Oh, hey there! Oh, this? So, my friend Caroline's been having some money issues lately, so
I thought it'd be a good idea to help her out by making her a short guide on money. See,
Caroline's an actor, like me. And with this sweet gig comes a little bit of financial insecurity.
Sometimes we get a lot of jobs lined up and everything's great, and other times,
well, we have to be prepared to go without work for a while. And a big part of that is making
sure we have a nest egg saved up and tucked away somewhere so that we don't go broke. Therefore...
Yeah, it seems like a lot - and it is - but Caroline was asking a lot of questions like...
What's money but some pieces of paper, right? Couldn't I just go to the public library,
use their printer, and then I'd be rich? Except then, wouldn't everybody do that?
Why would anybody even bother getting a job? And what about credit cards?
Those are made of plastic, not paper. Why bother printing a bunch of cash
when I can use a credit card and get free money? How would I even get a credit card?
She even mentioned selling her kidney for money at one point,
but thankfully I was able to convince her that that was not the smartest idea long term.
Actually, now that you're here, why don't I just teach you some of this stuff too?
I mean, I just have to make a copy of the notes but that shouldn't take too long.
All right, I've done it. Here it is - a copy of all the notes I took for you. I
know it's going to be a lot, but it's going to be totally worth it. Before each lesson,
be sure to download or print out the notes that I provided for you on our website. Alright, so
this unit is all about the basics of money - what it is, where it comes from,
and how to use it. So first up, we're going to learn about understanding what it means to
have money and why people can't just print out their own. You can't, by the way. People cannot
print their own money. It doesn't make you rich, just makes you a criminal as it turns out.
So, once you understand what money is, then we can learn about all the different
types of financial exchange. That's just a fancy word for
paying for stuff, like with cash or credit card, you know. But if you want to spend money,
you have to find a place to keep it or to make more of it. So we're going to learn
about financial institutions - businesses whose whole purpose is storing and loaning money.
Now here's the thing - if you use a financial institution for lending or borrowing money,
that's going to come with an extra fee, and that fee is called interest. So we'll learn how that
works, and we'll learn how to make sure that you are earning as much interest as possible while
paying as little as possible. And at the end of the unit, I'm going to need your help.
Caroline needs to figure out a financial institution for her to store her money,
and so I've got a bunch of newspaper cutouts of different financial institutions in the area
and we're going to compare and contrast them to see which one's best for Caroline.
A lot of people out there fall for financial scams just because they don't understand how banks work.
Or they think that credit cards are free money and end up not being able to pay back what they
borrowed. Or they do dangerous and illegal things to earn money out of desperation.
By the end of this unit, you will know why money exists and how it works, so you can
avoid these financial traps and set yourself up with a good chance for success in the future.
And as for Caroline, well she'll be able to store her money safely and build up a good little nest
egg, so that she can have something in between jobs without resorting to selling a kidney.
And without going to jail for printing counterfeit money! Seems like a good idea, right?