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>Financial responsibility should be something taught early on at schools. 100% guarantee that this does not matter one iota. I've tried and tried to help so m

>Financial responsibility should be something taught early on at schools. 100% guarantee that this does not matter one iota. I've tried and tried to help so many people with their financial picture. You would have more luck talking to a brick wall. People don't care. They just simply do not care. This is because most people - maybe 95% - are ruled by their emotions rather than rationality. Or to put it more precisely, people make decisions based on emotions and then use their rational mind after they make their decision to rationalize their purchase. Also, becoming financially responsible is just about the simplest thing to do, at least at the beginning stages. All it requires is addition and subtraction, mostly, which we learn in second grade or whenever it is. Second grade. I remember opening my first savings and checking account when I was 15 years old (when you could do it yourself without parent's permission). The person who helped my took about 10 minutes to help me understand, that's all you need. The internet is inundated with videos and classes on basic financial knowledge. I'm sure that I could go to Udemy and find 500 courses on basic financial training and pay $15 for it....hmmm, let me go check right now...ok, typed "personal finance" in the search and it came back with "6,496 results for “personal finance”" People don't take those classes because they don't want to take them. Probably personal finance is one of the topics that is #1 for total courses available. Honestly, personal finance is so easy. It is just about the easiest thing to do. Sure if you get into complicated stuff, if you have $200 million in the bank/assets/whatever, maybe it is hard. But for the general person, no, it is simple. And the part that someone doesn't get, there are a ton of videos and articles on that, too. I have gotten exceptionally angry at some people because they were so broke and asked me for help. There I was, spending countless hours with them, doing what you said and educating them, and they go out and blow a HUGE chunk of their feeble savings on the stupidest shit. I got angry because I knew these people and got emotionally invested in helping them (I don't regret getting emotionally invested). I don't help people anymore. It's an exercise in frustration and futility. People simply do notwant to be financially responsible...well, maybe in the 20/80 law, 20% are financially responsible. The other 80%...don't waste time on them. Kind of a rant, but it still burns deep in my soul, because the people I tried to help are good people. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Pearls before swine.

jjav 4y ago
> All it requires is addition and subtraction, mostly, which we learn in second grade or whenever it is. To be fair that's not quite true. For example credit cards go out of the way to make their interest and penalties algorithm obscure in order to try to lock people into paying interest forever.
- FrontierPsych 4y ago
  I understand what you're saying. However, I pretty much learned all there was to learn about them in 15 minutes when I got my first one. I read about them. I'm not the smartest person in the world, by far. If I can easily learn now, then anyone can learn this stuff on their own, in 15 minutes. It is NOT complicated. Getting information is exceptionally easy, and a LOT easier than when I got my first one. I knew from when I got my first credit card that I had to pay off the balance in full, every month. That using a credit card should be the exact same as using cash. You never buy anything unless you actually have the cash first. Then you can use the credit card and pay it off at the end of the month. It's so easy to understand. It doesn't matter about credit cards companies and their obfuscation. I didn't learn it from credit card companies. I just learned it because it was easy to learn. How difficult is it? Don't use a credit care unless you have the cash first. You pay it off in full and you don't pay interest, whatever level it is - .01% or 40% - it does not matter what the interest rates are, unless you don't pay on time. And the problem is that people don't care. They think emotionally, and don't give a crap about future ramifications. This is my favorite video that explains it all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3ZJKN_5M44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3ZJKN_5M44
  - jjav 4y ago
    > It's so easy to understand. But difficult to find. Do you know how to get out of paying interest on credit cards if you happen to be late for a payment once? Unless you've researched it, probably not. And it's unintuitive to have to research it because you'd think the answer is obvious (just pay it off) but it's not. Credit card companies count on people not noticing and then keep paying interest forever. I know plenty smart people who just pay their credit card bill on autopay and don't examine every line item of the monthly statement. That seems crazy to me but it happens.

jjav 4y ago

> All it requires is addition and subtraction, mostly, which we learn in second grade or whenever it is. To be fair that's not quite true. For example credit cards go out of the way to make their interest and penalties algorithm obscure in order to try to lock people into paying interest forever.

FrontierPsych 4y ago
I understand what you're saying. However, I pretty much learned all there was to learn about them in 15 minutes when I got my first one. I read about them. I'm not the smartest person in the world, by far. If I can easily learn now, then anyone can learn this stuff on their own, in 15 minutes. It is NOT complicated. Getting information is exceptionally easy, and a LOT easier than when I got my first one. I knew from when I got my first credit card that I had to pay off the balance in full, every month. That using a credit card should be the exact same as using cash. You never buy anything unless you actually have the cash first. Then you can use the credit card and pay it off at the end of the month. It's so easy to understand. It doesn't matter about credit cards companies and their obfuscation. I didn't learn it from credit card companies. I just learned it because it was easy to learn. How difficult is it? Don't use a credit care unless you have the cash first. You pay it off in full and you don't pay interest, whatever level it is - .01% or 40% - it does not matter what the interest rates are, unless you don't pay on time. And the problem is that people don't care. They think emotionally, and don't give a crap about future ramifications. This is my favorite video that explains it all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3ZJKN_5M44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3ZJKN_5M44
- jjav 4y ago
  > It's so easy to understand. But difficult to find. Do you know how to get out of paying interest on credit cards if you happen to be late for a payment once? Unless you've researched it, probably not. And it's unintuitive to have to research it because you'd think the answer is obvious (just pay it off) but it's not. Credit card companies count on people not noticing and then keep paying interest forever. I know plenty smart people who just pay their credit card bill on autopay and don't examine every line item of the monthly statement. That seems crazy to me but it happens.