Reply by ReneeK_MI on 3/6/07 5:50am
Msg #178428
Re: Suggested Guidance should begin at home & in school
Oh oh, I feel a soap-box episode coming on ....
The 'Borrowers' of this country aren't in need of another disclosure telling them what they're doing - most of them know full well what they're doing, but most of the sub-prime borrowers historically make poor financial decisions REGARDLESS, which is how they wind up BEING sub-prime borrowers in the first place. While I'm well aware that lives/financial health can change in a heart-beat, and 'but by the grace of God, there go I', I'm talking averages here.
We - the parents, teachers and elders of our society - need to raise our collective children with a healthier and more sound understanding of money management, both by instruction and example. Children need to hear AND SEE how money is optimally managed, how healthy decisions are made, what the difference between "want" and "need" is, how rewarding and under-appreciated "anticipation" is by saving & working towards something.
The children of today - tomorrow's borrowers - are immersed in a cauldron of "you are special, you DESERVE this IMMEDIATELY", and we need to counter that by providing them with the skills to become informed consumers.
I was raised in the 'old school' environment where parents didn't discuss money with their kids. It was "none of your business". While that didn't teach me a whole lot about money management - they also repeated such phrases as "No", "We can't afford that", "Save your money and buy it yourself" and "Great - when you're 18, I'll even help you pack!"
We try to better things when we raise our own children, and I spent as much effort on teaching financial responsibility as I did on any other important aspect of life. It gets really hard when they're young adults - when it's so easy to pick them up if they fall, but it's NOT benevolent to rob them of the lessons. They make mistakes like most of us do/did at a young age - but the bigger the mistake, the better the lesson (cliche's become cliche's for good reason). It goes hand-in-hand with "The smaller the child, the smaller the problem."
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