Financial literacy classes in HS

[quote name='dmaul1114']Yeah, I can only speak to my school. Though of course CA's budget is worse than any other states so cuts out there have been more extreme than most other states across the board.[/QUOTE]
Ummm Ca does not even rank in the top 10 of biggest budget shortfalls this year. Hell even the top 15. We are not as bad as the news makes it appear sometimes. Illinois, Rhode Island, Nevada, Massachusetts, Jersey, Arizona, Hawaii, Vermont, Maine, Maryland, Utah, and New York are all in worse situations right now.
 
Thanks for the correction.

The media does make CA seem the worse with the coverage of the governator last year or whenever cutting all state employees to minimum wage during the budget crisis etc.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Thanks for the correction.

The media does make CA seem the worse with the coverage of the governator last year or whenever cutting all state employees to minimum wage during the budget crisis etc.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, Arnold tenure made California politics news worthy for once, and for better or worse more people started learning about our dirty little system. But for the most part, though I am sure RAM will probably disagree, I think it works decently well. Certainly not the best, but also not the worst.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Funding is the key given that every state pretty much and the feds are hugely in debt.

Your ideas would cost millions on top of the welfare wages to buy the land, equipment etc. needed to do those kind of things, so implementing them in the current financial climate is near impossible.[/QUOTE]

Well call me a socialist then. Tax the rich and put the poor to work. If the rich want to create jobs instead then lower their taxes. Honestly we hear all the time that if we lower the taxes on the rich they will create jobs...so why not just make it so they only get tax cuts if they create jobs and if they fail to do so then they have the shit taxed out of them and the money is used on these public good projects. Everyone that wants a job has a job, the rich get tax cuts for doing what they should be doing anyways and the our society becomes a more beautiful, productive and clean place.
 
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[quote name='MSI Magus']Well call me a socialist then. Tax the rich and put the poor to work. If the rich want to create jobs instead then lower their wages. Honestly we hear all the time that if we lower the taxes on the rich they will create jobs...so why not just make it so they only get tax cuts if they create jobs and if they fail to do so then they have the shit taxed out of them and the money is used on these public good projects. Everyone that wants a job has a job, the rich get tax cuts for doing what they should be doing anyways and the our society becomes a more beautiful, productive and clean place.[/QUOTE]

That makes too much sense.
 
I'm all for that type of policy. Just saying there's no way in hell to pass anything remotely like that in this country unless the political make up shifts dramatically down the road.

Small tax increases are near impossible right now, much less a dramatic change like that, unfortunately.
 
[quote name='cindersphere']Yeah, Arnold tenure made California politics news worthy for once, and for better or worse more people started learning about our dirty little system. But for the most part, though I am sure RAM will probably disagree, I think it works decently well. Certainly not the best, but also not the worst.[/QUOTE]

Very off topic question, but how's your cost of living out there? Is it near as high as everything I read all over the net?
 
[quote name='mtxbass1']Very off topic question, but how's your cost of living out there? Is it near as high as everything I read all over the net?[/QUOTE]

It honestly depends. In cities like LA, San Fran, or San Jose, the cost of living can be sky high. However in many places the cost of living is pretty cheap, especially in the central valley where ag is king. When I moved from my town to another town by Sac I was honestly shocked at the prices of things, especially vegetable which doubled or tripled. But there are just as many places where the only way to move in is to inherit, as there are places where a person can actually buy a house and live comfortable.
 
[quote name='cindersphere']It honestly depends. In cities like LA, San Fran, or San Jose, the cost of living can be sky high. However in many places the cost of living is pretty cheap, especially in the central valley where ag is king. When I moved from my town to another town by Sac I was honestly shocked at the prices of things, especially vegetable which doubled or tripled. But there are just as many places where the only way to move in is to inherit, as there are places where a person can actually buy a house and live comfortable.[/QUOTE]

Perfect weather year round comes at a price.
And that price is that you have to be a CEO or exec to afford a house, and bear the brunt of earthquakes.
 
