Financial Education is the Real World by Noah

Financial Education is the Real World by Noah - November 2021 Scholarship Essay

Financial education classes are extremely underutilized in high schools today. These classes include information on how to manage your money and plan your financial future. As a society, we seem to forget that by the end of your senior year of high school, you are officially an adult, and can be put in situations where you have to fend for yourself financially. Without the proper information and guidance on how to make and manage money, it becomes extremely hard to take control of your finances, and avoid the stresses of paying bills month to month.
In today’s world, personal finance has become even more pertinent, as our social security and pension funds are drying up. Our generation will not have the same lifeline support to depend upon when we retire. Instead we will have to rely on our own savings, and assets to provide for ourselves into the later stages of our lives. Without this financial education, most of us will be working right up until our deaths. The struggle to earn enough money to provide for your current and future is an all consuming task, that detracts from our ability to follow dreams, and focus on the things more important than money, such as family, experiences, and making an impact on the world.
Most people do not have the opportunity to learn financial education from their parents, who may not have been taught themselves. As a society, we need to end this cycle of pushing aside financial education, and make sure that financial education classes are mandated for all students. We can all live better, more fulfilled lives if we can take control of our finances from an early age, before we go out into the real world. School aims to prepare us for the real world, and financial education is absolutely central to that concept, yet many students leave without having an in depth understanding of how to manage their own money, let’s change that.