The Big Scary Number

Have you ever heard of a monster that grows exponentially when it isn't fed? Of a monster that towers over its victims, terrorizing them day and night so they can't sleep till their hair falls out and they become crazed?

With Halloween coming up, this is a good time to introduce kids to the idea of debt, specifically debt from credit cards and payday loans or overnight lenders. Accumulating debt is a monster, a Big Scary Number monster. Credit card companies can charge up to 25% in interest; payday loans or overnight lenders charge up to 650%. Scary numbers indeed.

Credit cards have a Jekyll and Hyde nature. They can be good, but they also have a dark side. Credit cards can cover short-term costs, but if those costs aren't covered immediately and in full they can double in a few months.

Payday loans and overnight lenders are a whole other breed of monster. People who seek to put out fires right before them and have no other alternatives often turn to these loans to extinguish kitchen fire-sized conflagrations only to set their whole homes ablaze.

How will I present these monsters to my class of six to nine year olds? Putting ballooning financial figures on a board is big, but it isn't scary. Monsters are big and scary. To address this, I'll speak their language. People like to tell kids how fast they are growing. Well, debt grows exponentially faster than kids. A foot tall overnight loan monster is 6'6" by the next paycheck. After that, the monster grows to 42 feet tall before exploding to 253' tall. The Incredible Hulk has nothing on the Big Scary Number.

Worse, these growing monsters not only wreck wallets and credit scores, they wear people down through financial stress. Financial stress impacts both physical and mental health. According to the American Psychological Association, 53% of respondents reported fatigue, 60% feelings of irritability or anger, and 52% lying awake at night in 2008. People also noted symptoms of lack of motivation, feeling depressed or sad, headaches and muscular tension. Physically,

Almost half of Americans (48 percent) reported overeating or eating unhealthy foods to manage stress, while one in four skipped a meal in the last month because of stress. Women were more likely than men to report unhealthy behaviors to manage stress like eating poorly (56 versus 40 percent), shopping (25 versus 11 percent), or napping (43 versus 32 percent). Almost one-fifth of Americans report drinking alcohol to manage their stress (18 percent), and 16 percent report smoking.

Hopefully, I can introduce the kids to this monster before it creeps up on them later in life.