I can see how people can get into tremendous debt

[spidey07]

I honestly think there should be a required class in High School for basic financial skills. Heck, before I WOKE UP, I just assumed if there was money available, then spend it!

But it's getting ridiculous. Every week there is 5-8 offers of "you've been approved!" for X amount for a home equity loan. Turn your home into cash! Use these checks, your credit line is (some ridiculous amount).

I'm not stupid. Nor am I a financial wizard as I still believe you should finance as much as possible for your home and outpace your interest via other investments. There is such a thing as leveraging debt. But even if you follow this very sound principle, all it would take is to do one of these kinds of things to set you back years or possible decades.

 

[atybimf]

My high school has a required Personal Finance class you have to take as a sophmore for a semester.

edit: spelling :|

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I think that the people who would bother staying awake in the class are the ones who know this anyway. Would there really be a portion that would listen? Maybe if it was required to get a B/C in order to graduate?

 

[2Xtreme21]

I think the simplest, soundest advice is that there's no no-effort way to make money. Period.

 

[compuwiz1]

The problem has more to do with discipline, than knowlege. You can educate people to death, but if they can't control themselves, it does no good.

 

[xanis]

I couldn't agree more. Good example: when my aunt and uncle got divorced they were each about $20,000 in debt.

 

[Aimster]

getting pre-approved letters in the mail doent mean u are approved..

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
I think that the people who would bother staying awake in the class are the ones who know this anyway. Would there really be a portion that would listen? Maybe if it was required to get a B/C in order to graduate?

Most likely true.

It just seems like something has to be done to educate people. I can go on and on about my story of "not listening" when I was younger and am now playing catch up.

 

[Jeff7]

My own college bookstore was asking every customer to sign up for a credit card - get a chance to win $300 of books.

But then, I guess there's nothing obligating you to use said card. Sign up, get your "chance" to win, then shred the card.

 

[Skunkwourk]

Im starting to agree. What I thought was common sense, seems not to apply to many of my thousands of dollars in debt friends...

 

[JulesMaximus]

I have a few credit cards. One as a limit of over $20,000...I probably have about $2k on it currently. It will be paid off in a couple months max. I don't generally keep much of a balance on it though.

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: compuwiz1
The problem has more to do with discipline, than knowlege. You can educate people to death, but if they can't control themselves, it does no good.

Exactly. I'm always fighting myself.

 

[Super56K]

What bugs me the most is all of the mis-information that everyone knows to be 'true' that usually ends up biting them in the ass (even parents teaching their kids this!). For instance, a good friend of mine started amassing a large amount of store specific credit cards to get their introductory deals and store discounts to save money. He purchased too many things on them and the interest rate kicked his ass(no way!). Now he hopes to have his CC debt paid off in a year and plans on cutting them up. It boggles my mind that people can't appreciate the inherent danger of spending money you don't have.

This is a deep rooted problem that isn't going to go away anytime soon. I remember growing up and being told constantly, "If you want it, you can have it! We'll make it happen!" "Need a loan for that car? Your parents can co-sign!" So, by the time most of us graduate and head off to the working world/college we realize that we can live the 'high life' even if we don't have the means available to do it. There is another inherent problem in itself, too many of us equate living the 'high life' to having a ton of expensive crap. We're an extremely materialistic society and the creditors have stepped up to do us all a 'service'. I would like to see all kids in high school given a crash course on the darker side of finances, but I'm not very optimistic about the results it would have.