Money is one of the largest factors that affect how my life is lived. It determines what I can or can’t do based on my funds. Money management, or budgeting, is very important for a high-school student like me, and many of my peers often struggle to save money, so having a plan helps. If students like myself are shown the positive effects of budgeting, we would be motivated to save our money. Some families should be better off than they are, but they cannot seem to pull ahead because they practice poor money-management skills. This affects us, the children, susceptible to the same cycle that they had gone through because of the lack of guidance from schools in our community. Our school should show the importance of budgeting by making budgeting classes required for everyone because it improves the quality of life and it’s a lifelong skill.
Being able to budget properly increases the quality of life among us, the students, and for our future families. Students who budget are actively saving for their future, thus giving them a head start when compared to most students who impulse-shop and practically throw their wages away. Knowing that you have an upper hand in the future can help decrease stress and it allows you to look forward to a life after high school. Budgeting correctly also puts a little extra money in your pocket, and who doesn’t want that? It’ll give you the ability to live off one paycheck for longer periods of time is also good in the case of an emergency. These students who take classes based on money management are better prepared because they can stretch their money and cover necessary expenses for a longer period of time. This prepares you in case you are fired or need to find another job.
Most jobs do not require all of the skills learned in school. So once we all find our certain niche, we will probably forget what we don’t absolutely need to remember from school. Money management isn’t like that; it’s an important skill that is needed throughout life. Therefore, our schools should require us to take budgeting classes for two consecutive years when a regular student is in school. It’s important that we, the future generation of adults and leaders, learn how to live our lives to the fullest, and money management courses can allow us to do that. Requiring students to enroll in budgeting classes will help us in the long run by encouraging us to remember the strategies to budget properly.
Some people may say that making us students take money management classes wouldn’t allow us to take courses we choose to participate in, which may sound terrible at first, but hear me out. Are you really going to remember how to speak that language after high school? Are you actually going to pursue music? Do you have a true place in theater? We may not carry the other electives with us throughout the rest of our lives, but budgeting is a skill that is needed for life. It is important for the students to be taught money management because of the impact that their budgeting skills will have on their lives. Schools should not allow students to disregard their future financial literacy in order to enroll in a less important class. Schools should remind students that financial planning is an important part of preparing for the future, whatever the students’ desired outcome may be.
High schools should highlight the importance of financial literacy to us students because it is a lifelong skill that improves the quality of life for each individual. Skillful budgeting can lead to better financial decisions that will impact a person for the rest of their life. It can allow us to make healthier choices for ourselves throughout our journey. Requiring more financial literacy classes would give students the tools they need to succeed and thrive in life after high school. It will further prepare us to break any cycle of poor financial choices that could act as an anchor in our post-high school plans. Schools should push for more finance-based classes in order to improve their students’ chances for success.
