Long Time No Taco

Welcome back, class. If you're just joining me, this is part  5  of " Why Did No One Tell Me?!? " or, " What High School Should Have Taught Me. " ( Part 1 is here. ) Standard foreword : None of these lessons are new. Some, I am only just learning myself. Many people never learn them, but those that do think it is all just "wisdom that comes with age", even though it would benefit you to learn, and especially learn early! Anyway: Today's lesson is a tough one: Relationships: By the Numbers As I have mentio ned before, I am embarrassingly single, unmarried, and without children. Unlike most men in my situation, I have actively sought a serious partner, commitment, and want children. In fact, as I will admit here, I have overactively sought someone. No matter what you want in life, the following relationship advice should still apply to you, too. I hope you will all learn from this, my greatest personal revelation so far: *...

Welcome back, class. If you're just joining me, this is part 4 of " Why Did No One Tell Me?!? " or, " What High School Should Have Taught Me. " ( Part 1 is here. ) To be honest, I wasn't sure if there would be a part 4, because gauging and organizing what I know and think you should have learned already can be tricky! That gets to the heart of why I write these at all, though: None of these lessons are new. Many people never learn them, but those that do think it is all just "wisdom" that comes with age, and often don't realize how much transferable knowledge they are keeping to themselves, when it could benefit you to learn too! Anyway: Today's lesson is: Don't Pay for That! Got a parking ticket. Fought it. Won. Got a $360 demand for car re-registration from the DMV. Made a phone call, went in, filled out a form, and waited an hour to be seen, but saved more than $120 by getting the "delinquent" fees waived. ...

Welcome to Part 3 of " Why Did No One Tell Me?!? " or, " What High School Should Have Taught Me. " ( Part 1 is here. ) Buy a house. You need to live somewhere, right?  It seems obvious and an oft mentioned part of The American Dream, but if you're like me, you grew up in an apartment. If high school taught how to get from living with your parents to moving into your own home, I must have been sick that day. Besides what we learned in Part 2 about needing good credit , I was 25 years old before I heard anyone mention that the typical down payment for a home is 20%. To give you an idea of size of that challenge: According the the U.S. census , the median price for a new home in the U.S. is $315,100, so 20% of that is $63,000!! By the time I realized this, I had already been in the workforce for 9 years, and had saved nothing toward that - overly concerned with paying off student loans quickly, which I also discussed in Part 2.  Another thing I ha...

Credit, Debt, and Savings, - The Real Triforce of Adulting You won't learn this from your teachers, and your parents may fret about it constantly, without ever actually sharing their concerns or insight, but these three sides of your finances are key to your Golden Power. Each one affects the other, and there many misconceptions you will have to re-learn. It may even mean educating your own friends or family, because so many people have it wrong. Credit , as in "credit cards" and "credit score", is not just good, it is vital  to success. If you want to know how vital, Muhammad Yunus  got a Nobel PEACE  Prize for helping people in extreme poverty find a way to get credit. Not a Nobel Economics Prize, which is also a thing.  This guy got a peace prize, because he made their lives so much better by allowing them a small (micro, in fact) amount of money to get their careers started. Anyway, you may think: Credit is bad,  Credit cards are only for emergenc...

AKA: What H igh School Should Have Taught Me There is one theme for class: "WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME?!?" Our first lesson: Investing Without Money I took an abbreviated Economics class during winter-break, my senior year at Amphitheater High School. Even less than three weeks long, this was one of the few classes attempting to teach something beneficial to any student.  Understanding the basics of "supply and demand", "no such thing as a free lunch" - these are universally helpful to anyone about to become fully independent - but I could have learned more. If I spent a semester on it - or if my school offered more, I might have avoided wasting the two most precious resources we all have in limited quantities: time and money. Which is not to say I made "bad" choices, but I spent my time and money in ways that were less effective, and left me with less to show for it. I didn't even completely grasp "debt" until recently. What's ...