Yeah yeah I was a Boy Scout. With the cap, uniform, geekness and all that jazz. In fact, I’m an Eagle Scout!

Here’s the funny thing, I just remembered right now (for no reason) that the Personal Management merit badge is a required merit badge to become an Eagle Scout. Earning a merit badge means you have obtained basic understanding, knowledge or ability on a certain topic. (There are some specific

A Personal Management merit badge course teaches a Scout how to manage their time, money, and resources. It really could be called a “Personal Finance” merit badge since about 80% of it has to deal with finances.

Here’s a snapshot on some of the requirements of the Personal Management merit badge:

• Explain the following to your merit badge counselor:
  1. The differences between saving and investing, including reasons for using one over the other.
  2. The concepts of return on investment and risk.
  3. The concepts of simple interest and compound interest and how these affected the results of your investment exercise.
• Select five publicly traded stocks from the business section of the newspaper. Explain to your merit badge counselor the importance of the following information for each stock:
  1. Current price
  2. How much the price changed from the previous day
  3. The 52-week high and the 52-week low prices
• Pretend you have $1,000 to save, invest, and help prepare yourself for the future. Explain to your merit badge counselor the advantages or disadvantages of saving or investing in each of the following:
  1. Common stocks
  2. Mutual funds
  3. Life insurance
  4. A certificate of deposit (CD)
  5. A savings account or U.S. savings bond
• Explain to your merit badge counselor the following:
  1. What a loan is, what interest is, and how the annual percentage rate (APR) measures the true cost of a loan.
  2. The different ways to borrow money.
  3. The differences between a charge card, debit card, and credit card. What are the costs and pitfalls of using these financial tools? Explain why it is unwise to make only the minimum payment on your credit card.
  4. Credit reports and how personal responsibility can affect your credit report.
  5. Ways to eliminate debt.

Full list of requirements here.

Pretty involved stuff if I may say so.

The weird thing is, I don’t remember learning any of those things at all, even though I have earned the Personal Management merit badge. So I’m not really sure how I passed the course. It sure would have been useful to know though because all of those things are quite important.