I've only been in college for 2 years now but I have some real world questions. Who the hell is going to teach me how to do my taxes, help me buy a house and figure out what a 401k is? Because right now it seems like college doesn't really give a flying f$ck if I figure this type of sh&t out before I graduate. These are a couple real world things that I'm completely confused by.
1. How to do our Taxes
What the hell are taxes?! Every time I look at my mom’s tax papers I feel like I’m looking at a completely foreign language and we are expected to do our own taxes when we get older. What is this sorcery? The only thing I know about taxes is that they are enforced by the government and they basically steal our hard earned money like big bullies that chill by the swings at the playground and search little kids for lunch money. You’re welcome for that visual, by the way. Now like I was saying, Schools will never teach us how to do our taxes when we get older and we basically have to figure it out for ourselves and pray to God we don’t f*ck it up.
2. How to Pay Bills
One of the reasons why I’m not looking forward to being an adult is because of bills. As I’m getting older I’m starting to realize that everything is NOT free. Apartments cost money, the lights in your apartment cost money, the clothes on your back cost money, cars costs money, everything has a price tag. I understand that everything in this world isn’t free but how the hell do you pay the bills for these things? Where do I even start?
3. How to Maintain a Good Credit Score
Okay, so I learned about credit scores when I was in the 11th grade but not everyone that’s my age knows what this is. Credit scores are tied to credit cards and to maintain a healthy credit score, you basically have to pay back the money you borrowed from the credit card on time. For example, if you walk into a store and you see a pair of shoes that you really love but don’t have the money at that moment, you use your credit card. Once you use your credit card for that purchase you have to make sure to pay that money that you borrowed from the credit card to buy the shoes, back at the end of the month. So when you pay back the money you borrowed on your credit card back on time, you have a healthy credit score, which will benefit you in the future when you want to take out a loan.
4. How to Buy/Rent a Home
So when we graduate from college, we are expected to find a job and a place to live. Well I have just one question? How are we supposed to know how to buy/rent a home? We are fresh out of college! We got loans to pay back! Everything we have has been bought for us from the clothes on our back to the roof over our heads. So I’m going back to the question I asked earlier: How do we buy/rent a home? How you do dat? Tell me how, fam.
5. How to Fill out a 401k
Someone please explain to me what a 401k is because to this day I still haven’t figured it out. Is it a retirement fund? Do we have to buy it? If we have to buy it then what’s the name of the store we have to get it from? Is the store called the 401k Club? Once again, I’m lost. Schools should really teach me what this is before I graduate from college and enter the real world. I’m getting really close to being an adult so we need to get the ball rolling here.
