I did take a class like this in high school. How to write a check and reconcile the account. How interest and compound interest works, loans, mortgages...I remember it to this day although I don't remember it being a mandatory class. My mom worked in finance so I knew a lot of these things already but I thought the class was great. While they have the edge with tech, I think security needs to be stressed with kids as soon as they can grasp the concept. It's just too important to assume they'll figure it out for themselves.
I could have elected to take an accounting class in high school, but it didn't interest me at the time. I would recommend it to others now, though. My single mother is an ISFP and for all of her strengths, financial planning isn't one of them.
I've had to work out a lot of complex legal and accounting issues, and have found the simplest piece of advice I would give others is to hire someone reliable to help work out the logistics. There are three major accomplishments I have managed, although there were significant errors that cost me. The first is starting my own freelancing business where I sell books I've made online. Overall that has been successful, but I had a tax mishap when I found out that out of state book sales and my job playing music in the hospital all required state sales tax payment. I had no idea, so I got audited and owed $1500 in fines and back taxes. Now I work with a professional accountant to submit my taxes. Buying a house was a successful endeavor which I did completely alone after my divorce. I don't make much, but went ahead to find out what I qualified for and managed to find one house in town in the price range that was small, but functional. I refinanced in six months into a conventional loan to get rid of an extra $100/month in mortgage insurance. Finally the most complex endeavor has been re-incorporating the non-profit entity that one of my mentors started and passed onto me. The process of incorporating and reclaiming past assets has involved four lawyers and now an accountant over the past seven years. We just received our check from the former savings account, so it has been successful, but wrought with pure head trauma along the way.
The main thing that has sustained me is my ability to organize, so I extend those basic principles to all of these complex requirements. However, both the fields of law and accounting are heavy with arbitrary and specific rules that you can only know if you study and learn it. You can't guess or use intuition without knowledge. Figuring out how to find the most reliable expert who doesn't charge more than you can afford is the only way to start making sense of it.
If I could manage it, I would prefer to live simply and down to earth like humans have always lived out in the country with simple resources. I do get a lot of anxiety when trying to work out all the legalities and paperwork because those systems are absolutely rigid and often arbitrary.
