$15K/month is not only healthy, it is upper middle class. The MEDIAN household income is less than half of this amount,
Obviously targeted at my post. FWIW, to me “healthy” means being able to do the things we want. Much like being physically healthy, at the risk of sounding elitist, the median person isn’t healthy.
brought to you by my 15 year old asking me "why don't schools teach us useful stuff like taxes and how to budget? or how to pay for a house and stuff? why should i have to take 2 years of French and choir when i'd rather take home ec but they won't let me?"
NOBODY KNOWS, KIDDO.
Nobody takes choir unless they want to, around here anyway.
Obviously not all parents are capable but it really falls on parents to teach life skills.
I’ve considered starting a “life skills / community help” group around here. Get a diverse group of adults willing to teach kids life skills. The stuff they don’t teach in schools. Maybe that’s my retirement calling.
for sure it falls to parents/grandparents, etc. to teach it but we never learned it as kids. my parents didn't know anything about retirement. they're barely HS graduates. blue collar without any people around them who worked with finances, etc. to teach them either.
the internet changes things a bit now. there's more info, but there's SO MUCH MISINFORMATION that it's almost worse.
i had the luck of having some older co-workers years ago that more or less forced me to start saving/investing in a 401k. i didn't have a clue about any of it 25 years ago. in the interim i've learned a bit but clearly not enough.. so i can pass along what i've learned and what i understand but is that... 5% of what they need to know? 70%? it's not 100, i know that.
people my age who i know are doing well also happen to be the children of professional parents (doctors, lawyers, etc.). money begets money. those of my peers that are well situated had things like well-funded investment accounts when they turned 18. inheritance from grandparents. parents who paid their tuition, etc. they grew up around money and had parents who had professional financial assistance.. they could afford to have someone help them understand how to manage their money and that trickles down.
i'm trying to learn and pass on to my kids what i have but it's not much. looking back at my younger days i should have bought rental property, invested more, but preoccupation with eating and not being homeless ate up all that investable income and then some. so my time was not filled with reading up on 401k's, Roth IRA's, pensions, etc.
something like a "life skills" course targeted at HS kids would be FANTASTIC. most kids aren't going to spend time outside of school taking those courses, though, imo. it would have to be part of the school curriculum. they're already there 8 hours a day. the rest is taken up by homework, sports, jobs as they get older. instead of another required course like a foreign language, or higher level math that many won't use, they should have access to real-life education like money management courses as you're suggesting.
maybe that exists... somewhere? but it's not here.