Where will our kids find work?

I've been thinking about education lately, and today I found myself daydreaming about what I would do if I went back to work.  Back to work for me would mean back to high school teaching.  Last time, I had senior Mathematics but what if I was given to opportunity to teach Business?

I have the luxury of this daydream since I have a teaching qualification and a position waiting for me at a state school for when I decide that my children are old enough not to need me full time.

It occurs to me, though, that many people do not have this option.  People are not only asking, "Where can I get a job", but, "Do I HAVE To Get A Job?"  It seems that news of companies doing massive lay-offs and downsizing is occurring more frequently.  Also, many women are finding that their careers do not suit them anymore after having raised one or more children.  Australian companies are moving offshore to take advantage of lower employee wages and less "red tape". Even jobs that used to be safe, (ie the public service) are being axed as the Queensland government slashes its spending in a bid to pull the budget into surplus.

All of these things indicate to me that our children are in trouble!

Where are they going to find work?

Schools and the education system seem to me to be sending the wrong messages to our kids.  They condition them to believe that if they work hard, they can get a good job and will be well set up financially.  This is simply not true.

Schools value further education (different from self-education) and push kids to get into university.  If this does not suit, the only other option you are lead to believe that you have, is to get a job.  Many of our kids, whilst being aware that businesses exist, would not even consider that running a business is even an option to them straight out of high school.  Most would not be able to tell you what investing means, let alone different ways of achieving this.

I believe that the only way many of our young people are going to get employment and indeed financial security is to create it for themselves.  This means developing their own businesses and income streams.  Schools need to catch up on this idea and teach this as a legitimate option to our students.

So what would I do if I went back to work and had the opportunity to teach business? I'd start with the end goal in mind.  My end goal and final assessment would be to have each child making money from their own business.  I'd set up milestones for the students to achieve throughout the year, and only after that would I look at the curriculum.  I'm sure the Business curriculum has a lot of information about what students need to know about business, so I'm sure it would work in well.

For now and until that time (if it ever occurs) I am going to set up as many income streams as I can so that I can teach from personal experience.  Whether or not I get back into a high-school classroom does not matter.  I will learn, apply and pass on my knowledge in the simplest possible way.

I have already begun with a book which outlines the different types of businesses and investments.  If you agree that our teenagers need to be aware of these options, get to Amazon and download "Do I HAVE To Get A Job? - Business And Investment Options You Can Begin At Any Age" while it is still at the low price of $2.99

How to use your credit card properly

Most of us have got a credit card.  It is a useful tool for accessing large sums of money quickly. This, unfortunately is also the worst thing about it.  And since nobody is teaching us how to use a credit card properly, many people end up paying interest bills on their credit card every month.  They do this without getting the full benefits of the use of the card as it is usually at its maximum limit.

So for those of you contemplating getting a credit card for the first time, this is for you.

1. Your credit card is used to make purchases not to finance things.

That means, don't use your card to buy equipment for a business.
Don't use your card to pay University tuition fees.
Don't use your card to buy anything that will take many months to pay off.
Don't use your card to purchase shares or other investments.

Why not?

Because the interest rate is too high.  If you need large sums of money to finance your business, studies or investments, there are better loans out there.  Go and talk to your bank manager about getting a start-up loan and what these involve.  If they won't lend you the money, then that's probably as good an indicator as any that you shouldn't be spending it.

Do use your card for daily purchases like groceries.
Do use your card for anything you would otherwise pay cash for.
Do use your card for paying for haircuts and movies and clothes and restaurants.

Why?

Because it makes it so much easier to keep track of your spending.  At the end of each month you can look through your credit card bill and see exactly where your money has gone.  If you have spent $500 on take-away food in one month, you can assess this and decide if you should perhaps cut back on take-aways.  Also you can check your balance throughout the month.  I have a mental limit (not my credit card limit) not to spend more than $2000 each month (Total).  This includes groceries, bills, treats, everything.  If my balance on my card is $1850 on the 23rd of the month, I might decide not to bother grocery shopping at all until the first of the next month.  I'd use up all the rest of the food in the pantry first, even if it means going without bread or drinking powdered milk for a week.

2.  Pay your card off IN FULL each month.

Your card is used to make your life easier, not to buy things with money you don't have.  Your card should have an interest-free period.  This way, the first purchase you make on the card does not get charged interest until the following bill is due.  If you pay the balance of your bill (not the minimum payment) on or before the day that it is due, you will not be charged interest.

