Personal finance is a class where students learn how to pay taxes, get loans, find a job, budget and start a credit card. These are simple tasks that are useful after graduation. The class is two semesters long, and it’s not required for graduation, meaning students can make the decision whether or not they want to take the class.

“I think it’s a wiser decision to take personal finance because it prepares you for the future. While other classes may be fun, they are not needed like personal finance,” senior Jett Orseth said.

Paying taxes and taking loans from the bank is a potentially consequential task you must do when you get a job and become more independent. Learning how to do taxes is very important because it is required by law that you do them, and there are repercussions that will accrue if you don’t do your taxes or you do them wrong. Older teens that never learn how to do them may find it very intimidating. There are many places people can go to for help; learning how to do taxes while still in high school sets up students for success.

“Taxes are very complex. If I didn’t have someone to teach me and help me with it, I don’t know if I could do them correctly,” Orseth said.

Some students may not have parents to help them. Making personal finance a required class would guarantee that all students would be able to do important things like learning how to budget and become financially successful. Personal finance also works as a math credit, so not only are students learning about loans, credit cards and many other things, they will also be getting math credit that’ll help them towards graduation.

There are many resources that can help people with budgeting and taking out loans, and many people pay someone to help them, but that can be costly. Most people learn how to do their finances as their life goes on, and while these financial tasks may not be a requirement to know, learning them could possibly save you a lot of money.

Learning how to save money may not seem very important but having a big savings account can keep you from getting into debt. Being in debt can cause you to pay a lot more money on something with interest, and taking Personal Finance teaches you how to stop that from happening, which everyone should know.

“I think Personal Finance is very useful information that everyone should know because it’s the basics on how to live on your own and manage your finances,” Orseth said.

Taxes and budgeting is a small part of the class. The class covers many more skills and opportunities, such as loans for colleges. Most students go straight to college after they graduate but then realize they can’t afford it, making them take out a crazy big loan. Personal Finance covers the best ways to pay for college without taking out the big loans and having to pay for interest.

The knowledge of the class is very important, and if Personal Finance was required to graduate, students would be more likely to make wiser financial decisions in their adult life.