Credit Reports and Scores

This week has been about credit, and has been vitally important. We learned about the different types of credit, and how the credit report can document basically everything from high school on. We learned it is very important to make the right decision early on in life to prevent decreases in credit score later on. This credit score will affect many things a person do later on in life, such as getting loans from banks, buying a car and starting a job. The ideal credit score is Very Good or Excellent. A bad credit score will prevent you from getting basically everything. I'm actually glad this class is required, as it really teaches us important information to know later on in life.

Budgets and Savings

This week has mainly been about budgets and managing bank accounts. We learned that it's important to create a monthly budget for ourselves to help us manage our money and avoid overspending. In order to create a budget, we must pay yourself first, meaning the savings, then, list all our income resources and then our expenses. (Usually, the expenses is a much more detailed list than the income D:) The two then should equal each other at the end, more or less. These past days have, again, been vitally important for our future, as we are learning to make our money work for us. We are learning of ways to obtain more money than we had at the beginning, simply by leaving it alone in a secured bank account. So, the morale of the story is, pay yourself first, and keep yourself, and your money, well-organized.

Banking

This week mainly revolved around banking. This week was highly important as it teaches us valuable life skills that we will use later on in life. We learned how to write checks, how to mail checks, and how to write a check register. It was actually pretty fun to handle all the 'money' and do real-life transactions such as checks and stores and dealing with the hardships of not having enough money to pay off bills. It'll be interesting to see how the semester continues, and how everyone fares with their own money and problems.