January. Ugh. There's nothing good about January. Once New Year's is over and you've dried off from the Polar Bear Swim, it just goes downhill.
People seem to be more pessimistic in January. The grand resolutions that we proclaim at the opening of the year typically fall by the wayside by now. I couldn't help think that as I was walking out of Costco on the weekend and saw someone returning the stationary bike. I wonder if he even tried it first.
Some people make resolutions about finances. I read a CIBC survey that was particularly discouraging - 35 per cent of people didn't believe they would meet their financial goals. Kind of negative for a resolution.
Maybe they were feeling that way because they just went through another January tradition, the arrival of the holiday credit card statement. The joy and excitement of the holidays that has long passed is replaced with the disappointment and apprehension of having to pay for it all.
The news is full of stories about getting back on track and dealing with holiday debts. It's a busy time for credit counselling agencies, the places people turn to when their debts get too overwhelming. Reading through comments people make on social media is interesting. After getting their debts organized and learning how to budget better, one comment is striking: "Why don't they teach this stuff in schools?" Charles Dickens once wrote, "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen -result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty-one pounds - result misery." According to Stats Canada, on average, Canadians owe $1.62 for every dollar of income, quite a bit more than Dickens considered misery. Yet we are the ones teaching the next generation about money.
Managing money is a skill that we all use on a daily basis, yet there is little instruction on how to do it properly. Most of us will learn through trial and error, or by what our parents teach us. For the most part, kids are sheltered by their parents through high school, get a few student loans in college and then get hit with the reality of actually having to pay them back. No wonder there are so many stories about problems with students repaying loans.
I watched a program about money one time where the speaker talked about a money memory - your earliest memory about dealing with money. Were you spending it, saving it, earning it or given it? Whatever the case, it shapes how you will likely deal with money, and money will deal with you, for the rest of your life.
Except for identifying what money looks like early on, we don't talk much about it in schools. Planning a budget, understanding credit, how to save, why people invest - these are all issues that would make for good money memories.
When I ran for school trustee, this was a topic I wanted to address in our schools. I still think it's important, because understanding money is a big step in helping kids succeed in life.
We need to bring financial literacy into the classroom now, while there is still a chance to shape those early money memories.
It's one way to hopefully make January a little less miserable.
