Writer's Block: Tolerance 101?

[asterroc]

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It's not new, but I wish now I'd had the chance to take some sort of personal finance course that taught not only about budgeting, but also about health insurance, retirement plans, and mortgages. Chances are I wouldn't have taken it if I'd had the choice though. :-P

What I think would be more useful, would be a course on being an informed citizen of the world (not necessarily a citizen of the US), and a course on how to be a good parent.

One course I myself got a lot out of in HS was sex ed. Everything from how to put on a condom, to comparing the benefits and drawbacks of different forms of birth control, to identifying different STDs from the color of the secretions.

Comments

[linaeve-studio.livejournal.com]

The former class I took last year. I do look back and wish that our teacher had actually taught us something, as everything I learned was from the outside readings we were assigned.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Ah, but the teacher had to pick those readings. :)

[linaeve-studio.livejournal.com]

Nope, actually, we picked them. :P We just had to pick two books about finance to read by the end of the semester, the vast majority of the class was doing worksheets that weren't explained to us and goofing off.

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

I like that idea. I think kids are more worldly/savvy about money these days than I was. Alberta has a required class called CALM, Career and Life Management, which is like your last chance to learn about sex ed and your first chance to learn about budgeting, etc. I remember being taught how to balance a check :-D They certainly didn't cover things like handling debt (or staying out of debt). F=

[blahblahboy.livejournal.com]

I probably could name a lot of classes that were useless... for example, AP physics B-level (no calc). Also, there should be a way to skip the regular chem bio physics classes and just take the AP version. That would free up time. I wish I had taken a computer programming course earlier, but I'm not sure how well that would have worked given back then they taught it in a stupid language. Can you believe I never learned any real languages in all my schooling? Java, C++, etc.

I'm not sure how useful a self financial planning class would be. I would think they would run out of material after a week or two.

Do you think any courses should be taught earlier?

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I was irritated I had to take calc-based physics I in college. It was entirely a repeat. They let me get out of Astro 101 though - possibly b/c it's not actually required for the astro minor, just as a prereq for some other things. :-P

Programming would've been useful in high school. Or college. Or grad school. The only formal training I've had on programming is Basic back at 214, and I've managed to teach myself very little on my own, so I really suck at it.

I'm not sure how useful a self financial planning class would be. I would think they would run out of material after a week or two.

You're more money savvy than me. I can save money and budget well enough. Despite understanding the math perfectly well though, I still don't get the difference between a Roth IRA and a traditional IRA. Or whether I should have picked a pension or a 403b. Or the steps involved in buying a house. Or how to do taxes on a house. Or whether a healthcare savings account is something that would be good for me. Or how to do my taxes if I do that. Or or or....

[blahblahboy.livejournal.com]

I have fond memories of Mrs. Fishelberg's Basic class. I still remember beaming for being the first to program the turtle to draw this double symmetric object with a for loop than ran the same code four times.

I don't think I'm that money savvy myself. Did you know that 90% of my liquid assets right now is in cash? (that doesn't include 401Ks and stuff.) Maybe when I finally find a place worth buying, that will change.

I actually have no idea about any of those items that you stated. But you know what, I can google those things for you so I can seem savvy. :)

1. A Roth IRA you put in after tax earnings but the investment gains are not taxed when you withdraw them. A traditional IRA is more like your 401K/403B -- you can deduct your input from your taxes now but whatever you withdraw will be taxed. Both have income limits to be able to participate in.
2. In theory you want both pension and 403B if you can. The pension is a fixed payment for life (like an annuity), and the 403B is a limited amount of money that you can have inflation adjusted if you direct its investment properly. Diversity is good.
3. To buy a house, find a broker, decide how much you want to spend, put as a down payment, work out the amount and start looking! Watch HGTV for more hints. I think Property Virgins is the best show out of the three. My First House is the worst. House Hunters is okay.
4. Hire an accountant.
5. If you already are enrolled in a High-Deductible Health Plan, you should consider an HSA since any unused money is rolled over, unlike an FSA. Wikipedia has the limits.
6. You get to deduct any money contributed to an HSA from your taxable income.