Comments on: A perfect, though sad, example of why Personal Finance should be taught young

By: Money Blue Book

Money Blue Book — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:32:01 +0000

Mixing friends, family, and finances is rarely a good idea. Even a few hundred dollar loan between my brother and I sometimes gets uneasy. Co-signing for a sibling is not really a good decision either. Parents can do that because they have the overriding parental authority to take control (usually) but equally situated sibling don’t.
-Raymond

By: Becky@FamilyandFinances

Becky@FamilyandFinances — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:51:49 +0000

Parents should definitely be ultmiately responsible to teach personal finance to their kids, but as others have noted, many parents don’t know much about personal finance.
Therefore, I agree with Amanda that a PF class should be mandatory in school. My litle brother was a whiz with Calculus in high school, but *I* had to teach him how to write out checks and use a checkbook!

By: Anitra

Anitra — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:37:44 +0000

This is the sentence that stands out to me:
“She trusted her parents to know what she should do.”

We all do this unless we recognize that we know more than our parents in this area – and most teenagers/young adults, even if they HAVE financial knowledge, may not recognize that mom & dad no longer “know best”. We may recognize warning signs, but not realize how serious they are (why can’t mom & dad co-sign? I’d bet it’s because they’re in serious debt as well).

The best example I can think of from my own experience: My husband’s parents thought they were “helping” him by taking out private loans in their own name for his schooling (with the expectation that he would be responsible for them), since he couldn’t get enough loans in his own name to pay for everything. That should have been a warning sign that he was taking on TOO MUCH DEBT, but he didn’t recognize it himself until the loans started coming due later on.

We need financial education at ALL levels – it’s best if parents can teach their kids, but too many parents out there don’t even know what they’re doing wrong themselves, and pass their bad habits on to their kids. I don’t trust that our schools will do a great job, either; the only PF education I got in school was directly from a credit card company – can we say “conflict of interest”? Those of us who understand PF should strive to be an example to all the kids we come in contact with.

By: fathersez

fathersez — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:05:54 +0000

It’s tough for many families as the collective pf knowledge in the family is not much. They try to do what they think is the best for the family.

Some members may end up getting hurt.

But like SJ herself says it was not a dastardly plot by the family.

I hope it all ends well.

By: Andrew Stevens

Andrew Stevens — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:07:37 +0000

Personal finance absolutely should be taught in schools; there should be at least one course required for all students to graduate. I do believe that Mrs. Micah’s speculations that parents don’t teach their kids is because so many parents don’t know that much about personal finance themselves. (I know vastly more about it than my mother does, for example. I have been advising her on personal finance since I was 18.)

By: Ron@TheWisdomJournal

Ron@TheWisdomJournal — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:04:31 +0000

I shouldn’t be surprised that siblings are allowed to co-sign loans, but I would think the banker should have asked some more questions and explained things better on the front end.

By: SJean

SJean — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:30:51 +0000

Added note…. My parents (my dad, in particular) really aren’t very good with money and they didn’t mean to jeopardize me. I do blame them a little bit… But I also forgive them. It wasn’t intentional and they say if there are ever issues they will pay the loans. But legally, it is me who is on the hook.

By: ms. m&p

ms. m&p — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:27:15 +0000

I couldn’t agree with you more. I’ve definitely had to learn personal finance the hard way (albeit not through the same channels that SJean is learning) and I really wish that my parents or someone had talked to me about money. I still don’t know how my parents are doing financially and when I try to bring up what I’m doing (in hopes of opening up the conversation), I get cut off. I will never understand why money is a taboo topic. It’s just money!

By: RacerX

RacerX — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:17:59 +0000

Ouch. I really actually do blame the parents here. Yes you want your kid to go to college, but at the expense of another child?

THis is why we have a family monthly budget review. The kids all understand the money that we are paying back and all are learning the lessons we weren’t taught!

By: SJean

SJean — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:17:46 +0000

Thanks for the link! I sometimes feel quite stupid that I signed them, now that I’m so “good” about personal finance… But it is too late now. I’m going to try to get off them when she graduates (through her consolidating) but…

Anyway I wish i had a real pf class–or stumbled on pf blogs much younger