Learning All There Is To Learn

I have to be honest when I say that I have a big beef with our current public education system (I live in Canada). I feel that as children we were not taught the valuable life skills that we really do need to know in order to survive in this world! My head was filled with a bunch of theory and facts, most of which I have not used since leaving school.

Of course I did learn how to read, write, spell, math, and many other skills that I do use on a daily basis in both my personal and professional life but I did not learn some other valuable skills such as managing personal finances and relationship building.

When I was in University I was offered a credit card by one of those vendors on campus who set up during frosh week and give away 'gifts' when you apply for a credit card! I was approved and with my first card I bought not 1 but 2 leather jackets! I thought "this is great! free money!". I would of course receive monthly statements and in bold it would say "Minimum Payment", which was so incredibly low I thought it was a steal! Well it was - stealing my hard earned money only it took me years and years to figure that out. I was not taught in school that credit is something that needs to be used very carefully, I did not learn how the compound interest worked, and I did not realize that it would take much much longer to pay it back than it did to spend it! Luckily to this day I still have those 2 leather jackets and yes, they are still in style!

Unfortunately I did not learn with that first purchase. It took me many many many more years of spending on credit before I realized holy $hit! I owe how much??? It was incredible how fast it amounted! Today I am making loan payments of almost $800 per month to try to get all of my spending paid off! I don't want to admit how high it got but believe me the balance owing was high! Fortunately I have great credit because I never missed one of those small minimum payments (how could you, they're so small!) and creditors of course loved me because they were making great money off of me! I am very very lucky that I did not get in too far over a manageable level and I have learned my lesson. Today I am not the person I was yesterday and I am not my debt, that is a mistake from the past that I have learned from, one which has made me stronger.

As I said I am very fortunate that I did not let myself get too far under my debt! My boyfriend and I have recently purchased a new house and we are now going through the process of figuring out our down payment, closing costs, what type of mortgage we want and how to combine our finances. Wow, I am learning so much and I have so much to learn! Why was there not a course in school on Mortgages - open vs closed, fixed vs variable interest rates, amortization periods etc. I feel like I am going into this blind and I am soooo thankful that I have access to the Internet and all of the resources that it provides! We are taking out life insurance policies ~ what, at 30? And figuring out how to combine our finances, talk about pressure on a relationship! Where did all of this new required learning come from and where are the teachers who are experts in this stuff?

I can only imagine how much more I have to learn in my 30's and beyond...