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How to file taxes, if you're in the USA. How to calculate interest, balance your books, and set budgets based on your income. You can teach spreadsheets, double

by ronyeh 7y ago

How to file taxes, if you're in the USA. How to calculate interest, balance your books, and set budgets based on your income. You can teach spreadsheets, double entry accounting software, and fun/useful math functions. More generally, high school students should learn how to model information in a spreadsheet. It can be anything they are interested in: prices on collector's items, tracking their friendships and contacts, graphing their caloric intake per day, tracking the tweets and mentions of your favorite celebrities....

mads 7y ago
That would have been super useful to me. I am not in America, but in the country, where I am staying, letters from the tax office is always a source of some sort of anxiety because I simply don't understand the numbers and the consequences of what they are writing to me. Probably too late for me now. I hired an accountant a few years ago, but I would like to be on top of that stuff myself. Funny how I can build complicated big data analysis tools, but when I am presented with a single page of tax numbers, I just shut down. I have often thought if there is some sort of medical term to describe this thing.
conductr 7y ago
You’d be surprised by the number of Finance college grads that have low spreadsheet skills. I imagine it’s similar to how CS students graduate not knowing how to program.
rimliu 7y ago
This always pop up and always amuses me. Like, they do teach you reading, math, and algebra in school, right? Believe it or not that it enough to be able to do taxes.
- michaelt 7y ago
  To judge from the number of works of fiction I've read where rich characters giving money to charity say the tax write-off is larger than the donation, I think a great many people are unclear on the details of how the tax system works.
  - matt4077 7y ago
    I’ve seen that error in just about any discussion of charitable giving, including on HN. I doubt it’s due to a lack of knowledge/skills, because these people would tend to give away all their earnings in the belief to somehow make a profit.
- ronyeh 7y ago
  I have an advanced degree in STEM and would have greatly appreciated a seminar on income and property taxes before I set off into the real world. They "teach" kids how to drive in high school. Why not teach the same kids some money handling skills?
celticmusic 7y ago
I agree with this, but I would also add a broad overview of investing, and teaching the tenets of FIRE. I'm not arguing that FIRE is the one true source, but that people should be made aware of it.
behringer 7y ago
Sounds like a job for the accounting teacher, not a computer teacher.

by ronyeh 7y ago

mads 7y ago

That would have been super useful to me. I am not in America, but in the country, where I am staying, letters from the tax office is always a source of some sort of anxiety because I simply don't understand the numbers and the consequences of what they are writing to me. Probably too late for me now. I hired an accountant a few years ago, but I would like to be on top of that stuff myself. Funny how I can build complicated big data analysis tools, but when I am presented with a single page of tax numbers, I just shut down. I have often thought if there is some sort of medical term to describe this thing.

conductr 7y ago

You’d be surprised by the number of Finance college grads that have low spreadsheet skills. I imagine it’s similar to how CS students graduate not knowing how to program.

rimliu 7y ago

This always pop up and always amuses me. Like, they do teach you reading, math, and algebra in school, right? Believe it or not that it enough to be able to do taxes.

michaelt 7y ago
To judge from the number of works of fiction I've read where rich characters giving money to charity say the tax write-off is larger than the donation, I think a great many people are unclear on the details of how the tax system works.
- matt4077 7y ago
  I’ve seen that error in just about any discussion of charitable giving, including on HN. I doubt it’s due to a lack of knowledge/skills, because these people would tend to give away all their earnings in the belief to somehow make a profit.
ronyeh 7y ago
I have an advanced degree in STEM and would have greatly appreciated a seminar on income and property taxes before I set off into the real world. They "teach" kids how to drive in high school. Why not teach the same kids some money handling skills?

celticmusic 7y ago

I agree with this, but I would also add a broad overview of investing, and teaching the tenets of FIRE. I'm not arguing that FIRE is the one true source, but that people should be made aware of it.

behringer 7y ago

Sounds like a job for the accounting teacher, not a computer teacher.