The weather in San Francisco is hardly perfect. Lots of dreary, cold, rainy days there.

LA and especially San Diego get the great weather. San Diego is probably my favorite city in the US of the one's I've been to. But just too costly and no real career options for me there.
 
My parents moved from Michigan to Vacaville about a year and a half ago and they say that California is crazy expensive. They said that their electricity bill is like double what it was at home and that most of their other bills have jumped too.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']I'm all for that type of policy. Just saying there's no way in hell to pass anything remotely like that in this country unless the political make up shifts dramatically down the road.

Small tax increases are near impossible right now, much less a dramatic change like that, unfortunately.[/QUOTE]

Which is why Obama is so disappointing. I never expected him to be another FDR but I was certainly praying his promises of change combined with his rhetoric and oracle skills would have led to another FDR. I did not expect it...but I certainly was praying that he would use the bully pulpit to speak for the people and demand these types of changes. I still seriously think that if he would have went in to Washington with laced up steel toed boots and thrown down he could have got it accomplished. Instead he tried to compromise for far too long and lost all his steam. If he would have just tried compromising and after a few months started tossing punches while he was still riding high I 100% believe he could have made a difference.
 
[quote name='MSI Magus']My parents moved from Michigan to Vacaville about a year and a half ago and they say that California is crazy expensive. They said that their electricity bill is like double what it was at home and that most of their other bills have jumped too.[/QUOTE]

God I really hate Vacaville, but what do you expect? Vacaville is norcal's tax Canyon and most of the places in Vacaville are Nike, Sony, et all outlets. But yeah due to the fact that Vacaville was created just to entice richer people to shop, it stands to reason that area would have a higher than usual cost of living.

[quote name='2DMention']Perfect weather year round comes at a price.
And that price is that you have to be a CEO or exec to afford a house, and bear the brunt of earthquakes.[/QUOTE]

But where do the Wal-Mart workers live? Nevada?
 
[quote name='cindersphere']God I really hate Vacaville, but what do you expect? Vacaville is norcal's tax Canyon and most of the places in Vacaville are Nike, Sony, et all outlets. But yeah due to the fact that Vacaville was created just to entice richer people to shop, it stands to reason that area would have a higher than usual cost of living.[/QUOTE]

Not suprised. My aunt actually owns a couple colleges in Vacaville and my mom only went out there because my Aunt was offering her a Kush job. They get to stay in my Aunts old house(they bought a new house so my uncle had someplace to put his boat!)at half the price of the mortage, a $40,000ish a year job, a private car, phone and all sorts of other crap. My Aunt is like uber rich and uber Republican so not surprising at all to hear its like the waste capital of Cali. Though I should add she helped my mom out a lot doing that and is a nice person at heart ;) She is just very stereotypical when it comes to being a rich person which bugs me ;(

Edit -btw while it makes sense that housing, food etc etc costs are high there...the rate for things like electricity should be the same as most of the rest of Cali.
 
[quote name='MSI Magus']Not suprised. My aunt actually owns a couple colleges in Vacaville and my mom only went out there because my Aunt was offering her a Kush job. They get to stay in my Aunts old house(they bought a new house so my uncle had someplace to put his boat!)at half the price of the mortage, a $40,000ish a year job, a private car, phone and all sorts of other crap. My Aunt is like uber rich and uber Republican so not surprising at all to hear its like the waste capital of Cali. Though I should add she helped my mom out a lot doing that and is a nice person at heart ;) She is just very stereotypical when it comes to being a rich person which bugs me ;(

Edit -btw while it makes sense that housing, food etc etc costs are high there...the rate for things like electricity should be the same as most of the rest of Cali.[/QUOTE]

A 40k a year job is "Kush", in California? wut?
 
