I was at game night with the fellas when one of their high school age kids joined us for dinner. Knowing a couple of us are finance geeks, she shared a budgeting exercise that was an assignment for an economics course.
My enthusiasm for hearing her planned budget (how, based on an average starting salary after graduating college, she proposed to pay for housing, transportation and food in high cost of living southern California) was a pleasure out of proportion for me.
We talked about how, once she had stashed away a sufficient emergency fund, devoting more of her take home pay after expenses to a retirement account could reduce her taxable income and future/elderly her indebted to younger her.
We briefly touched on the virtues of the Roth IRA for that first job out of college, when her income is lower and she is eligible to shovel in funds.
We also discussed the strong feelings I had about her proposal to finance a car instead of paying for it outright with cash. She pleaded that the project required her to buy a car before she had any savings, so financing it was the only option.
I will need a word with this economics teacher; my friend's daughter she cleverly rented an apartment within walking / biking distance of that new job, and should not be forced to finance a car.
The delight I took in discussing the early steps in financial adulting with my friend's daughter must have been evident as I recounted it to my wife, who suggested I organize an informal talk and allow my daughter to invite any interested friends to attend it.
This has me somewhat excited about the prospect of teaching this kind of class. First, it would be extremely fun to create and teach an overview of steps needed to begin financial adulting.
The added bonus might be that my own kids, who hear this information all the time (to the point of tuning it out at times), might re-engage in the thrill of getting a head start on their financial futures when they see its value reflected through their friends' enthusiasm.