Personal Finance for High School Students

There is an issue I think needs to be addressed in public high schools. While the core classes like algebra, geometry, and English are critical, these schools are putting enough focus on everyday skills like personal finance. I think personal finance should be a core class in high school. Learning these skills in high schools will help the student through adulthood, and may even find a job. I bet there are many that find themselves behind if they never learned about personal finance. For example, there are many people who took a lot of student loans without truly understanding the impact that debt would have on their post-college years. No matter what career you go into, banking, student loans, credit cards, and the stock market will be a big part of your life.

Parents can certainly help, either by teaching their children about personal finance at home, or through extracurricular education programs at the high school. I also think adults should lobby for changes in the education system. 

One program that is particularly helpful is Junior Achievement. This teaches a wide variety of personal finance topics, including the consequences of spending money, managing debt, and also focuses on the stock market.

Overall, I hope high schools are starting to engage more personal finance courses into the core curriculum. If not, I would pitch that parents should teach their kids about personal finance as soon and often as you can.

Question to the forum, what works best when you teach your child about money? Please share your story, and I am happy to answer any questions.