Although Jack would like to renew the lease on his studio apartment, he is facing the fact that he is broke, and needs parental EMT: Emergency Money Treatment. He has an invitation to move into a cheaper one-bedroom apartment, sharing the rent with his younger brother. He already owes his parents $400. He owes his girlfriend, Anne, $600. He has a small monthly car payment and a moderate student loan payment, but the big problem his parents only just learned about is a growing MasterCard balance.
Archive for the ‘Professional Perspectives’ Category
Attention Money Disorder
Friday, April 3rd, 2009 by Ken Kaye
A group of young people who often run into the kinds of difficulties we’re talking about are those with attention and impulsiveness problems. Such problems may be connected with specific learning disabilities (LD) that lead them to avoid thinking about financial subjects, such as analyzing their income versus expenses, or managing a bank account. It’s not that they aren’t capable of the simple math those tasks involve. It may be that the way numbers are displayed on a bill or bank statement distracts them with too much digital information competing for their attention. Or the problem might be one of impulse control. Or, poor test performance may have convinced them they’re “no good” at math.