[quote name='mtxbass1']A 40k a year job is "Kush", in California? wut?[/QUOTE]

She might make as much as $50,000 but either way when you compare it to what she was doing and getting paid...yes yes it is. She was hired on as a human resource person in Michigan for a water treatment plant and within 6 months when they started laying people off she was moved to outdoor work. So my 52 year old mother was outside in the hot sun doing grunt labor on a bum foot for around $30k a year. Being an HR manager for a college at $40k+ is kush in comparison, especially when you consider that it comes with a house with a pool that they pay about half what standard rent out there is.
 
[quote name='cindersphere']Yeah, Arnold tenure made California politics news worthy for once, and for better or worse more people started learning about our dirty little system. But for the most part, though I am sure RAM will probably disagree, I think it works decently well. Certainly not the best, but also not the worst.[/QUOTE]

oh ive voiced my opinion plenty of times on our budget. i dont need to go off about it again, so heres the short version; we suck with money.


[quote name='cindersphere']http://www.bls.gov/ro9/qcewca.htm

Actually, yeah it is. Is it surprising considering the type of economy and the size of the low wage jobs that need to be filled.[/QUOTE]

40k is pretty decent for most of california. here in sacramento you can get by just fine with 40k (well, if you dont have kids at least!). but the bay area, LA, san diego, its not enough.
 
[quote name='RAMSTORIA']
40k is pretty decent for most of california. here in sacramento you can get by just fine with 40k (well, if you dont have kids at least!). but the bay area, LA, san diego, its not enough.[/QUOTE]

I find that amazing to be honest. I'm looking at a few things out there, and they're offering 115-130 and I'm not even sure if that's enough to live comfortably. Granted it's in San Diego, but I'm surprised that more of the state isn't that expensive to live in...
 
Well, most of CA outside of the big cities is pretty rural--and a lot of it not near the cities even as it's such a big state.

Most states are like that actually--very expensive around metro areas, but much cheaper once you're well beyond the suburbs. Problem is it's hard to find jobs period in those places--and there isn't shit to do if you're an "out and about" type and not a stay in with family type.
 
[quote name='mtxbass1']I find that amazing to be honest. I'm looking at a few things out there, and they're offering 115-130 and I'm not even sure if that's enough to live comfortably. Granted it's in San Diego, but I'm surprised that more of the state isn't that expensive to live in...[/QUOTE]

san diego is one of the more pricey areas, but 115k you will be plenty fine.
 
[quote name='RAMSTORIA']oh ive voiced my opinion plenty of times on our budget. i dont need to go off about it again, so heres the short version; we suck with money.




40k is pretty decent for most of california. here in sacramento you can get by just fine with 40k (well, if you dont have kids at least!). but the bay area, LA, san diego, its not enough.[/QUOTE]


Yeah I pretty much agree on the 40k. I wasn't really referring to those areas however.

But on the budget, come on, every state is crappy with their budget, and prop 13 didn't make it any easier. Lets see how this changes now that simple majorities are back in style.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']

Most states are like that actually--very expensive around metro areas, but much cheaper once you're well beyond the suburbs. Problem is it's hard to find jobs period in those places--and there isn't shit to do if you're an "out and about" type and not a stay in with family type.[/QUOTE]

Not true where I live, which is about a hour from the city - rent is still very high - only 15% lower than the city, despite not having any jobs. You also get slower Internet for the same price as faster Internet in the city. If you own a home out in the sticks, there's no city sewer, and you are stuck with a ceptic system, which clogs alot and is more expensive to fix, and more expensive in general.

If you want to do things and live out in the sticks, you just have to accept that you're going to drive 30min-1 hour anywhere. Although in the city it takes 15 min. to get anywhere with the lights, but in the country, it's just straight driving.

The weather in San Francisco is hardly perfect. Lots of dreary, cold, rainy days there.
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Have you been to MN? Rain is nothing here - we had 6 straight months of cold winter, at least a weeks worth of plowable snow, and schitzophrenic weather with snow one day, and 60 degrees the next. Compared to MN, it's perfect weather.
 
