Personal Finance Benefits by Rebeka

Personal Finance Benefits by Rebeka - June 2018 Scholarship Essay

I believe that the elective Personal Finance should be a required high school class. This class gives high school students a different mindset to think about managing their finances in the future. After high school, many students have no idea how to handle money on a larger scale on their own. Having a personal finance class required can help students better save their money for the future, pay off their student loans faster, and manage their daily expenses with ease.
Taking a class that breaks down the ways of saving and spending can change a person’s look at the future. Personally, after taking this class it made me want to save my money. It created a sense of want towards being financially stable and prepared for the unexpected things in life. Saving now gives people the opportunity to spend their money on the bigger things they really want. This class taught me to look into the future and prioritize what I want. Having the self-control to save the money I earned to use in the future for more important things was never something I would be doing without this class.
According to the CNBC, the average student has over $37,000 in student loans. In my personal finance class, we were taught that many people put off their student loans. This can create a problem because then the loans begin accruing much interest, making the cost grow and grow. While taking the class my teacher reminded us that school loans do not have to be a must-have. By saving up money and planning out the future student loans can be minimized or even completely avoided. Having all high school students take a personal finance class is very beneficial because it gives them a glimpse of what a future with student loans looks like but also a way to avoid it.
One of the biggest things I could learn in my personal finance class was how to manage my daily expenses. I had no idea how many expenses there are when living on one’s own. From rent to utilities, it would be much easier to organize them so a person does not have to stress about missing a payment. In the class, our teacher taught us the importance of organization and having a plan. Her way of doing this was by creating an excel spreadsheet that keeps track of what your savings and checking account. It also keeps track of what bills a person has and their amounts so that they will not be surprised about amounts. This helps a person not overspend on the non-necessities in order to have plenty of money for payments.
I believe personal finance should be a required class for all high school students. This class has equipped me with the knowledge of adulthood and what finances look like while I am on my own. Knowing what the future may uphold and the financial bumps in the road that may come up, I feel like this class has given me great tools to use in these situations.