More than two-thirds of Americans don’t use a budget. But whenever they poll young people on what they wish they learned in school, basic money management ends up in the top 10. Host Celeste Headlee learned about budgeting the hard way - by making disastrous financial decisions. She was never taught the difference between compound interest and simple interest. So, she takes us inside her home for a look at how she’s teaching her son to budget. Plus, we talk to Sherilyn Narker of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta about why it’s important to budget.

The minimum wage will probably be up for discussion again this year. Georgia is one of only two states with a minimum wage below the federal rate of seven-25 an hour. Our rate is $5.15 an hour. A proposed bill in 2015 would have raised it to ten bucks, but it failed in the state house. While that debate was happening, though, we talked to two experts about the state’s minimum wage and why it’s so low. 

And a local high school teacher used the debate over the minimum wage to teach his students a lesson in empathy. We talked about the class as part of our series on unusual classes called Lessons from Left Field. Stephen Jayaraj teaches religious studies at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School, and his class looked into the ethics of the minimum wage debate. He embarked on a week-long project to live off minimum wage and had his students set his budget. What did they learn? It’s not easy. 

Tags: OST Full Show  Atlanta  Georgia