Jonathan Meisman
Jonathan Meisman (former WHS Student) spoke to our Financial Literacy class about goal-setting, living below your income, and the price of independence. He has saved over $10,000 in just one year by managing his costs and earning promotions and bonuses at Walmart. He attributes his success to concepts taught in his Financial Literacy class.
And that is why it's so cool that Westlake offers all these financial classes, because most schools don't have them.
In America right now, the average person makes approximately 6 to 10 money decisions every single day. Those decisions can range from simple things like whether or not to buy a cup of coffee, to bigger things like What should I do with my 401K? I think what’s important about that is those decisions are completely unguided. Right now personal finance isn’t taught in high schools, colleges, or graduate programs across the United States. People typically learn about personal finance by talking to their parents, who unfortunately were also never formally educated about personal finance.
The take-away there is most people simply learn through trial and error. Money is such an important thing it effects us all and most people simply learn about it through trial and error.
So from there, it’s easy to understand that money right now is the number one thing that young people really stress about. Worse, 76% of the country feels completely out of control when it comes to money.
Pause for a second, four of your closest friends, three of them right now feel out of control when it comes to their personal finances. 75% of this room feels out of control when it comes to their personal finances.
Unfortunately we’re not doing anything to change this. Right now 84% of college graduates said that they need more help when it comes to personal finance but they’re not getting it, and as a result of all of this, 61% of the country is living paycheck to paycheck. More than 50% of our country is not quite sure how they’re going to pay their bills next month. That is staggering. Think about the stress that that provides to an individual’s life, really staggering.
So I often ask myself: How on earth did we get here? How do we end up in a position where this thing that is so critical to every single person in this room and in this nation’s life? It’s something that we’ve never learned. People don't care about their personal finances. And that is why it's so cool that Westlake offers all these financial classes, because most schools don't have them.
The average cost of a child is 14k
The average student loan debt is $31,000
The average salary of a college grad is about 40-50k depending on what study
Average cost of rent for an apartment is 1k
Average house cost is 300k
AVERAGE COST FOR A SINGLE TRIP TO NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED COFFEEHOUSE: $3.25 COST FOR 1 PURCHASE PER 5 DAY WORK WEEK: $16.25 COST PER MONTH: $65 COST PER YEAR: $780
Category
Percentage of Overall Spending
Giving
10-15%
Housing
25–35%
Utilities
5–10%
Food
10–15%
Transportation
10–15%
Health
5–10%
Insurance
10–25%
Personal
10-15%
Recreation
5-10%
Saving
10-15%
Quotes from Dave Ramsey
“one reason people make bad decisions is they don’t have a good decision as one of their options.”
“Most people won’t change until the pain of where they are exceeds the pain of change.”
“If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.”
“A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.”
“You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you.”