Dear Hayley and Samantha,
As your daddy and I have been busy making decisions for our new home, I have come to realize how important certain educational lessons are...ones that your mommy doesn't have instilled in her brain.
Girls, this next bit of advice will be important for you to know later in life, I promise.
As you journey throughout your school years, especially when you get into high school and then your college years, be sure to take business finance classes. Educate yourselves with the intricacies of money, insurance, mortgages, loans, interest rates, premiums, deductibles, percentages...the list goes on - all of which is pretty much foreign language to your mother. Sad...but true.
Learn these things so when the time comes for you to buy and/or build your own homes, you will understand the millions of papers you are signing in front of your loan office and/or the title company. Learn these things so when you take yourself or your family members to the doctor, buy your first car (and maybe get into your first fender-bender) or take out a life insurance policy, you understand your statements, your deductible, oh yeah, and taxes...so you know WHERE YOUR MONEY IS GOING AND WHY!
Unlike your mother, learn your numbers and learn them well. In school, when you have a choice, take the classes that will not only help you in the area you would like to pursue in life, but take classes that will help you and your family prosper. Luckily for me, I have the best and smartest husband in the world when it comes to numbers - so he gets it all. He knows what questions to ask, he knows when to "lock in" on an interest rate, he understands premiums, deductibles, and all the rest of that stuff. He also knows how to guide me and help me understand these things, even when I don't want to learn. :)
I'm learning a little. But I would feel less lost if I would have learned more earlier in life. I know your dad and I will help guide you to learn these things and I hope that you will be open to these educational topics when the time comes. I also hope you have your daddy's brains when it comes to math. :)
Any questions? Ask your father. ;)
Love,
mom
This is me:
This is me with numbers, budgets, and all the other things I mentioned above:
3 comments:
This is so funny. When I worked at Consumer Credit Counseling I would curse our school system like sixteen times a day for not training people on finances. Why we didn't have to take a class in high school on this stuff is beyond me. I feel like our schools let us down in these areas. They teach us how to cook or sew but not how to read a credit card statement or balance a check book. It doesn't make sense to me. I'm glad that you will push your girls to learn about this stuff. As you've found out, it is very important. Kudos to Lance for helping you out. Can you imagine if you had a husband who didn't understand it either. Those were the people I saw every day that got themselves into financial trouble. Sad but true. Make sure to print this out and give it to your girls when they are teenagers - very awesome advice!!!
I totally agree 100%!!! Great post Rosanne!
Yes, yes, yes... And when I was at GFH, the classes were offered to learn these sorts of things. I wanted to take them because they seemed so practical... but geometry, bleck, a skill I never ever use, was required instead.
I still think whoever decided that was a fool ;) Now, I need to go to work on my attitude and educate myself, probably, sigh.
Post a Comment