When I asked my friends to be interviewed again I was met with groans, I thought they enjoyed the first time but I guess not.

If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go? My friends looked confused but answered anyway. “France, Dubai, Antarctica “ were some of the answers. So you need money to do this. To make money you need to understand the economy. Do you feel educated on the economy? Most responded with a no. Only one out of the ten said yes and the reasoning was “you never shut up about it Conner”. Most of our knowledge stems from high school, so why are they not teaching us about it? “Um, I think a lot of schools are focusing on STEM, that they are more pushed. I think private schools do but public schools don’t”. Since we are so focused on STEM do you feel that this information was helpful? “Not at all when am I ever going to need to know that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell?!?”. So does the high school curriculum need another revamp? Yes. It doesn’t need to make everyone into the next Warren buffet but it is truly doing a disservice to today’s youth and causing a lack of understanding. I think pushing STEM is great but when people can’t do their taxes we have an issue. Many people my age don’t know how the stock market works or the difference between a traditional IRA and Roth IRA. These are basic concepts that they should know as they will be affecting our lives a lot sooner than most think.

At college, I have not heard anything from others about the complete market crash that has happened in the past weeks. When asked about it the general response was I don’t know anything, it doesn’t affect me. On the contrary, it does, for those whose parents are paying for your college more than likely your college funds are in a 529 plan. This is an account where the money is invested in relatively safe ETFs, relatively is the keyword, the market is in shambles so it’s very likely that 25% of your college fund is gone and will not be coming back anytime soon. When I told people this, pure panic hit them with one calling their mom directly after our chat. This was not my intent but it just highlights my point. For those who I thought could take it I then explained how we have not seen this big of a drop in the overall economy since the 08 housing crash and another 10% and we hit levels similar to the great depression. Although I think this outcome is very unlikely it is on the table and people need to know. Throw in that our grandparents’ retirement funds are exponentially shrinking and retirement for our parents is now at least 5 extra years away due to the losses in their 401Ks. You would think the world is ending, we will all have to live in boxes soon.

“It is impossible to make money in this economy,” said a friend. What if I told you I have hit all-time highs in my stock portfolios in the past weeks. Many would think like my friend did, it is impossible. But it is true. Just like you can buy stocks with the assumption they are going to go up you can buy on the assumption they are going down. This was the final straw for many of my friends as I completely broke their minds. Many who are business majors.

Just like we all know the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell we need to know what an option put is.