Fiscal responsibility one of many lessons not to be learned from The Kardashians
British preacher Charles Spurgeon once said, “Economy is half the battle of life; it is not so hard to earn money as to spend it well.”
In today’s world, this principle has been lost by many. This was recently evidenced by the “Kardashian Kard,” a prepaid debit card that Kim, Kourtney, and Khloe Kardashian launched in a partnership with Mastercard aimed at teaching teenagers how to use money responsibly.
When the card was launched, Kim Kardashian wrote a blog post, saying, “To me, the coolest thing about this prepaid card is that when you get the card you ... can transfer your money between your accounts when you need it, using your phone. It’s like having an ATM in your phone, LOL. No one likes going to banks and ATMs and we’re constantly on our phones, so why not make it easy to manage your money from your mobile!?”
Kardashian emphasized that the program was convenient, but at what cost? The program was riddled with monthly charges and usage fees so high that the Connecticut Attorney General warned parents from buying the card.
Instead of being embraced as a way to teach financial accountability to kids, the program was criticized for charging parents $100 a year for something that they could get for free at most banks. On Monday, the Kardashian sisters broke ties with Mastercard, and the program was cancelled.
How can the Kardashian sisters expect to be good role models for teens when they themselves failed to realize that the program they were putting their names and faces on was a rip-off?
This is the problem with our society today. Many Americans have lost the principles of financial responsibility and are instead getting caught up in the latest trends, even when those trends are proving to be detrimental to their wallets. Too often, people care more about convenience than they care about cost.
Parents need to teach their children at a young age the importance of financial responsibility, and this comes in two main components: budget your money, and do not spend more than you have.
There was a time when people used to pay off credit card payments on time and in full. Now, the typical thing for many people is to buy what they want now, and worry about paying off the balance later.
Pretty soon interest rates begin racking up, and families are finding themselves in massive debt, all because they have lost the principles of financial responsibility.
Instead of using credit cards as a means for paying for items people cannot afford, credit cards should be used mainly as a means of paying for items they can afford when they do not have cash on hand.
In the end, financial security is much more valuable than having an abundance of material things while being driven deeper and deeper into debt.
