money . . .

Today, my 2 girlfriends from work and I went to our usual weekly lunch together at Country Harvest. One of them (TC) pointed out that we wouldn't be seeing our favorite waitor again before Valentine's Day and she wanted to do a little something for him. I swear that girl brings him something every week. Not only do we almost always leave him a $10 tip (on our $15-25 order), but TC is in the habit of giving him a lottery ticket as well. When she brought up the Valentine thing, I told her that I was broke and just doing lunch was probably more than I should spend so I wouldn't be able to contribute. But she went ahead and got him a little heart shaped cake covered in strawberries from our bakery. Our other friend (TB) helped pay for it but all I could do was give her the $1 I had left over from my $10 allotted for lunch.

Anyway, at lunch, TC was telling me and TB about the open house that she had attended the night before at her daughters' high school. One particular teacher made a big impression on her. He is an economics teacher who got into teaching 9 years ago after he retired from the business world as a way to "give back" by teaching high school kids about economics. But his interest is more in teaching them about money in the real world than necessarily about the curriculum dictated by the state of California that the kids are supposed to learn by reading the very boring textbook. Now, obviously he has to do the job he's paid to do but from what TC was saying, he was so interesting in the 15 minute time he was allotted for this parent meeting that she didn't want to leave. And another parent actually told him that she wanted to take his class.

The girls and I talked about how very few high school kids are ready to learn about handling money because they've had so little experience with it. I think back to when I was in high school (lo, these many years ago) and I know I did not understand how credit cards work and (more importantly) how they can get you into so much trouble. I would not have listened to the wisdom of starting a retirement savings back then because of the miracle of compound interest. I know this because I'm sure that my Dad tried to tell me these things and all I ever thought was that he was the stingiest, tightest man in the world and he never seemed to have any fun. I knew that my dad learned his lessons as a young man who grew up during the depression and I kind of understood where he was coming from but I never thought that depression-like conditions would happen again, at least in my lifetime. But lo and behold, they pretty much have. And though it isn't quite as bad as the first time around because of some of the protections put into place after the first occurrence, the economy has been bad for a long stretch now, and it doesn't look like things are going to turn around anytime soon.

I don't know how many times I've thought to myself, "I wish I had someone to advise me what to do to get out of the mess I have made with my finances." Not that I am as bad off as some, but I have made some stupid moves that I regret and I'm almost afraid to do ANYTHING now, for fear that it will just make matters worse.

So I wish this wonderful high school teacher would offer a class to us adults who are anxious to refresh our knowledge about this stuff since we've been around the block a few times and realize that the pitfalls we were warned about are very, very real. Or maybe we should sit in with the high schoolers and relate our experiences to them in hopes that they won't make the same ones. . . Nah, that never works.