Brooke is taking a class in high school called Personal Finance. I highly, highly, highly recommend this class and for adults to encourage youth to take it.
Instead of ridiculous and unreasonable Math classes (unless it is a field of study you are going into), Personal Finance teaches youth about budgets, credit, bank accounts, etc.
I was laughing as Brooke was sharing a project for this class they had for an assignment. A budget is broke down into many categories: home, car, insurance, needs and would like to haves such as a cell phone, internet, clothing. These individual categories were broken down further for example home costs: Electric, water, gas, sewer, home insurance, property tax, television, internet, etc.
The first part of the project was for students to put down how much they think each of these items would cost for general life expenses. Then, a local average of these costs popped up in the box next to what they thought the costs would be.
In Brooke's mind, she thought a gas and electric bill would be about $30 each, wrong. She really had no concept as to how much all of these expenses actually are and what a monthly total cost for basic necessities are.
With basic costs listed, now students had to pick a career. To teach them what their finances would look like if they have no degree working minimum wage versus a degree and career with higher salaries.
Now this is what youth needs taught. They get a snapshot of what their quality of life will look like.
Brooke laughed. I laughed. Then, she hugged me and said the sweetest thing, "Mom, I had NO IDEA how much all this costs and all you do, thank you!"
Me appreciating this moment I tell her, "Now, add a teenager with a daily list of what she needs and wants and simply must have to that budget." We laughed again.
She got my point!
