One personal finance lesson that I find important is research. Its easy for someone to say, " I need to save money" or " I need to budget better" but then they have no idea how or where to get started. I come from a low-income family and we have all lived paycheck to paycheck. At one point, I had three jobs while attending school. I had my first "job" at the age of eleven. I always knew how important it was to save money and build credit but I was never taught how to do that. In high school, I wasn't taught how to become financially stable. Instead, they showed us how to write a check. It wasn't until I moved out on my own at seventeen that I realized how difficult and expensive life was. This is when I needed the three jobs to survive. One job to pay bills. One job to provide food. One job to buy necessities and school books. Now, I'm thirty-two. I have an associates degree in Criminal Justice, which I was told is all I needed to be successful to find an amazing job opportunity. However, after graduation, no one wanted to hire me because I needed a bachelor degree too. I couldn't afford to borrow more loans and I couldn't afford to lose more hours at work. Through research, I've found a credit card company that helped me build my credit, found out about the Snowball Effect, and found out how to budget. Currently, I'm working as an Accounting Clerk and focusing on other ways I can be prepared for the future. Educating yourself isn't the only form of research. Networking is also a wonderful tool of research. Ask for help.