Cents Ability

Today at Washington Irving High School the energy was a little different. It was my second time presenting for Cents Ability. I had no nerves and the children were receptive. Before the class started, I saw two students poke their head in the classroom. When they didn’t see their teacher they turned around and left. Although I wish they had come, the experience made me nostalgic about high school.  But if I wanted to skip a class, I would certainly not look first and then turn away. It was pretty bold.  For this week’s class, I spoke about credit. I think it is a critical topic in light of what is going on in our economy.  I spent a lot of time focusing on a famous Benjamin Franklin quote, “Remember that credit is money.” While this statement is somewhat correct, it is a little contradictory. I had the class talk about this contradiction and explore what credit actually is in comparison to the money we make. The material required that I speak about the specifics of credit cards, student loans and mortgages. While it is important to understand these concepts, I also believe that it is important to relate them to our personal financial decisions. For example: I get in and decide I want to go to Harvard. I have no money to pay for college so I need to take out a loan to pay for my tuition. If Harvard costs on average $60,000 a year and I plan on attending four years I would have to take out a $240,000 loan. The real question you should ask yourself is not how to take out that loan, but if that financial burden is worth it. I personally think it would not be worth the aggravation later. I left that decision to the students. One boy said he was interested in going to Stony Brook for college and we spoke about the costs and the alternative options he had. I think raising these types of discussions rather than going into the specifics about loan agreements might be more important at this stage of the game.