[quote name='RAMSTORIA']san diego is one of the more pricey areas, but 115k you will be plenty fine.[/QUOTE]

You can be fine on 100k in places like SD or NYC, but you won't live a "rich" lifestyle on it like you would in cheaper cities as housing etc. is so much more expensive.

Basically you'd have a solid middle class living (assuming you want to live in the city on that wage and not way out in the suburbs anyway) in those places, versus an upper middle class living in a cheaper cities.

[quote name='2DMention']Not true where I live, which is about a hour from the city - rent is still very high - only 15% lower than the city, despite not having any jobs. You also get slower Internet for the same price as faster Internet in the city. If you own a home out in the sticks, there's no city sewer, and you are stuck with a ceptic system, which clogs alot and is more expensive to fix, and more expensive in general.

If you want to do things and live out in the sticks, you just have to accept that you're going to drive 30min-1 hour anywhere. Although in the city it takes 15 min. to get anywhere with the lights, but in the country, it's just straight driving.
[/quote]

Well, I wasn't talking an hour from the city. That's still the ex-burbs or whatever they're calling them these days. I was talking rural areas 2-3+ hours from the city.

And yeah, living out there sucks. I grew up in the middle of nowhere in West Virginia. There's not shit to do there, 30+ minute drive to get to a Wal-mart or shopping mall even as you note etc. So I'd never go back to that type of living again and have spent the past 9 years since graduating college in big cities.

As for the ex-burbs, those hour or so away from city areas do tend to suck. Too far from the city to go in regularly to hang out, but still have a relatively high cost of living and lack the amenities of the city or near suburbs.


Have you been to MN? Rain is nothing here - we had 6 straight months of cold winter, at least a weeks worth of plowable snow, and schitzophrenic weather with snow one day, and 60 degrees the next. Compared to MN, it's perfect weather.
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Well of course the weather in the Bay Area is much better than in MN! It still sucks compared to the rest of California, and especially to SD which has great weather where it's seldom cold or blazing hot.

And nope, have never been to MN and don't plan on visiting. :D
 
And yeah, living out there sucks. I grew up in the middle of nowhere in West Virginia. There's not shit to do there, 30+ minute drive to get to a Wal-mart or shopping mall even as you note etc. So I'd never go back to that type of living again and have spent the past 9 years since graduating college in big cities.

As for the ex-burbs, those hour or so away from city areas do tend to suck. Too far from the city to go in regularly to hang out, but still have a relatively high cost of living and lack the amenities of the city or near suburbs.
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I call them "outer-burbs" or "rural burbs"
It's at least a 15 minute drive for shopping, and to visit my friends in the city, it's like an hour.

Thankfully I'm buying a house in a first-ring suburb in a month, so it isn't more than 11 miles to anywhere, even work for me. My commute will be 8 miles one way, whereas now it's 42 miles one way :O
 
I have decided suburbs close to big cities is the way to go. We live in the suburbs in Ohio so naturally we have lots of grocery stores, malls, liquer stores, movie thaters or anything else you want within 5-15 mins of us in most directions. At the same time though within an hour of us we have Detroit going one way and Ann Arbor the other way. This means that we have most creature comforts within 10-15 mins of us but at the same time within an hour we can be in a bigger city if we want to go to the theater or find really fancy or foreign restaurants you cant find in the burbs. Bonus too that since we have so much country by us that we have all sorts of farmers markets and orchards too ;) If we move again id try hard to hit that same sweet spot where your in the burbs but the city is within an hour.
 
[quote name='MSI Magus']My parents moved from Michigan to Vacaville about a year and a half ago and they say that California is crazy expensive. They said that their electricity bill is like double what it was at home and that most of their other bills have jumped too.[/QUOTE]

And Vacaville isn't even that nice. I was stationed at nearby Travis AFB and it's damn near dreary most of the year. I have no idea how you can possibly have a semi-desert environment in the middle of so many rivers and lakes.

