by Lauren Pabst
This weekend, I got into a conversation about high school curriculum. I brought up the shortsightedness that most high schools will attempt to teach kids algebra and the other abstract, higher maths, while not taking a few days to walk them through how to properly balance a check book.
One conversationalist scoffed – “You don’t have to be able to balance a check book anymore. That’s useless.”
Initially I conceded – with ATMs (or as they were whimsically known in Milwaukee, where both they and I originated, Tyme Machines ["Quick! I've got to get to a Tyme Machine"]) on every corner and McDonalds (where pulling out cash costs $.99 – the same as a four-piece Chicken McNuggets from the dollar menu) that are willing to dispense helpful receipts stating your “Available” and “Ledger” balances, who needed the dinosaurish checkbook? With its tacky faux snakeskin cases, overpriced Tweety Bird-themed refills & etc.
Later, though, I reflected that ATM-ing it and blindly debiting up a storm was fine – if you had a cushion-y cache of funds sitting in your account. How many of us, though, have made that fateful miscalculation – thought the check cleared, forgot about the automatic withdrawl – and been bopped with a $30 overdraft fee? (Sometimes again and again, as the bank tries to suction out the missing funds every two days like a constantly relapsing fiend.) The ATM receipts can collect in your wallet, but if you’re not penning into a ledger your account status, even this digital generation can fall behind.
But, you might be saying, balancing your checkbook isn’t going to help that. We need the real time banking offered by the ATMs and – better yet – the online banking offered by most major branches. In fact, there’s probably an app for that – I saw those commercials where Chase texts you when your check clears or you have a low balance. That’s cool, I guess, if you skate close enough to the fiscal edge to need these reminders, and I guess this also helps you not bounce your payment to the cell phone company (but if you slip on Sprint, I guess you’re screwed on both fronts).
I guess what I’m saying is that we’re all too apt to get lazy in these digital environs. There is a certain initiative required of balancing your accounts, knowing how much you’ve spent, and a distinct comfort at being able to look back at your entry of “Groceries” instead of your eyes crossing after staring at entries like “POS DEBIT-23684 10027.”
But I wouldn’t know. I don’t balance my check book, either. But now I’m going to start, and any high schoolers out there who want to know how, just shoot me an email.
