What School DIDNT Teach Me

Schools don’t teach the basics of adult life. Things we all need to deal with on a daily basis. I found it really difficult to transition fro student to adult and having to deal with 3 jobs, taxes, debt, money and lifes expenses. I had a really good chat with my daughter lwho is just finishing her secondary high school journey and moving into the workforce. Last week we started spitballing some things that schools should of been teaching to get her ready fro adult life. This was really interesting and we had some similar thoughts about what should make this list.

What school didn’t teach you? Well, there’s a lot that could be taught but isnt. I really hope COVID-19 taught us about innovation, how to pivot and adjusting the way we learn heading into the future.

What Teachers Should Be Teaching Kids in School

1. How Money Works

I strongly believe that schools should be teaching kids how money works and the importance of being on top of your own money.

2. Bank Accounts – This flows on nicely from learning about money. Where should they keep their money? in a bank, under the mattress or in a bitcoin wallet. These now more than ever are very important.

3. How Tax Works 

Understand all the types of income tax that affect your money. What a valuable life lesson for young people who will be joining the workforce. The worst thing you can do as a hard working community member is to find out while you worked hard and made good money you didnt pay the tax man and now you actually OWE MONEY!

This happened to me so many times and it feels like crap. You bust your back to make a decent living and the tax people wnat their cut of your money. This is soul destroying if you dont stay on top of it.

4. Property 

Understand the basics of how to buy property for investment purposes. Why buying property is a way to generate income and how best to make this a focus goal for the immediate future.

5. Starting an online business 

The number 1 thing I teach people in my training sessions is to take ideas and stress test them as startup businesses. Particularly starting a blog and taking it from there.

I really think teachers would struggle teaching this because they may not have experienced it themselves. 

Id like to see a class dedicated to exploring teh types of online businesses people build. 

• How they pick the niche
• How they market them
• How they maintain them
• How they monetize them
• Looking at the growth potential

That in a class would be facinating and I would say right now that I for one wouldnt be caught skipping class if this was the type of learning material we had.

6. Types of investments 

Know the different types of investment opportunities available when they have some money. Imagine a world where your kids are planning how to manage their finances before they graduate.

I would of loved to see my daughter having knowledge about taking her savings and having the insight to invest in a money generating asset coming out of high school. That would be a really valuable finance lesson.

Ive spoken with my daughter aboyt buying a small website that makes a couple hundreds bucks a month. We talked about taking a thousand dollers and buying a small site making about $50 month or so and buying that to keep as a money maker. She is still thinking about if its her thing or not. 

I cover my expenses involved in running this blog and how its more of an investment than an expense.

7. Debt Management 

Lets face it not everyone has surplus money, there are people who are born into debt. Why dont schools teach kids how to manage debt.

I had a bit of debt in my younger years because I didnt understand credit cards, loans and interest enough to manage that. It took me a little bit of trial and error before I understood how it worked.

Teaching kids how to manage debt makes so much sense. Rolling on from learning money, bank accounts and investments this is teh natural next step.

8. Stress Management

This could play a huge part of helping the transition from student to adult. The stress of family, expectations, earning enough money, and just the dialy grind of life all build stress.

There should be a stress levelindicator test or chart or something that shows them the different levels of stress and what impact it has on your body or brain. The perfect solution is stress management and coping activties that help overcome the pressure of life.

9. Eat healthy & exercise daily

Make sure you are eating healthy, as a young adult nutrition is vital to the growth and development into a healthy adult. There is a very very basic overview of this in schools at the moment but not to a level where kids know 2 cans of Coke A Cola a day are bad and that swapping a Snickers bar for a apple is the better choice

I would really like to see a basic fitness routine laid out for the class so they can leave school and have a routine they can take with them everywhere they go.

I would also love to see a basic meal plan for them when they leave school and move into their college dorm or first apartment. This is one of those most basic things that you need, I know Im a terrible cook but I learned how to make healthy food the hard way. This just makes so much sense to me to provide these young people with the life skill to know what meals to prepare when they are looking after themselves.

Thanks for reading and I hope this provoked some thought about what your kids are learning. This really opened my eyes to what I should be teaching my daughter myself because it wont be taught at school. I have shown her this blog and she gives me feedback often about topics I could write about and things she see’s in her world. If you enjoyed the blog please take a moment to like and share it :).

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