rand Haven, Michigan is known around the world as one of the best beach towns. From surfing to beach volleyball to jumping off the pier, the different activities you can do in my town are endless. Thrillist magazine says, “Some mitten-beach experts named it Michigan’s best beach town, for starters. But if you don’t believe us, take a trip to Grand Haven and step on the big, soft beach at Grand Haven State Park and try to argue” (Meltzer 1). Hopefully I am painting a clear picture in your head about how amazing summer was while being a teenager in Grand Haven, Michigan.
Unfortunately, the responsibility of being an adult slammed into my nineteen year old life like a truck. I was abruptly welcomed to the real world. Even with my loans I still …show more content…
I was used to being friends with people who went to college and were financially educated. This was not the case with the people I worked with. My first eye opener was Jessie. Jessie was nineteen and worked fulltime at TGW. Although every sentence that came out of his mouth had at least one swear word in it, he was one of the nicest guys I had ever met. His life revolved around his girlfriend and family. Every day his sister or girlfriend would drop him off two bottles of diet mountain dew and a can of wintergreen grizzly chewing tobacco. Although we were polar opposites, we became good friends over the summer. He eventually opened up about his financial problems. He was making sixty thousand dollars a year.. He had just purchased his house ($150,000), had two separate payments on his motorcycles ($4,000 each), and a payment on his truck ($18,000). He was underwater on every loan. Jessie also had about ten thousand dollars in credit card debt. But the reason he had credit card debt is because, “you have to get a credit card to your credit score up”. He failed to realize that if he didn’t pay this off, the interest rate was very high. Over the course of the summer I taught him about the debt-snowball effect of paying off his smallest loans first. This was the first time he had ever heard about this principal. The little financial knowledge Jessie had really shocked …show more content…
John and Philip were roommates. Weirdly it seemed like every other person I met was purchasing a new car. Philip bought a 2007 BMW three series. At the young age of eighteen, this was a pretty sweet ride. Two weeks after his new car purchase Philip borrowed John’s car while his BMW was in the shop. He totaled John’s car while driving back from his girlfriend's house, crashing into a pole. The insurance company refused to pay since Philip was driving it, which resulted in Philip having to take over John’s loan. John was upside down in the loan so he didn’t have a problem with this. Later that week, Philip broke his arm which landed him on disability until he recovered. Being eighteen with no savings, he went broke and his BMW was repossessed. This was a simple financial disaster that could have been avoided with an emergency fund. Dave Ramsey supported this brilliantly when he said, “The reason to have an emergency fund is simple: You don’t know what’s going to happen. And no one wants to live at the mercy of life’s twists and turns. Your emergency fund will come in handy if you suddenly lose your job” (1).
Working at TGW this summer, I learned how negatively the financial sector affects uneducated members of our society. Every company seems to hand out loans and credit cards, as if they are the key to happiness. Jessie, Philip, and Andre had no idea what they were doing with their money. They weren’t financially educated
Unfortunately, the responsibility of being an adult slammed into my nineteen year old life like a truck. I was abruptly welcomed to the real world. Even with my loans I still …show more content…
I was used to being friends with people who went to college and were financially educated. This was not the case with the people I worked with. My first eye opener was Jessie. Jessie was nineteen and worked fulltime at TGW. Although every sentence that came out of his mouth had at least one swear word in it, he was one of the nicest guys I had ever met. His life revolved around his girlfriend and family. Every day his sister or girlfriend would drop him off two bottles of diet mountain dew and a can of wintergreen grizzly chewing tobacco. Although we were polar opposites, we became good friends over the summer. He eventually opened up about his financial problems. He was making sixty thousand dollars a year.. He had just purchased his house ($150,000), had two separate payments on his motorcycles ($4,000 each), and a payment on his truck ($18,000). He was underwater on every loan. Jessie also had about ten thousand dollars in credit card debt. But the reason he had credit card debt is because, “you have to get a credit card to your credit score up”. He failed to realize that if he didn’t pay this off, the interest rate was very high. Over the course of the summer I taught him about the debt-snowball effect of paying off his smallest loans first. This was the first time he had ever heard about this principal. The little financial knowledge Jessie had really shocked …show more content…
John and Philip were roommates. Weirdly it seemed like every other person I met was purchasing a new car. Philip bought a 2007 BMW three series. At the young age of eighteen, this was a pretty sweet ride. Two weeks after his new car purchase Philip borrowed John’s car while his BMW was in the shop. He totaled John’s car while driving back from his girlfriend's house, crashing into a pole. The insurance company refused to pay since Philip was driving it, which resulted in Philip having to take over John’s loan. John was upside down in the loan so he didn’t have a problem with this. Later that week, Philip broke his arm which landed him on disability until he recovered. Being eighteen with no savings, he went broke and his BMW was repossessed. This was a simple financial disaster that could have been avoided with an emergency fund. Dave Ramsey supported this brilliantly when he said, “The reason to have an emergency fund is simple: You don’t know what’s going to happen. And no one wants to live at the mercy of life’s twists and turns. Your emergency fund will come in handy if you suddenly lose your job” (1).
Working at TGW this summer, I learned how negatively the financial sector affects uneducated members of our society. Every company seems to hand out loans and credit cards, as if they are the key to happiness. Jessie, Philip, and Andre had no idea what they were doing with their money. They weren’t financially educated