestyle. In high school, if an assignment is turned in late, or not turned in at all, a zero just gets put into the grade book, the students’ grade drops by a few percentage points and then that’s the end of it. These kids usually still have the opportunity to turn in other assignments to bring their grade back up. When you become an adult, there is no “extra credit”. If an adult doesn’t pay the electric bill, on time, their electricity will be turned off. Then, these adults will have to waste time on the phone with the city, trying to reactivate the account. Let’s not forget any late fees that may have been added on. In order to be on time with bills, adults must be organized. Lucky for unorganized students, finance classes teach them organizational skills to help them stay on top of everything and complete all tasks on time.
With organization, money management, and future investments being the main topics covered, there is no doubt that financing classes hold the key to the success of your future.