I'm with you on the "near burbs" though. A 25-30 drive to downtown is ideal. You also get a little more land for your buck without breaking the bank.
 
[quote name='depascal22']And Vacaville isn't even that nice. I was stationed at nearby Travis AFB and it's damn near dreary most of the year. I have no idea how you can possibly have a semi-desert environment in the middle of so many rivers and lakes.

I'm with you on the "near burbs" though. A 25-30 drive to downtown is ideal. You also get a little more land for your buck without breaking the bank.[/QUOTE]
Name a tax canyon that is.
 
@cindersphere what do you mean by Tax canyon? Guessing its either some place to dodge taxes with housing or sink tax money in to or something? Would make sense since my aunt lives there(or did, think her second home that she actually lives in is in Sacramento now).

@deepscape Indeed, as I said we are an hour drive from the city, got slightly more land and for 1/4th the price. As I said before too living close to the country as well as the city also means we get the best of both worlds as far as shopping goes too! We get farm fresh food and rock bottom prices at the farmers market for most things, and the grocery stores are close, abundant and full of sales for the rest!
 
Ahh yes sorry. I was using that term an I think very few people would know what that is. So in California, like many states, we had a prop 13 initiative which forbade the state to raise property taxes beyond a certain percentage every year, but only for the houses built at the time. However if a new house is built, or an add on is installed then the prop 13 protection lapses and counties and the state can raise taxes as much as they want to. As a result of this counties, which relied almost entirely upon property taxes, lost a great deal of their funding, This was more or less alleviated but Jerry Brown years ago by the state paying for more services usually funded by counties. However this wasn't enough so counties had to push up their tax revenues in other place, hence the raising of sales taxes. Out of this situation sales tax canyons were developed by cities (I might add that the passage of prop 13 actually ushered in the presence of Wal-Mart to the state of California, which had until this point been weary of the higher property taxes in the state). As a result cities started naturally begging businesses to come into areas, some getting in trouble for doing things like agreeing to give companies like Wal-Mart a cut of tax dollars to build in an area along with other tasty transgression. Mostly however this just meant that cities started using tax money to develop land, such as clearing away forestry, building special roads for shopping centers, and giving tax incentives for businesses and malls to come in (think along the lines of huge and percentage based tax reductions for a decade). This has created places like the aforementioned, Vacaville, a place designed and catering to shoppers that was created so that the local county could pay its bills, in effect making city long shopping centers with housing for people playing second fiddle.

Fulton explains it better than I can. You can't read the whole chapter but this gives a better idea of what it is.

http://books.google.com/books?id=mW67xeh4bP0C&pg=PA255&lpg=PA255&dq=Welcome+to+Sales+Tax+Canyon&source=bl&ots=ZWNk7LiRJ0&sig=mF7saFCeDSo2UiTgILQeHsvu6UU&hl=en&ei=NM3ETaOmDoPSsAOz4qWZAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Welcome%20to%20Sales%20Tax%20Canyon&f=false

Again I apologize for not explaining myself.
 
I'm a live in the city guy. But of course I don't want kids so I can live in a small place and not have to break the bank to much, though it still cost me close to twice what a similar sized place 20-30 minutes (sans traffic anyway) outside the city would.

I love being able to walk to a lot of restaurants, bars, the park etc., being 3 miles from work and so on so I don't mind paying the premium.
 
Who writes checks anymore? I haven't written more than 6 checks off my account since I opened it years ago.
 
I still write one every once in a while. Mainly for some payment to an individual person that's too much for cash--one example would be things like plumbers and other repairmen (HVAC etc.).

Some people still do checks for rent as some complexes don't take credit cards or charge an extra $5-15 to do it. Or they're renting from a land lord rather than a complex and they don't want to provide an account number for an online transfer of funds etc.

