What do you wish you had been taught?

littlegreenparrot

Not sure if this is the right place to put this, but you all seem lovely so hopefully you can help

I'm planning a session on money management for apprentices, 16 - 18 year olds.

So far I know I want to include the effect of inflation, interest, and tax along with how to understand your pay slip.
Bu I can't decide what else to cover.

What would you add to that list?
What do you wish you had been taught?

any suggesstions gratefully recieved
lgp

Owl

VAT.... SO finding percentages (20% is 10% doubled etc), looking at interest rates to find best deals in banks (not the one with the best freebies!!)

How about a bit on budgeting, eg if you only have £50 a week to live on, going out on Saturday on a £55 bender is not the best plan!!!!

HTH

Owl x

Lizling

Credit reports.

I had no idea until my early 20s that things like a late mobile phone payment would have an impact on getting loans even years later.

littlegreenparrot

Of course, budgeting duh!

Credit reports is also a great idea, I don't think many 17 year olds think about the future impact.

lgp

elaine241

Hi I work for a Credit Union and often have low income members who have no clue how to manage money. I would suggest personal money management along the lines of a "jam jar" account. each jar will have an outgoing, electricity, gas , travel, food, mobile etc with the last one with money left over for enjoyment/going out. Also as I suspect they are on low incomes give them ideas on how to get the best value when going out, vouchers on food, two for one meals, cheap cinema nights etc loads of ideas on here!
I often look in the coupon section as you can get some good deals on personal things like toiletries with combining coupons with supermarket special offers sometimes they are free! ( not sure they would want to do this!)
Also join a Credit Union! they can save as little as they want and depending on the Credit Union borrow small amounts relatively cheaply.

Hope this helps

mysk_girl

The drastic effect of small overpayments on a mortgage. I REALLY wish I'd known this earlier...

[Deleted User]

To play the piano properly as my late Mum was brilliant and could get a tune out of almost any instrument but the piano was her best,I have tried but found trying to learn to read music whas like learniing double dutch to me,I adore good piano music though so I am an apreciative listener instead.No money saving in the slightest but life is also about enjoying things as well as being frugal :):)

peachyprice

Teach them that things can be repaired instead of replaced.

It's something we were admittedly guilty of in the past, but not anymore. The element in the oven went, we got a new one and fixed for around £10, the pump on the dishwasher went, £20, various things went on the vacuum we bought the parts. The tumble drier started making a noise OH took it apart and spent £3 on a new metal ring.

espares.co.uk is your friend.

PasturesNew

elaine241 wrote: »

Hi I work for a Credit Union and often have low income members who have no clue how to manage money.

Higher income ones don't either.... they just get away with it by having enough money floating about

PasturesNew

Set some tasks. Get 3 photos of a meal and ask them to guess which one costs to [a] buy at a pub buy at a posh restaurant [c] make at home.

Then give them the recipes to make that food and get them to use supermarket sites and mysupermarket to cost up one of the meals and compare using [a] the most expensive ingredients using popular brand names [c] using the cheapest ingredients available.

Then get them to multiply that saving by 365 and place the money in a savings account monthly - and ask "how much would you have saved over 5 years?"

kittycat204

I wish i knew how to do more DIY around the home. Fix a dripping tap, put up shelves etc. I would love to know how to use a sewing machine. As well as financial matters.