Buzz
Ideally, every young adult would leave the nest at 18 with a checking account, savings, and enough knowledge to pass a surprise quiz on credit scores. But, as we all know, that doesn't always happen.
Personal finance education is often overlooked in many schools, with fewer than half of states requiring students to take a basic course in money management before graduation. At home, parents may struggle to find the time or confidence to teach their kids how to manage money effectively.
I was fortunate because my parents made an effort to teach me about money from a young age. They took me to the bank to explain what we were doing, and when I got my first job in high school, they helped me open a checking account. Every week, they paid the bills at the kitchen table while I worked on my homework at the same time.
But despite all their efforts, I still found a way to mess things up.
My mother has a deep dislike for debit cards, and when I say that, I don’t mean she just prefers not to use them. I mean she has never owned one. So when I headed off to college with my first debit card in my wallet, let me tell you what I quickly became an expert at: overdrawing my checking account.
My mom had shown me how to balance a checkbook, but during my freshman year of college, I wasn’t balancing anything. She didn’t know to warn me about the risks of debit cards, which didn’t come with a smaller ledger to track each transaction. I had to learn the hard way.
And here we are, you and I. Maybe you're someone who didn’t get enough financial education growing up, someone who had to figure it out on your own. Maybe you’ve definitely had to learn some of those lessons the hard way. Perhaps you've paid as much in overdraft fees as I did in my early 20s.
What poor financial habits did you pick up from your parents as a child? What lessons didn’t you get at home that could have helped you avoid money problems? What bad habits are you still trying to break as an adult?
Share your thoughts in the comments. If you've managed to break those bad habits you picked up when you were younger, how did you go about it?
