A year or so ago, I was watching an Oprah show that was entitled "Rags to Riches." I am not sure of the original air date but some of you may have watched this episode. Basically the show featured a 45 yr. old homeless man that had found $100,000 in a dumpster. Showtime set this man up to do a documentary entitled "Reversal of Fortune" to see what he would do with this money and if he could turn his life around. The homeless man did not know he was being set up. Anyway, this man ended up blowing through the money; buying a friend and himself a truck, paying off his friend’s debt, getting married, etc. Anyway, the man ended up going broke and is back on the streets. The purpose of the documentary was to show that you can just throw money at a problem and expect it to go away on its on. This man had money, but had no concept of saving it or financial planning. Money alone just can't solve every problem. I know we have talked about low class parents and students a lot in this class. This story relates because some parents may not have an understanding of saving for the future. It is a difficult thing to do for some people. It can be really hard to break old habits. I am interested to hear what you all have to say / respond to this story.

Here is the link to the full storyline: [http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200612/20061201/slide_20061201_284_107.jhtml][/url]

I think the phrase "Money alone just can't solve every problem" is exactly right. I feel like this article speaks less about money management, and more about the fact that you can't throw money at a problem to make it go away. There have been times in class when I've felt like all lower-class parents have been grouped together as bad parents because they don't have many monetary resources. I think, though, that all the money in the world can't create a nurturing home environment. At my school, some of the kids with the most money were the ones with the most problems (emotionally and in school). With a lot of these kids, their parents would buy them nice clothes, and nice cars, and computers, and ipods, and whatever they wanted, but the parents wouldn't take 20 minutes to talk about school with their child. Out of the four people I knew who were pretty wealthy in high school, only one had parents who were actively involved in her life, and she is the only one who is in college now. I just think it goes to show that, like Jake said, "Money alone just can't solve every problem."

Like Whitney said, "all the money in the world cannot create a nuturing home environment," but many parents seem to think so. Many people I know take money for granted and throw it away on rediculous stuff because of their overly-privledged childhoods. Maybe during this man's childhood, his parents spent their money as soon as they earned it, which influenced his decision after receiving the $100,000 because he was a witness of constant spending as a child. Money really cannot solve every problem, ecspecially if you have no concept or intention of saving it.

I found what Jake said sad but true cause it happens everyday unfortunately. Money can buy you all the nice things in the world but it can never buy you happiness. I think most people in the world that do have a lot of money are probably the most unhappy at the end of the day. Thats why it is hard for me to give money to the homeless because of that very reason usually they just waste it away. I would whether go buy them some food or a shirt instead of handing them money out.

I agree with you Chase. A lot of the behaviors we observe when we're children are instilled upon us as adults out of human nature. If a child's parents spent their money very rapidly as soon as they got it, the child is going to internalize this and subconsciously feel that he or she must do this as well. Money is associated with power, unfortunately, in our society. If this man has not been educated on how to save his money for a later time when he may need it, he doesn't know that spending it rapidly will end with rough results. The man felt power with having so much money. He now could buy anything he wanted and that sense of power got the best of him. This could also be associated with the fact that he probably felt so useless being homeless and once he obtained all that money he was able to get whatever he wanted. Unfortunately that led to tough times once again. The desire to spend money is a hard one to overcome, so it is not surprising that he ended up spending it all.

My first thought after reading the story presented was a quote from my mother. "There are two kinds of people; those who say they can afford something because they physically have the money and the others who say they can afford something because they can buy it with credit." Obviously we are all not at one extreme or the other, but this comment brings up a very important idea. In our material world, we buy everything we want, or at least try to. When we buy with credit the bills just pile up. Even though this homeless man was spending money he did physically have there was an end to it. If he had just put it into the bank, he could have lived off the interest for the rest of his life. Maybe as a math teacher I could do a small finances lesson to teach these concepts to my students.

I love your last thought Audrey. We should, as math teachers, teach the value of money and what it actually means to buy things on credit. These concepts can't be taught too early. If students actually knew how many hours their parents had to work in order to buy things would amaze them. We all take things for granted. But, I would love to get my students to value the things that they have/use daily and realize what all goes into making these things. Plus, parents would like this lesson because it might save them some money. However, parents probably would not like their own children asking about the family debt?!? Great thoughts everyone.

Wow- this is actually a thought that has been going through my head lately because it relates directly to someone who is close to me. This person could have benefitted SO much from a class that taught her how to manage her finances or that money cannot solve all your problems. I agree that many of the problems that people have stem from the fact that their parents did not know how to manage their finances either so therefore their children have encountered the same problems. Kids should definitely be learning more about managing their money in school. Go math teachers!