Happy Friday!! Today, I am sharing a story from a reader, with their permission. It reminds us of the power in sharing honest, unbiased information, free of any sales pitch, especially in foundational areas like personal finance. I’ll add a few thoughts at the end. Thanks, OD, for this:
Greetings! I have just finished reading your excellent book, Juggling Dynamite. It is fantastic! Reading the chapter near the end, entitled “The Keys,” brought a story to mind about personal finances.
For eight years, starting in the mid-nineties, I taught printing at a high school in Oregon.
At that time, the printing industry in the USA was booming. So much so that on any given day, there were sixty thousand unfilled job openings in printing firms large and small, and a dearth of employees with entry-level skills.
Given the magnitude of the trained labour shortage, the industry as a whole reached out to high schools and community colleges, offering funding and a curriculum to introduce students to a career in the printing industry. Measures were taken to find experienced printers who would go into teaching, and I was in the right place at the right time, with the right skill set and personality to leap from the press room to the classroom.
One day during a class lecture, I explained to my intro-level students that there were plenty of local jobs in print shops. The jobs always paid minimum wage to start, but the skilled labour shortage was so significant that employers would quickly give raises to the promising entry-level workers.
In the back of my small lecture room, Adam, a senior who needed an elective credit to graduate, said very loudly, “Minimum wage is more than enough to live on.” I ignored him and continued my lecture. “As I was going to say, if you get a job in a local printing company and you are doing well, the company is going to want to keep you, and they will give you a raise.” Adam piped up again. “Mr. D, why would I care about getting a raise when all I need to live on is minimum wage?”
At this point, I decided that ignoring Adam was only going to get more distracting, so I said to the class, “Hey, everyone, I’ve got a few things to go over with Adam, and I’m going to do it right now. It’s going to take about ten minutes. Nobody besides Adam needs to pay any attention – I just ask that you be quiet.”
“Now, Adam,” I said, standing at the chalkboard, “We are going to go over your budget. Assuming you work forty hours a week, and we take 15% out of your gross pay for taxes, how much money does your paycheck give you?” We did the calculation, and I wrote it down at the top of the board. “Great. Let’s go through your expenses. Now, is it fair for me to assume you are going to live with your parents for free?”
“No way!” said Adam vehemently. “I’m going to rent an apartment.” We discussed the monthly rent cost and wrote down the number. Then I said, “What about cable?”
“I need basic cable plus HBO,” came the reply. Again, I wrote down the cost. “How much is your car costing you? Repairs, insurance? Groceries?” Again, I wrote down numbers on the chalkboard.
“How about entertainment, Adam?” Adam looked at me and very proudly said, “Every week my girlfriend and I go out to dinner and a movie.” “I presume you go Dutch?” I asked. “No way! I always pay!” He was very proud of this weekly ritual. Again, I wrote a number on the board.
As we worked through the things he would need money for, I noticed that the rest of the class was paying rapt attention. Finally, I totalled the expenses column. “Adam, I have one question for you. Who is going to loan you five hundred dollars a month so that you can live on minimum wage?” The class giggled, Adam muttered something inaudible, and I directed the students to get to work on their projects.
I thought to myself, well, that was probably a big waste of time.
Two years later, the bell rang throughout the school as classes ended. The halls swelled with noisy high school students making their way to the next class as I stood in the hall supervising the kids, and who do I see navigating towards me amidst a sea of chattering adolescents but Adam, who had graduated just a few months after our budget exercise.
“Mr. D! I came back to school to say hi to my old teachers, and I really am glad to see you! You probably don’t remember, but one day in class, you showed me how a personal budget works.“ I told him that I remembered that day very well. “Here’s the thing, Mr. D, up until you did that, I literally did not know that I needed more than minimum wage to live even a basic life. Nobody had ever explained it to me. Understanding that really was a game-changer for me. I owe you a huge thanks for what you did by taking time to show me.”
I was blown away. My mom taught me this stuff when I was a young teenager, and I always assumed everyone knew this common-sense stuff.
Now I don’t know how it was that Adam could get all the way to grade twelve without understanding that making more than minimum wage is essential to support life’s needs. But after seeing Adam again and talking with several members of the high school teaching staff, I learned that personal finance was rarely taught at my high school anymore. It’s probably fair to say that not much has changed when we look at the current stats on personal debt and bankruptcies. Getting debt-free is so important to achieving one’s long-term financial goals.
How are people to learn without someone explaining and modelling wise financial behaviours? Most of us learn the hard way, sometimes repeatedly.
As a volunteer, I have led the Junior Achievers Personal Finance Course in schools and found it to be excellent. OD’s story reminds me to fit in some more of that.
The Game of LIFE, created in 1860 by Milton Bradley and updated since, is illuminating; Monopoly, patented in 1904, is too. Both are timeless and perfect for the holiday time with friends and family; excellent for catalyzing financial discourse in a fun way.
Studies suggest that parents would rather talk to their kids about sex than money. In other words, many don’t discuss it, and because most weren’t educated in personal finance, it’s hard to share what we don’t know. As we get older, it can feel vulnerable and embarrassing to admit gaps in our understanding.
Unfortunately, most so-called financial experts are trained and paid as salespeople for insurance, debt, real estate and other investment products, so that agenda dominates their recommendations and can trump the best interests of clients as the focus.
As I explained in Juggling Dynamite (2007), I got through undergrad, law school, stockbroker and insurance certifications without learning key financial principles. I have many learned friends who have admitted they know little about money management.
The best thing about completing a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation 22 years ago was that it helped me see the difference between math-based analysis and sales puff; it gave me permission to ask questions and call out things that make no sense. In a world of naked emperors, independent thought is the most helpful tool of all.
I am not likely to write much on the blog over the holidays. I wish you peace, gratitude, and love.
