What Are We Teaching our 2005 Graduates about Money?

Now that we are in the calendar month of June Iodine can’t aid but wonderment if we have got prepared our new alumni for the duty of managing and budgeting their money.

I had A very interesting conversation with my God-son, a recent alumnus from a local Los Angeles high school. He assured me that he is ready to take on the duty of buying a used car because he was working par-time for a fast nutrient restaurant. When I asked him how much money he had saved he quickly told me that he hasn’t received his first paycheck yet, but would appreciate money as a graduation gift to purchase a vehicle.

We talked about the value of economy as well as more than responsible things he could make with the money he was earning. I explained to him that having a occupation was a good measure towards economy for a car. However, he was still lacking in duty for assuming everyone else would purchase the car for him. I strongly hold with the lending belief of banks, “if you can’t come up to the tabular array with some of your ain money, I can’t give you my money.” Sol our conversation ended with an understanding that he would cover insurance and gas with his income and salvage at least 10% for college disbursals and I would direct him a cash gift towards the purchase of his vehicle as a graduation gift.

I make understand that now years getting a car as a graduation gift is much more than common then when I graduated from high school. However, I would rather learn alumni the importance of being responsible with their money then stylish with their peers. What are we instruction them by having the compulsory cell phones, computers, credit cards, digital cameras, dvd players, and mp3 players? I believe the message is pretty clear, “consume more, salvage less and remain in debt.”

Well, pretty soon he will be off to college where he will be bombarded with credit card applications, cell phone companies and many other sellers enticing him to get into debt. Hopefully he can learn how to be responsible with money before he earns his college degree. Otherwise my adjacent gift will be for him to attend my debt management class. I don’t believe he would wish that very much.