The Things You Learn--Or Don't Learn--In School...

 I grabbed one of the books we use for homeschooling the other day, snapped a picture, and posted it on social media. I thought about the title, Financial Choices, a lot sine then.

Financial Choices.

Perhaps two of the most important words we'll ever deal with in our lives.

This isn't to say these choices are the most important words in our lives, or should be...no, far from it. But, the consequences of these choices can literally mean the difference between life and death.

We're teaching this book to our high school student. In three years my senior high school class will be reaching our 40th high school reunion. It's been a long time since I took high school classes. There's a lot of things I've forgotten that I once learned in high school. I don't remember learning about making financial decisions.

There's things we don't talk about in our society. Okay, maybe others do. In my family, we didn't talk too much about money. I know my mother--who raised three kids after losing her husband when the oldest child was ten-years old--taught us how to deal with money by her example. She worked in a butcher shop for decades. She sold real estate that she and my dad bought before he passed away. She always fed us, sheltered us, clothed us. 

I learned from her that money was not to be wasted, especially when you have just enough.

But, as it states in the forward to Financial Choices, the things taught in that book, or in any book dealing with how best to organize and deal with money, this book may be the most important book he's written. I wish they would have taught us some of these things when I was my son's age.

The ultimate proof of how well we did (or did not do...) in teaching our kids the best way to deal with financial matters is how they act and what choices they make. We have three adults and one teenager. They have a lifetime of financial choices ahead of them. I can only hope the choices they make will be good ones, ones that help feed, shelter, and clothe their families.

And maybe throw in a vacation every now and then...