I've got my mind on my money and my money on my mind

For those of you who don't know, I am a bank teller at a local credit union in North Carolina. What I have noticed while working here is that an ALARMING number of teens/young adults know NOTHING about having a personal checking account. Let alone any other accounts they might have. My initial response is to start teaching this at an early age. I was a kid once my self (still am really) but I know that if a class was offered on how to manage money, I am certain I would have steered clear. Then I thought well why not have an assembly or something to that nature. After thinking this through its also a bad idea. We all know what we did during assemblies. This is an issue because I do believe it leads them into poor management of their finances when they are older.

When I was about 18 my father took me to a well known bank to open up a checking account with a debit card. This was a mistake. He basically just gave me the right to swipe that debit card any time I felt like it with no repercussions. That's exactly what I did. I had no clue about having to wait for my purchases to post in my account or there being a hold on my account for a gas purchase. None of it made sense to me and being a college student I didn't really care. As long as I saw money in my account it was mine to spend. Only when I started working at a bank did I really begin to understand how it all works.

This is what I propose. We need to start teaching kids about their finances as soon as they are old enough to understand how it works. I think their senior year they should have a mandatory class where they have to learn how to balance a check book, learn about debits and credits and how to properly use a debit card. I know to the adults out there who are reading this are probably thinking "well I can teach my kids that" well think again. I had to learn the hard way. I think if you give them "money" that's theirs they will care more about where it goes. This doesn't have to be real money it could be "monopoly money" that could be used to purchase goods within the school or tickets into sporting events or what not. I think the more personal you make it the more kids will pay attention to it.

All I know is that something has got to change if not these children will thrust into a world with no knowledge of how to manage their accounts which will lead to lifetimes of debt and frustration. Let's nip it in the bud now before its too late.

PREACH