Why is this important?

Because otherwise you could end up paying $100 for that $50 shirt you just bought on special for $30. It's all well and good buying products on sale, but what's the point if you then go and put it on your card and pay interest on it?  $30 at 21% means that if you never pay your card off in full, by the end of the year you have paid $36.30 for that shirt.  Let's say you've maxed your card out at $2000.  At 21% you'll be paying $420 each year for NOTHING!!!  I can think of much better things than NOTHING to spend $420 on can't you?

3. Set yourself a limit.

Your credit card limit as directed by the bank should not be the limit you set for yourself.

Why?

Because life happens and you may still need money in an emergency.
Because the bank wants you to overspend so that they get the interest payment.
Because the bank will always give you a greater limit than you should set for yourself.

Decide on how much you can reasonably pay off each month.  Factor in the cost per year for car services, roadside assistance, electricity, insurance etc. Don't go over the limit.  Check your progress via internet banking each week to see how you are going.  If you are overspending, you can cut back.  If you get a particularly large bill in, your savings should be able to cover this.

Lets look at an example.

Say you are earning $4000 per month.  You are putting money into savings, rent and paying off a car so you decide that you can reasonably afford $2000 on the rest.  Your irregular bills (insurance etc.) come to around $5000 for the year.  So set yourself a limit on your credit card of ($2000x12-$5000)/12 = $1583 per month.  Round that down to make it easier.  Your credit card mental limit should be $1500 per month.  Don't spend any more than this except if you get one of those bills in.  Still put it on your card though, that's what it's there for.  When your credit card bill comes in, transfer the whole balance from your usual account onto your credit card.

4.  Don't get cash out on your card.

Why not?

Because it does not come with an interest free period.
You'll be paying interest on it from the second you have the cash in your hand.

What to do instead.

Let's face it, there are always things that are easier to pay cash for.  You don't want to have to spend $10 just so that you can put that $3 coffee on the card.  Instead, factor in some cash each month to your regular spending and get that out from your usual account.  Using our previous example, we have a $1500 mental limit.  Get out maybe $100 each month for cash transactions and reduce your mental credit card limit to $1400.  Once the $100 is gone, don't get any more out.  Or alternatively, if you have a night out planned with drinking and merriment, check your credit card balance, make a mental note to reduce your limit, get out what you think you'll need and don't go back to the ATM.

Any Questions?

Teaching children a positive attitude regarding money

We all want the best for our children.  We try to make sure they are safe, are going to a good school and are getting enough love and attention at home.  But how often do we stop to think about what they are learning with regards to money in their daily lives.  After all, they will have to handle money eventually.  Should their financial education begin when they get their first job or earlier when they are at school, or should we be conscious of their financial education from an even younger age?

I'm here to argue that regardless of when we begin a formal education strategy about money, our children will form their own opinions at a very young age.  By the time our children are school age, they usually know what a book is and have some idea about letters, words, numbers, shapes and colours.  It makes sense that they also know what money is and have an opinion about how to use it.  They have seen us shop innumerable times in their lives.

Our children have also heard us discussing money.   We probably haven't even been aware of the messages they have been receiving.  But if we want to give our children an advantage in the world financially, perhaps we should be thinking about what we say.  Is the subject of money in your house associated with arguments and negativity or does it bring about a positive feeling?  Is it a taboo subject to which each member of the family acknowledges the unspoken rule not to speak of it?

Have a think about what type of feeling you get when you think about money.  Chances are, your children feel the same way.  What beliefs do you have?  That money is scarce, evil, abundant, fluid, powerful, useful, easy to get, difficult to keep, never enough, not important? If you haven't really thought about it here's a quick exercise.  Have a think about the phrases you use in respect to money.  Or when your child asks for something what do you say?

"Money doesn't grow on trees"
"Money is the root of all evil"
"I don't get paid enough for that"

or is it something like

"Money provides opportunities"
"Money is easy to come by"
"You can have anything you like, with careful planning and budgeting"
"If you can save up half for that, I'll put in the other half"

To give our children a head start in their financial education, it is important that they can speak freely with you about money.  It is also important that they develop a positive attitude towards money.  But here's the trick:  If you have negative beliefs about money it will be difficult for you to teach your kids a positive attitude.  So here's an exercise that you can do.

