so the issue isn't just that poor people is money-stupid, it's that everyone is money-stupid. that makes more sense since i know a lot of people that are pretty money-stupid and not necessarily stuff-ass poor, and poor people obvs just suffer most from poor money management practices. also yeah, i think teaching people about personal finance during high school is a defo good idea
in making personal finance classes more accessible and ensuring that more people will take them, then students will have an advantage from a financial standpoint that their parents likely will not have had.
The problem comes when low-income households have poor financial practices because then, they are hit by the wombs combo of not having much money in the first place and then squandering the money they do get.
Basic things like the stock market, how interest works, budgeting, etc are somehow beyond the comprehension of what I daresay is the majority of the United States. People may have heard of these things, but probably don't fully understand them, which leads to issues with money that might not arise to as dramatic of an extent if they could make more informed decisions.
A great example is college students taking out loans with low interest rates but 20 year terms. Of course you're paying less per year, but you're paying for college until you're 40 and it ends up costing 4x as much as an average loan with slightly higher interest and a 10 year term.
Another example is investment. Most people I know with money have multiple streams of income. They save or invest a large portion of their income. Buying shares in a Vanguard ETF/Mutual fund, starting a side business, buying stocks, etc all can create separate streams of income from one's career. Another thing is to contribute up to the max your employer will match in your 401k if you have one. A lot of people surprisingly won't do that.
People are dumb as forget when it comes to money as a whole, but maybe if schools offered a class that covered basic personal finance, things would change a bit.
