More than likely, you answered ‘no’ to that question… and have you ever really thought about why that is? Why are we not taught from youth something so vital to the rest of our lives?

Well, now with the help of BUCK Academy, you can give your children the gift of financial knowledge. Teaching them about the tips of personal finances, and why they are so important to living a healthy, happy, and liberating life.

Deep Roots. Deep Story. – What Is The Truth In Them? 

Personal Finance is a basic life skill, one not taught by most public schools, even to this day. A shocking number of just 17 states require students to take a basic class in personal finance. While other classes such as art, Latin, and other ‘electives’ are deemed a necessity in the development of our school systems curriculum.

Where Did The Lack of Financial Knowledge in Our Youth Begin? 

Between myth, reality, conspiracies, and truth; where did the lack of knowledge on personal finance develop? Why is it not taught in our school system?

Stories lead back to Rockefeller days when the public school system was being developed. It was said that the wealthy restricted the average person on educational access on the topic of personal finances to ‘teach’ people how to be workers and not free-thinking, financially independent individuals. But there’s more to the story than just that.

Rockefellers and the public school system 

Rockefeller Education Board—which funded the creation of numerous public schools—issued a statement which read in part:

“In our dreams…people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The present educational conventions [intellectual and character education] fade from our minds, and unhampered by tradition we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or men of science. We have not to raise up from among them authors, educators, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians, nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen, of whom we have ample supply. The task we set before ourselves is very simple…we will organize children…and teach them to do in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way.”

The higher officials within industry and government explicitly wanted an educational system that would maintain social order by teaching us just enough to get by but not enough so that we could think for ourselves outside of what we are taught in school alone.

New Age of Public School

21st Century schooling has changed since it all began, and most would say for the better.

As you can see on this graph below sourced by The Council for Economic Education, more and more states have made personal finance available to our school-age students, with only 6 states where personal finance is not as easily accessible.

Consumerism 

What Is It? 

In short – it means the promotion of items and services that you are directly interested in, and the company in which is advertising will financially gain from your purchases.

Who Gains From Consumerism? 

Banks, companies, media corporations, governments – they make more money when you don’t know what to do with yours.

The How To’s of Financial Knowledge In The Age of Adulthood

These simple steps will help you break down, live by example, and teach your children how

to take care of themselves financially from youth to adulthood.

1. Create and stick to a budget – Find your average monthly, weekly, or bi-weekly net amount, and delegate your bills, and entertainment expenses from there.
2. Timely payment of bills – Setting your bills on auto payment is an efficient way to ensure timely payments when you have multiple payments due at different times.
3. Managing loans – manage your loans, and keep up with current and on-time payments.
4. Net Income vs. Gross – Keep track of what you make, vs what you really make.
5. Save for your retirement – Save money for when you are unable to bring income into the home past working age.
6. Time value of money – is the concept that the money you have now is worth more than the identical sum in the future due to its potential earning capacity.
7. Credit Cards – Here’s a few ways to be responsible with your credit card; pay your balance off every month, use them for needs not wants, do not skip a payment, and lastly, stay under 30% of your CC limit.
8. Credit Scores – Credit scores are extremely important, they can be the difference between getting approved for cars, homes, loans, and more. Millennials have an average FICO score of 668, according to Experian data from the second quarter of 2019. FICO scores range from 300 to 850, with “good” scores considered to be any above 670. Gen-Zer’s have an average score of 667, while Gen-Xer’s are typically at 688.
9. Economic Changes – Financial stability during economic changes is important as it reflects a sound financial system, which in turn is important as it reinforces trust in the system and prevents phenomena such as a run on banks, which can destabilize an economy done in mass.

It is incredibly vital to be instilling good financial habits such as these into the lives and minds of our kids. And, by doing so from a young age (preferably ages 5-10) will do best to build the habits of great financial independence.

Help them become successful beyond their peers (and years) with the advanced knowledge that is available at their fingertips. Reach out to us here at BUCK Academy and see how we can help you and your family on the road to financial liberation.

“Value Knowledge. Gift It Forward.”

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