Get the whole family together.  Turn off the TV, phones and computers and sit around the dinner table with some paper and coloured pencils.  Get everyone to write down some beliefs that they have about money.  Decide as a group whether these are positive or negative. Discuss how these beliefs affect how you handle money.  If your catchcry is something to the effect of, "We can't afford it" then you probably don't allow yourself to want anything because there is no possibility of ever being able to get it.  For your children's sake and your own, entertain the idea of turning this around at least to "How can we afford it?" if not to, "We can have this if we really want it" and do some brainstorming about how you as a whole family can earn more money for your purchase or at least save up for it from existing income.

Now write a new list together which contains only positive comments about money. These should be new beliefs that you'd like to have.  You don't have to believe them straight away.  Once you have a list of between five and ten new beliefs, put them up on the fridge for everyone to see and read daily.  Get used to saying these words instead of the negative ones.  Your children, creative beings that they are, should develop a positive outlook with regards to money and be on their way to learning to negotiate ways to get what they want, even if it seems impossible to you.  Try not to stifle this creativity by being a "realist".  Instead, foster their excitement and give them the responsibility for saving and budgeting.  They should quickly learn what purchases are important to them and temper their need for instant gratification.

How to teach your kids about money

This will be the first in what I hope will be a series of blog posts about how you can empower your children by giving them practical skills in money management.  Financial education for children is a passionate subject area of mine.  I believe that if money management is/was taught formally, much of the financial problems that people face in their daily lives could be avoided.  I heard a quote the other day which suggested that the poorest person in Australia is one of the richest people in the world.  If that is the case, we shouldn't all struggling so much just to make ends meet and we don't have to.

Children learn about the world from a very young age.  Everything you do and say is taken on board as they soak up knowledge.  Therefore I suggest that there is no minimum age in which you begin to teach your kids about money.  So here are some things that you can do starting right now, no matter how old your child is, to begin their positive financial education.

1. Be aware of what messages your are sending
Children learn from what you do, far more than they learn from what you say.  It is difficult to tell your child not to swear if you are using profanities in every sentence you utter.  It is the same with money.  You may not think that they know anything about your financial situation but they will pick up on subtleties that you don't even think about.  If you pull out your credit card for every purchase you make, they will know and subconsciously develop the opinion that this is a good thing to do.  If you ask for a receipt for every purchase you make and then check these against your bank statements every month, they will learn this as well.  Do they get the catch-cry, "Money doesn't grow on trees you know" when they ask for something or do they get taught value by identifying priorities for how and when they will spend their pocket money? If you don't know what ideas your children are getting about money, ask them (if they are able to talk), and be aware of what you are doing and saying in front of them.

2.  Discuss money with your kids
I know of some families who find it difficult to talk about money.  For some reason it is a taboo subject.  So when they have to discuss something, it's a strained conversation and often put off for too long.  Make money a subject that your children feel confident in discussing with you.  If they have a question about your financial situation, answer them truthfully instead of brushing them off with a half answer or a smart remark.

3. Find a way for them to model good habits
To learn the value of money, you really need to be handling it yourself.  Some people don't begin their financial education until they get their first job and then often they make huge mistakes and end up in trouble.  Trial and error is not the best way to learn money management.  I've also found that being told what to do can only take you so far.  Instead, show your kids some good money management by giving them some responsibility with money.  One way to do this is with pocket money.  The younger the child, the more important it is for the money to be tangible so give them cash.  If you want them to save it, don't put it in the bank for them so that they never see it, this teaches them nothing.  Instead give them two money boxes or jars to put it into.  Say that they represent different bank accounts and make one a savings account and the other a spending account.  Make sure that a minimum of 10% of their pocket money goes into the savings account and don't let them spend this on anything that does not make them money.  If they want to save for a consumable item, then a third jar might be necessary.  Your children will learn quite quickly how money can accumulate if saved regularly.  For older children, you might set up actual bank accounts but make them responsible for depositing the money themselves.  They can easily see how their money is growing by registering for internet banking.

I'll put up some more practical strategies for teaching money management to your children in subsequent posts.  In the meantime, check out my older posts for ideas and see if you and your children can work out a way to implement these strategies together.  If you have some strategies that work or you come up with some new ones, leave a comment so that other readers can also benefit from your creativity.

Teachers are not allowed to teach.

