Adulting lessons

[rebeccmeister]

I got an email recently from my alma mater's alumni organization about some upcoming webinars on offer, and noted that one of them was a Personal Finance 101 class. So I signed up for it and participated last night, and it was really helpful! There were some topics I was familiar with, but having everything together in a class setting was just good with regards to feeling like I had a reasonably thorough understanding of a wider range of topics under the umbrella of financial planning.

Interestingly, just this month the state of New York agreed to start requiring a one-semester personal finance course for all high school students. We got *some* financial education in high school, but it centered more around "build a good credit history and save up money" and less around "Here's how to think about the various different types of retirement and other savings accounts."

Anyway, the experience just got me to wondering, if there were other sorts of classes on other aspects of Adulting that you could take, what would you sign up for?

I would totally sign up for "Navigating Medical Bureaucracy," for instance. Maybe also "How to help care for elderly parents and relatives." I do also plan to sign up for "First-time homebuying." I like the structure of a course for the sake of feeling like I'm getting a reasonably complete set of information.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I have six qualifications from four unis so you can imagine the amount of post I get, especially the sort scrounging for maney!

[rebeccmeister]

As someone who works in higher ed (and gets hit up for money by the institution that employs me!), I hear you! So I am grateful that the place where I earned my Bachelor's degree does more than just ask me for money. Its alumni magazine is actually informative on a wide range of topics, and it is very much trying to maintain a long-term relationship with alumni that is mutually beneficial.

I do give back to my alma mater, and to the institution where I currently work. But I don't give back to the institution where I earned my PhD, because I STILL feel like they got the better end of the deal with regards to how much work I did for them!

[twoeleven]

I like the structure of a course for the sake of feeling like I'm getting a reasonably complete set of information.

Yes! I know a lot of autodidacts. They have the worst intellectual vision of anybody, both tunnel vision and blindspots. So they end up with a weird form of Dunning-Kruger: they know a lot about what they know, but they have no idea what they don't know, but they confidently assert that it doesn't matter, or can be figured out from what they do know.

if there were other sorts of classes on other aspects of Adulting that you could take, what would you sign up for?

"Post-Graduate Politics for Practical Results": this seminar presents detailed, comprehensive advice on reforming societies, so that classes like "Navigating Medical Bureaucracy" and "Saving to Avoid Starving in Retirement" aren't necessary. ;) :)

[rebeccmeister]

Ohhhhh, that would be a fantastic course. Sign me up!

[ranunculus]

I took a financial course in High School. It might have just been a day or three, but what I really remember was the instruction on how to fill out a tax form. It was one of the first super clear times when I realized that I couldn't remember formulas (not that I pinpointed formulas at that point). My takaway from the class was not the ability to do my own taxes, but the fact that I was never going to be able to get it correct, so I might as well hire someone to do it. I know that wasn't what the class was supposed to teach, but it was a good lesson none the less.
On a completely different note, around 1980 my parent's project in Mexico began giving classes to the village women on how to use a bank. A lot of it was explaining how things worked in banking, but it also gave them tools so they didn't get cheated. Most families in the villages had never had a bank account, none of their neighbors had and so there was no way for them to know what to do or to look out for.

[threemeninaboat]

I'd take Techno Music 201 if it was offered.
This class was insanely good but they don't have any more music classes:
https://www.edx.org/learn/music-arts/university-of-adelaide-music-technology-foundations?index=product&queryId=3194da22111c9db3c7c0647330681d64&position=2


They do have Global Rhythms though hummmm:
https://www.edx.org/learn/music-arts/massachusetts-institute-of-technology-world-music-global-rhythms?index=product&queryId=1b579cdd788d0e20e7b252049264a249&position=15


(oddly enough, the Berklee Music classes were terrible)

[conuly]

Well, many many many people would benefit from a science-based, non-ideological (unless science is an ideology) class on child development and childcare. And then, later on, eldercare.

[rebeccmeister]

YES to both!!