Money Management / Personal Finance should be built into the basic school curriculum so that we can teach our youth to become more responsible over their own finances.  They should be better equipped to make educated decisions with their finances.  They would better understand the consequences behind making unwise financial decisions.  We (American government) can continue to give out welfare checks, stimulus packages, bailouts, etc.; but without the basic financial fundaments, there are many recipients who make unwise financial decisions and run out of money before the end of the month.  An important topic to cover in money management course is about being an educated / smart consumer.  Yes, we are partly in this mortgage crisis because of mortgage lenders. However, many of these consumers play a part in their own fate by taking on loans that they cannot reasonably afford.  They took on a loan just because it was approved instead of making their decision on what was more realistically affordable.

We should educate our youth now so that a similar economic tragedy does not occur with future generations.   There are many adult Americans who may also wish to have a money management course.  As for the adult Americans who have already graduated from public schools; these types of money management classes should be available to them as a tax deductible continuing education class.  Being a tax deduction can be an incentive to taking the class for those who need it.

I believe that many of the predatory lenders are successful because they dwell on individuals who are in need of financial assistance (the poor) but do not understand how to make a wise decision on fulfilling that need.   I believe that through education (basic money management courses) we can produce wiser consumers and make it more difficult for these institutions to prey on the less fortunate.

Also, by creating a wiser consumer, the consumer can lessen the financial strain on themselves by wisely spending the resources they have available to them.  Hopefully, this will help many who are able to successfully implement good money management skills into their lives to be more prosperous resulting in less people reliant on government assistance and more to be self-sufficient.

This is, in some ways, similar to Obama’s Hospitals Report Card Act where the attempt is to educate the consumer / patient so that they are empowered to make a knowledgably decision on where to get quality healthcare and competitive pricing.   Providing basic money management education will help consumers make good financial decisions overall.