Comments on: College course for personal finance – Is it too late to teach our children?

By: MONEY CLIPPED » Weekly Money Clippings

MONEY CLIPPED » Weekly Money Clippings — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 13:47:30 +0000

[...] College course for personal finance – Is it too late to teach our children? Clever Dude looks at the roles of parents and teachers in teaching kids about money. [...]

By: realist

realist — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 02:13:00 +0000

a. CD it was an elective…

b. you just didn’t pay attention in class, remember, you asked me for homework help

c. first place in fantasy baseball.

but onto teaching finances…

the failure of america is giving kids everything they want, as shown on that my sweet sixteen show.

kids do not VALUE anything because they did not earn it, everything is handed to kids nowadays without them having to do work to obtain said items.

i blame bad parenting again, just like everything else…hilary was wrong, it doesn’t take a village to raise a kid, it takes parents who actually want to be parents, instead of looking at kids as burdens.

By: TeamTutorials

TeamTutorials — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 20:30:07 +0000

I hope it’s not too late for me.

By: Mary Beth

Mary Beth — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 19:09:11 +0000

I think that kids should start learning these lessons, from their parents, early in life but I don’t agree with your idea of teaching college freshman with their parents. If you have spent 18 years in your parent’s household and they haven’t taught you about personal finance, having a seminar with them at college won’t help. Plus most kids wouldn’t feel responsible for their own finances with their dad sitting next to them…it wouldn’t seem as real to them.

I frequently give speeches on identity theft, scams and credit card use in high school and I’m amazed at the things these kids don’t know. They actually seem to respond better to an outsider being brought in to give a seminar. I think they perceive the person they don’t know as an expert and are unwilling to listen to the same advice when dispensed by a teacher they see all the time.

By: Shawn

Shawn — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 17:23:30 +0000

Wait…Am I a snooty brat because I have an IPod?

By: Juan Millon

Juan Millon — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 17:18:43 +0000

Yeah I agree college is too late. But then again it’s never too late ^_^

By: Clever Dude

Clever Dude — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:36:34 +0000

I think that waiting till college to teach kids (or young adults) about finance is way too late, but I don’t want to put down their efforts to do so. If the class at least helps one person, then it may have proven useful.

We were required (I think) to take a personal finance class in high school. I still have the book from that class, but I don’t remember a single thing I learned that semester. The teacher was too meek and we were rowdy 16-17 year old kids.

Really, if you want teachers to teach it (in addition to the parents’ own responsibility), it has to begin in elementary school. However, that could all be washed away the instant the child gets home, flips on the tube and sees endless commercials for junk.

By: Juan Millon

Juan Millon — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:19:12 +0000

I don’t know if I agree with this or not. Being a 20-something-yo and a college grad my experience with peers and money is that only the business majors care enough about money to take a financial course, especially since having a grade in a class dealing with money and numbers is going to be a turn off to a lot of people. Rather, having workshops would be more effective; something where you could have sponsors giving away free stuff or something would attract a lot of people. We used to do stuff like this all the time in my fraternity –

By: Amy

Amy — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 13:43:30 +0000

I often think how differently my life would have turned out if this was something that I received in high school. I did not have the best guidance in the money department and this would have been a nice substitute to having that in my life.

We are trying to teach our children the value of money. It is a little embarassing when my son is stopping people in the store and saying, “That costs a LOT of dollars. We can’t spend a lot of dollars.” He is four

By: Roberta

Roberta — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 09:09:48 +0000

In reference to your article about teaching your children. Just buy them a copy of “The Insider’s Guide to Saving Money” by Michael Ellenbogen. It covers all sorts of topics about saving money, banking, travel, insurance, customer service issues, how to search the internet, dining, real estate, buying items cheap, automobile tips and many more. I’m telling you this book covers everything. It’s easy to learn. I would say it’s for someone who is about 15 years and older. I learned a lot from the book and I am over 40.
http://www.michaelellenbogen.com