As parents, we teach our kids about things we feel competent in. That's why so many parents don't teach their kids about money.
Interpretation
Parents often share knowledge in areas where they feel confident, leading to gaps in essential life skills like financial education.
In this quote, Dave Ramsey highlights the tendency of parents to impart knowledge in subjects where they feel knowledgeable. This can create a significant omission in vital areas such as financial literacy, as many parents may not be well-versed in money management, thus missing the opportunity to teach their children important life skills.
In practice
In a parent-teacher meeting, a discussion on the importance of teaching kids about finances can include this quote.
Debt is so ingrained into our culture that most Americans can't even envision a car without a payment ... a house without a mortgage ... a student without a loan ... and credit without a card. We've been sold debt with such repetition and with such fervor that most folks can't conceive of what it would be like to have NO payments.
The thing I have discovered about working with personal finance is that the good news is that it is not rocket science. Personal finance is about 80 percent behavior. It is only about 20 percent head knowledge.
Debt collectors like to play on your emotions because they think you'll give in and do something you can't really afford to do. Most of them don't care about you or your situation as long as they get some money.
Hitting bottom and hitting it hard was the worst thing that ever happened to me and the best thing that ever happened to me.
Your priorities, passions, goals, and fears are shown clearly in the flow of your money.
You have to teach children about money intentionally - create teachable moments.
I have learned more [from Balzac] than from all the professional historians, economists, and statisticians put together.
I was part of the first generation of girls and women to be educated and go to grammar school even if we didn't have much money. Then that generation went, 'OK, great', and went into medicine or the police, and hit this wall of discrimination from older men who hadn't caught up.
Education is the leading human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them; and these two objects are always attainable together, and by the same means; the training which makes man happiest in themselves also makes them most serviceable to others.
One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.
Personally, I am a hedonistic reader; I have never read a book merely because it was ancient. I read books for the aesthetic emotions they offer me, and I ignore the commentaries and criticism.
The assumption of all education is that learning will be directed toward constructive ends and I'm convinced that colleges should support students in their determination to be useful, self-sufficient, and productive.
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