I ran into a friend of mine the other day who is a kindergarten teacher.  She was telling me about the work that she was doing with her kids.  Last year, parents were disappointed that their children did not seem to be learning much.  Is kindergarten supposed to be educational or is it just a glorified day-care centre I wonder.  This year, she is working well with her children but finds it difficult as she is forbidden to do any structural learning activities.  Kindergarten is supposed to be student centred, play based learning.  The kids decide what they will do during the day.  How does that prepare them for school I wonder?  My friend is not only responsible for the kids during the day, but she must write constant reports about their progress throughout the year.  What is the point of this when she is not allowed to teach them anything?  She was even criticised for having the letters of the alphabet displayed on the walls.  Much of her time is also taken up with health and safety checks and other paperwork.  She barely gets time to "play" with the kids at all.  What a ridiculous system.

I had similar problems when I was teaching three years ago.  We were supposed to keep records of the students' progress (on top of their regular assessment), by assessing them constantly throughout each lesson.  These detailed reports would take hours to write at the end of each day.  On top of that we had to prepare our lessons, find resources, set these up in the classroom and justify our decisions as to what type of lesson was being conducted and what learning styles this would address.  If all of this was done "correctly" we would be up all hours of the night and at school very early to get it all done.  No wonder teachers are leaving the profession burned out within 3-5 years.

The regulations are inappropriate for the profession.  To do the right thing by the students, teachers have to decide which rules to follow and which to ignore whist watching their backs the whole time.  They are not focussed on teaching anymore as much as covering their butts and working the system.  And the kids are suffering.  Many students who fall behind do not ever get a chance to catch up because the teachers are not allowed to teach anything other than the curriculum for that year.  There is no time for them to do anything else.  Students who are gifted also do not get their needs met because they have to wait for the rest of the class.  Yet, the teachers are expected to justify how they are addressing the needs of individuals.

The government has us all fooled.  They have taken on the responsibility of educating our children but are not doing it at all well.  Teachers are not to blame, they are doing the best they can.  It is the system which is flawed.  We must take back the responsibility for the education of our children and not leave it to the so-called professionals.  Think of the school as a resource and nothing more.  You need to decide what is best for your child, not the government.  To them your child is just a number with an A-E score attached.  Take an interest, take responsibility, and question everything.  Twelve years is a lot of life to be wasted on a bad education.

Who's responsible?

I was having a conversation with my husband’s aunt about schools.  She was telling me about how people in her district were suggesting that the school provide breakfast for the students.  The school in which I used to work had a breakfast program while I was there.  The students would have to run around the oval a couple of times and then got some cereal for their effort. On the one hand this is a good idea.  It promotes healthy eating and exercise and it give’s the kids a chance at a good brekky who would otherwise have not gotten anything at home.  My issue is: why aren’t they getting a good breakfast at home?  Is it really the school’s responsibility to promote healthy eating?  When I was teaching in town I would see students walking to school with a can of coke and a bag of lollies.  This disturbs me.  One of the subjects I was teaching at the time was Health, but clearly explaining the benefits of healthy eating and the effects different foods had on the human body was not enough.  The message was lost.

Another gripe I regularly hear is parents complaining that their children are not being taught manners in school.  Is that really the job of the teachers?  If so, what role do the parents play in their children’s education?  It appears to me that parents are giving over their power as parents to the state and expecting schools to teach their children everything they need to know…. About everything.  At the same time, they are telling their kids, “The teachers can’t make you do anything, so you just do what you want.”  There are mixed signals here.  And it is no wonder that our kids are slipping through the cracks.

As a new parent and a former teacher, I have a unique perspective about what I can expect from schools and education for my child.  I know that schools have no power to discipline kids and no real ability to tailor programs to suit my child’s needs if they differ significantly from mainstream education.  Teachers only get the children for a short period each day and for the rest of the time they are in their parents’ care.  Can parents really expect teachers to have more influence over their children than they do themselves?  And for that matter, why do they want them to? 

For my part I’d like to urge parents to take back responsibility for their children’s education…all aspects of it.  If you want your child to grow up with a certain set of values, then model these for them and encourage your children to learn them.  If you don’t think that the school is doing a good enough job at teaching your child reading or mathematics, then don’t complain and threaten, pick up the slack and read with your children and encourage mathematical calculations at home.

If we, as parents, take back our power and realise that it is our responsibility alone to provide an education for our children, then the schools can resume their place.  By this I mean the school is merely a resource that you can use to assist you in the education of your children.  It is a good resource but not a complete one and certainly not the only one you have. Once you realise this fact, a whole new freedom opens up for you and your kids.  Take an interest.  Take back your power and your responsibility.  I’m sure that the education process will be far more rewarding when you do.