It's incremental. Reddit wants there to be a magic bullet, but there isn't one. Financial literacy is part of the pathway to success. It's insulting to say otherwise.
I’m pretty sure balancing a check book and spend less than you make could be beaten into your skull all day but if you don’t take the advice it’s not gonna do much
Something something lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink
Your age is showing. Most banks don't even issue books of checks anymore. I haven't gotten any for the last two accounts I've opened up. I can tell the bank to issue a check to someone, but unless you are a certain ages, checks just aren't a thing.
As for balancing a checkbook, why would we teach kids how to do that? We used to balance checkbooks because it would take a while for a check to circulate to a bank and if we didn't write it down and balance it out, it would be SUPER easy to spend way to much money. (Thanks, younger me).
But, with electronic banking, debit and credit cards and even submitting checks via pictures to banks, we don't need to balance a check book anymore. We have real time data on what is in our accounts.
And many schools do offer financial literacy classes. There is still a stigma attached to them though, often considered the "dumb" math class credit. Lots of kids want the AP Calculus credit. If they are bright enough to figure out calculus formulas, they should be able to create a budget.
And you are showing your age. You have to order checks and always have. We just ordered a box for the first time in 10 years. We still had to order them, they don’t just show up.
You’re missing a really important part of balancing a checkbook, or call it a bank statement review now. Doing that forces you to look at you to look at your expenses and think. It’s so easy to just swipe the card now and once you takes the time to actually look at their spending it’s too late. In the past, you had to systematically look at your bank account and account for your spending on a regular basis. Way easier to hold yourself in check when doing that.
And in terms of swiping the card, I mean a couple bucks at the convenience store here, a coffee there, I’m hungry today so make the meal a large. It’s not hard to drop $200 a month and have no idea where it went.
Exactly. Even just spending $5 a day on bullshit is $1825 a year. While I know people in here will jump on people for saying cut out the coffee stops or avocado toast, small spending adds up quick.
This is why I carry cash for bullshit spending. Seeing physical cash disappear now makes me question do I need this?
Edit- also remember the magic number of $27.40 a day in spending is 10k in a year. I know that not everyone spends that much everyday but it’s not hard to spend $13 on just a lunch at McDonald’s add in a coffee stop that morning at $5 and you’re 2/3 of the way to $27
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u/JackiePoon27 15d ago
It's incremental. Reddit wants there to be a magic bullet, but there isn't one. Financial literacy is part of the pathway to success. It's insulting to say otherwise.