Quote: People don't know how to handle money. We don't teach it in the schools. Personal finance should be taught in high school. I see lots of middle-class people living paycheck to paycheck just wasting money left and right, neglecting their own safety net. For a country that supposedly has a "shrinking middle class" we sure have a lot of people who waste their money at Starbucks. We sure have a lot of people who drive nice cars. It's a lot more than 1% of the population.


There's no excuse for borrowing money to buy an expensive car. I see commercials for companies like BMW which tout their financing options. No one has any business buying a BMW if they have to finance it. If you're borrowing money to buy a BMW or a Mercedes, that is a stupid choice.


So many of these struggling middle class people are struggling because of their own personal choices. I guarantee you, half of the people in this country have enough income that they could get rich if they had the discipline. It just takes time and discipline.


I have a lot of sympathy for truly poor people, and I think we should help them a lot more than we do. But I have a lot less sympathy for the mass of people who have good jobs and cannot get ahead because they make stupid choices and don't know how to handle money.

At my prior job, I was "team champion" for an organization called Junior Acheivement. They taught kids in school financial literacy skills. I would have thirty year old clients who couldn't fill out a check, let alone understand the concept of funds clearings before they can spend it. The tax refund checks from H&R, Liberty, etc were the worse because they were large dollar amounts and instead of putting it in savings, they were getting straight cash and spending it on goods that weren't exactly necessary. I don't mean a used car, I mean electronics and what not. Not to to mention many people would get upset when I needed two forms of ID, and when they didn't have it, I couldn't cash it due to company policy. Many need to learn how to save and use tools available wisely. It's unfortunate, but the reality

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