It is absolutely obvious that young people have very little knowledge of personal finance. I know I probably didn’t when I was young (but that was so long ago I can barely recall what sort of wacky ideas I used to embrace).
I got to talking with my young nephew, Booker, the other day. I’m not sure exactly how the subject came up, but I mentioned that I was having a little trouble making ends meet. He just sort of looked at me like a cow looks at an oncoming train, so I just assumed he wanted me to go into more detail. So then I described what kinds of bills I had to pay, then I told him how much I was getting paid at work. Then of course I had to explain how much tax is being deducted off my cheques plus my C.P.P. payments. But he obviously didn’t get the concept of the Canada Pension Plan, so I had to try and explain that (which I just barely understand myself). Then there are all the necessities that I purchase every month, for example Blue Beaver Beer, internet connection, cable T.V. plus all the personal luxuries that I have become accustomed to; food, toilet paper, books about how to become successful; you know stuff like that. It was a lengthy conversation, although admittedly rather one sided, but somehow at the end I knew that I just hadn’t got through to him.
So I mentioned to my sister that I thought he didn’t understand personal finance. She gave me a look like I had a marlin growing out the top of my head and then asked me if I had forgotten that Booker is a year and a half old. I said that if he was learning about this sort of thing already it would really give him a leg up when he made it to grade one. She rolled her eyes and muttered that I should have another beer and explain my insane logic to the dog. I happily grabbed the beer out of the fridge but I told her that Tucker is ten years old and you can’t teach an old dog new personal finance tricks.
