Dear Younger Me,

"Mrs. Lorenda, how do I put money on my card?”  This was a question I received this week.  Though this may not seem like a strange question to you, I found this statement to be like I had been hitting my head against a wall.

This very brilliant senior had been in my basic banking 101 presentation and the perplexity of this statement made me shake my head. Especially due to the fact that I knew she had a checking account. Henceforth, the reason she was issued a “card”!

This young lady was not even thinking in terms of having a checking account.  She only equated that she used a debit card, was able to track it on her phone and up until now more than likely family members had put money in her account.

As I stood there, with “where did I go wrong” running through my head, the song “Dear Younger Me” from one of my favorite groups, “Mercy Me” came to mind. One of my favorite lines says, “If I knew then what I know now, condemnation would’ve had no power”.  

Given the same circumstances, would the “younger me” have known the answer to that question? Probably not, so no condemnation here. So how do we teach this generation basic banking 101?  We don’t!  We kick-it up to banking 10.1 and stop talking about writing checks and signature lines. Better yet, we explain “how the money gets on the card” and how to keep that card and their information safe.   

Finally, note to “Dear Younger Me”, the video chat between George and Mr. Spacely, (if you’re not sure…google the Jetson’s) is called Skype and facetime…buy stock in Apple now.