Give Your High School Students a Financial Education

High school teaches many of the important topics that we come to expect. Mathematics, Language Arts, and Science are just a few of the subjects covered during a student’s high school years. However, we are neglecting a topic that is maybe even more important for the rest of their lives than those core topics. All of these students need a financial education! In fact, many of their parents could use a financial education as well. Here are some key concepts to add to your high school curriculum that will give the students a bit of real life, scared straight financial common sense that they all need.

Choose the College You Are Going to with Finances in Mind

Too many high school seniors and their parents disregard the cost of a college education. They believe in the long term, it is a good investment as the kid will be able to earn enough to pay off the huge loan needed for those four to five years to earn a degree. For this reason, numerous times they choose the costly private college instead of the more reasonably priced state university. It may be their “dream” school, but they will be paying a nightmare price for them.

Coming out of college with a massive amount owed in loans will keep the young adults living at home with their parents until they are in their thirties. According to the U.S. Student Loan Debt Statistics, the average amount each student owed after graduating from college was about $30,000 in 2018. While this does not sound like an immense amount, this is just part of the story. Sallie Mae is one of the primary student loan companies. Take a moment and just read some of the horror stories that have happened to students once they graduated from college with large student loans from Sallie Mae. Be prepared to pay just as much in interest in the long run as you will on the loan amount. If you owe $30,000 then be ready to pay an additional $30,000 in interest rates.

Leave the Credit Cards Alone

Those loans listed above are just for tuition costs for the college. College students will need even more money on top of this to survive on their own. The best thing to do would be to get a job as you earn your college degree, but many find that it will cut too much into their social life. Instead, they, unfortunately, turn to credit cards to help them out. With the high-interest rates associated with these dangerous debt devices, if you start racking up thousands of dollars in credit card debt, you may never get out from beneath their thumb.

A Degree Is a Degree

What I mean up above with “a degree is a degree” is that a bachelor’s degree from the local university is worth just as much as a bachelor’s degree from those high priced private colleges. Almost 100 percent of the time, it will still give you the chance to land that job you always wanted. Think of a degree as just a way to get your foot in the door for the interview. After that, it is up to your personality, ideas, and views to help you acquire the job. Leaving college with low or no debt is much more important to your future than an ordinary degree from a fancy college.

If you are a high school teacher and would like to be able to share this information adequately with your students, iAchieve might be able to help. We offer professional development like Essential Teaching Practices for the 21st Century where we will show you the ways to assist students with analyzing and using information such as this. If you can even keep one of your students from later on drowning in debt, you will have done your job.

Written by: Ryan Crawley

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