But yeah, checks aren't used that much anymore so balancing a checkbook isn't that crucial anymore since all the other transactions post to your online banking account info very quickly. Checks are the only thing you have to remember since they may not post for a long time if a person is slow in depositing it.
 
The only things I write checks for is rent (because that is all they accept), and my electric bill since they charge a "convenience fee" of three dollars to use a credit card.
 
[quote name='Afflicted']actually, we decided that it was better to force kids to "learn" a foreign language that 99% of them will never use. :roll:[/QUOTE]
I took German in HS and not Spanish. Oh the folly. Here I thought we had more to worry about from those crazy Krauts attempting world domination again than from our neighbors to the south.

Besides which, I really didn't want to learn a second language and I'd heard the German class was a 'gimme'. The teacher used to put the answers from the prior night's homework on the board before class started, so all you had to do was copy them down verbatim.:D

I easily had 90's for grades in his class both years I took it.
 
I still write one every once in a while. Mainly for some payment to an individual person that's too much for cash--one example would be things like plumbers and other repairmen (HVAC etc.).

Some people still do checks for rent as some complexes don't take credit cards or charge an extra $5-15 to do it. Or they're renting from a land lord rather than a complex and they don't want to provide an account number for an online transfer of funds etc.

But yeah, checks aren't used that much anymore so balancing a checkbook isn't that crucial anymore since all the other transactions post to your online banking account info very quickly. Checks are the only thing you have to remember since they may not post for a long time if a person is slow in depositing it.
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I still write checks for bills. I've had friends who used online bill pay and have had problems with it not going through.

Granted, it still could get lost in the mail, but that's less likely to happen.

And yes, it does suck that you need to buy stamps.
 
I'd say getting lost on the mail is more likely to happen than problems with online bill pay.

You just have to keep an eye on it the first time you pay one. Do it well before the due date and keep an eye on the bills website to make sure the payment went through. After it's went through fine once, you should never have any problems in the future barring user error like not hitting the final submit payment button etc.

In any case, I've been paying bills online when possible for 10 years or more and never had a single payment not go through.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']I'd say getting lost on the mail is more likely to happen than problems with online bill pay.

You just have to keep an eye on it the first time you pay one. Do it well before the due date and keep an eye on the bills website to make sure the payment went through. After it's went through fine once, you should never have any problems in the future barring user error like not hitting the final submit payment button etc.

In any case, I've been paying bills online when possible for 10 years or more and never had a single payment not go through.[/QUOTE]
It can become much more complicated when you're paying a mortgage. Like having the payment allocated to the principal and not the interest, which would appear as a non-payment and set you up for foreclosure. Whereas if you send a physical check, there's someone to actually process it by hand rather than having the process completely automated.
 
Well, ideally you'd have your mortgage through your bank your checking is in and you can just set up debates and easily make extra payments with transfers to the loan account etc.

My girlfriend does that with her mortgage at BoA with no problems.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']I'd say getting lost on the mail is more likely to happen than problems with online bill pay.

You just have to keep an eye on it the first time you pay one. Do it well before the due date and keep an eye on the bills website to make sure the payment went through. After it's went through fine once, you should never have any problems in the future barring user error like not hitting the final submit payment button etc.

In any case, I've been paying bills online when possible for 10 years or more and never had a single payment not go through.[/QUOTE]

I've been paying bills in the mail for over 10 years and only had it get there late or not at all maybe 2-3 times.
 
[quote name='2DMention']I've been paying bills in the mail for over 10 years and only had it get there late or not at all maybe 2-3 times.[/QUOTE]

Well, that's 2-3 times of having issues to the zero times I've had issues with online bill pay. :D

On top of not having to waste money on stamps and checks as often. :D

Nothing wrong with paying by mail if that's what you prefer though. I prefer the online as I can set bills that are the same every month to be paid automatically and get all my other e-bills in one place on my BoA account and easily remember to pay them on time etc.
 
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