Are you smarter than a sixth-grader when it comes to your financial fitness?
Before you answer, listen to this.
My son says to me the other day, "Dad? Do you know what frustrates me? Taxes.’'
I said, '‘Huh?’'
He says, '‘Yeah, I make $16,000 a year. I never got a degree. My wife, though, she did get a good education. She makes $40,000 and every month we have to budget for things like our house, our food and cars."
And I said, "Hold on!"
But it's true.
There are websites, financial institutions and even schools that, from a very young age, are teaching kids to manage their money. So we're here at Queen Creek Middle School.
“We are going to focus today on the Arizona state tax.”
It’s called the “Budgeting Project” in Mrs. Black’s sixth-grade class and, well, it speaks for itself.
“What about the 2nd tier? If you fall in this if it’s 3.36 percent...”
“You and your spouse [combined salary], so you’re adding it together.”
It sure doesn’t sound like any sixth-grade class that I remember. Social Security, Medicare, mountains of bills and just making ends meet is the focus of this course.
“It seems like you start out with a lot of money,” says Remi Clement, who’s a student in Mrs. Black’s class. “And then you look at your money and you go uhhhh…that went quickly!”
“One of the kids was like ‘Oh, this is why my mom and dad fight about money all the time'. I was like well, yes,” Mrs. Black said.
Talk about “adulting” at an early age.
