Thank you for your editorial May 11, “Our View: Personal finance lessons crucial for Maine teens.” A fall semester of personal finance will be a great start. A spring semester of economics would complement and complete the student’s introduction to money.
What’s the difference? Personal finance, as you mentioned, includes finding and keeping a job and paying for rent, groceries and utilities. It also includes savings, budgeting, assets and liabilities, credit cards, credit score, investments, debt, funding college and retirement.
By now, you may be asking, “What else is there?” Lots.
Economics can include more advanced topics, like living within your means, rising interest rates for savers and borrowers, inflation vs. purchasing power, supply and demand, why prices increase or decrease, cost vs. revenue, collective bargaining and the importance of trade and monetary policy.
With a good introduction to these topics, students will be better prepared for college, career and family life. Parents are often reluctant to discuss these topics with their kids because they never learned themselves. If they did learn, it was probably the hard way. Do we really want our kids learning the hard way?
Allan Neff, MBA
South Portland
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