Make the money, don't let the money make you

Why are the people on the internet so inspiring? Why do they make me think so much about things that I do not have the time to really focus on right now?

A couple months ago, I was hanging out with a friend from my undergrad days who is working on his economics degree and also happens to be very interested in both education and policy. We were, as normal friends do, looking at the high school state standards that Michigan has for economics and both dismayed at how much it packed into them. 

When it comes to personal finance being included in the standards for economics, I was initially annoyed by how much time that took away from fun things like simulating monopolistic competition and learning game theory (don’t get your hopes up, game theory is not in the standards). Then, however, it occurred to me what huge disservice it is to students for personal finance to be treated as an afterthought, tossed in at the end. Make a budget, think about your decisions, talk about risk management. Done.

That kind of lesson in financial literacy is not going to help my ninth graders take care of themselves four, five, ten years down the road. 

Brian's blog also has a post about these cool napkin drawings by
financial planner Carl Richards.

Eliza has been interested in financial literacy too and brought to my attention the blogger and educator Brian Page who believes wholeheartedly in our children being taughtpersonal finance in a stand-alone, semester-long, required course taught by a trained teacher (i.e. not me). 

This also happens to be an issue that is on the minds of some legislators up in Lansing, as my undergraduate econ buddy informed me, but the chance of making it happen isn’t great given the number of requirements already needed to graduate. 

While this is the case at least, I have found a good resource in Brian and he seem to know his stuff.