Life 101

Today was another surprising day at school. Probably the sweetest woman I have ever met arrived this morning to teach my class how to apply for an FHA first homebuyers loan. Wow. This woman, a real estate agent by day, is also a foster mother of 8 kids. Most foster moms are stay at home moms, living off of the governmental subsidies provided to them for taking care of the children. This woman is married, so when she is at work all day long her husband is taking care of the kids, and when she gets home from work, he goes to work on 2nd shift. She is literally always working, always on the clock. And she had time to volunteer at school today. Wow.

Besides the tutoring experience, the best thing I am taking away from this class is the renewed faith I have in everyone. As an active volunteer, I see a lot of destruction and devastation in its wake. My closest friends are those that volunteer with me, so I'm not used to meeting so many wonderfully selfless people like this woman. Put people like her with the amazing students that take my class and you have an incredible group of people. I'm so blessed to be a part of this.

I quickly looked over her lesson plan for the day and made copies for the class so I could assist. I could tell it was going to be interesting, finance isn't my strong suit, and I've only ever rented a home - so I was listening intently to say the least! We started with a budgeting exercise (how perfect). I handed out an example of a "budget case study" that detailed the monthly spendings vs. income of one person. The students learned how to categorize expenses into rudimentary categories to help them stay on track, like clothes, food, and entertainment. Then we went over how to easily allott a certain percentage of one's income to a certain category, and follow this from month to month.

I thought her approach was very easy to understand and the students really got a lot out of today's class. Another reason why I love this class, it teaches English, but it's really teaching Life 101. There are so many side lessons discussed about adjusting to American culture and thriving within it. I'm telling you - it's even helpful for me, a native English speaker that was born and raised in the United States.

After the break the rest of the lesson focused on utilizing formulas to determine if a certain income will be able to afford a certain mortgage payment, and other common scenarios like this. Everyone was given a packet detailing everything that was covered, and the real estate agent left all of her information. She was happy to represent any of them in finding a home in the future.

At the end of class she asked everyone to keep a weekly record of everything that they spend, and then categorize each expense like we did in the exercise today. Even though she was not going to be back in a week - don't think that didn't stop me from making everyone participate! I did it myself too, it's only fair! I was very surprised, it's incredible how much less you will spend when you are aware of what is being spent.

Debt is the one aspect of American culture we would like to omit from advocating here :]