Comment by bloomingeek

I took a one semester class my soph year in high school called Business English. It was basic stuff about money, jobs and banking skills. (by this I mean how to access a bank account, how to try to determine what field to enter for work and how to get training and setting up a budget.) It was a very helpful class for me because my parents were not helpful in any of these subjects.

One of the lessons the teacher gave one day has never left me: depending on your income, if you decide to have a new house, you may have to drive a used car. This very simplistic statement kept me out of a lot of financial trouble down through the years.

When the company I worked for filed for bankruptcy our wages and benefits were drastically cut. Sadly, a third of my co-workers were forced into bankruptcy and some of them found themselves in divorce court. (remember, money is one of the biggest causes of divorce still today.)