The following excerpt was taken from the book, Financial Fitness for Teens, from the Life Essentials Series. Foreward below written by Chris Brady.
It’s funny when I think about how many times during my school years I had the thought, “When am I ever going to use this?” Usually this was in response to an obscure math problem or complicated chemical equation that some teacher was intent on teaching me to balance. Indeed, by the end of my college years, I could work mathematical equations with virtuoso skill. Given a few minutes, I could reduce any equation down to the much sought after “zero equals zero.” I remember manipulations of matrices, methods of integrations, and even friction cones as applied to robotic end effectors. And in my case, with the unpredictable path my life took from engineering to entrepreneurship and writing, I was correct in my suspicion that much of what I had been taught would go unused.
Don’t get me wrong. I do not regret my formal education, and I’ve even made peace with the fact that I spent so many hours of my youth in the bowels of mathematical dungeons. I am not upset by all the learning I did that didn’t end up being applicable in my life because, let’s face it, there is no way to know exactly what will be useful later and what will not. And it was nobody’s choice but my own to leave engineering for my true life’s calling of being a business owner. But what I do wonder about, quite frankly, is all the stuff I wasn’t taught along the way. At the top of that list is the topic of personal finance.
Why is it that we are taught the three Rs, “Reading, Riting, and Rithmetic,” but nothing about money? Why must we dissect a frog but never learn to balance a checkbook? And why are some of us even taught macroeconomics but never microeconomics, as in, our own economics?
The results of this oversight in education are predictable. The financial statistics for people in their twenties are dismal. Students graduate from high school and college, often laden with heavy student loan debt, and immediately get credit cards and car payments and frequently soon after, a mortgage. Just like that, they are buried under consumer debt. Unfortunately, this sets a pattern for life that is hard to break. And the load is difficult to bear. Interest on that debt compounds, and other forces like inflation work against them too. Add to this an overall ignorance about investing, and now our young people are not only having a hard time making ends meet, but what little is saved and stored someplace is done incorrectly. It all adds up to a life spent chasing after money to barely get by, when it didn’t really have to be that way at all. What so many young people are missing as they start out in life is a foundation of financial wisdom.
Understanding money doesn’t have to be hard. It isn’t some great mystery, and it’s certainly not boring. And for sure, nobody who ever learns the basics of good money management will ever have to ask themselves, “When will I ever use this?” Because the answer is obvious: Money is a topic, like it or not, that will be relevant in your life nearly every single day you are alive! It’s best to understand it well and early. And that’s the purpose of the book, Financial Fitness for Teens. Read on eagerly, and learn this stuff well. I promise you’ll be glad you did!
To purchase the Financial Fitness for Teens book, click here.
To purchase the Financial Fitness for Teens Audiobook, click here.
(Posted by Kristen Seidl, on behalf of Chris Brady)
LIFE and Leadership by Chris Brady 