Jason's Story
Copyright© 2025 by writer 406
Chapter 40
Six months had passed, and Jason felt like he was fully enmeshed in ECC’s ecosystem. His classes were going well. He’d gotten good feedback from the students and his colleagues. His ‘Survival Classes’ were popular and had strong support from the administration. Coming here to teach had been a good decision.
The Thursday survival session buzzed with expectant energy. Tonight, he’d enlisted one of his experts to talk money.
“Alright, you guys settle down. Tonight, we’re going to talk about something that causes more problems for people your age than most any issue you can think of.”
He paused for effect. “Money.”
Aisha Johnson, who’d been attending regularly since the sessions began, groaned. “Mr. S, money talk is depressing.”
“It sure can be. Especially if you lack the experience to handle it well.”
“How many of you worry about whether you have enough money?”
Hands went up from the front to the back.
“How many of you have ever seen relationships end because of financial problems?”
Nearly every hand in the room went up.
Jason nodded. “The inability to manage money destroys more lives than almost anything else. And we’re rarely taught how to think about it.”
He turned to scan the room, his eyes settling on two students who’d become regulars.
“Peter and Linda, congratulations—I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
Peter, a regular who had been coming since the first session, looked mock-horrified. “Okay, but you have to tell my mom!”
Linda laughed and played along. “God, an arranged marriage. I bet my dad sold me so he could buy season tickets to the Seahawks.”
The room exploded with laughter.
Jason laughed along with them. “All right, settle down.” He motioned, and a slim bespectacled man came up to the front of the room.
Jason moved to introduce his friend. “This is James Brown—he’s a certified financial planner and he plays first base on my softball team. James has helped hundreds of couples figure out how to manage money in ways that support their relationships instead of destroying them.”
James came up to the front of the class looking nervous. Like many people, speaking in front of an audience was scary.
“Before we talk about budgets or savings or any of that technical stuff,” he began, “I want you to understand what money actually is. Anybody want to take a guess?”
“It’s what you use to buy stuff.”
“Currency.”
“A medium of exchange,” said Linda Thompson, falling back on her econ lessons.
James nodded. “All technically correct. But here’s what I want you to really understand: money is a tool. Just like a hammer is a tool for building things, money is a tool for creating the life you want.”
He clicked to his first slide, which showed a simple equation: “Money = Options.”
“When you have money, you have choices. When you don’t have money, situations force choices on you. Peter and Linda, you’re about to learn this lesson the hard way.”
“You’re both twenty-two years old. Linda, you’re a registered nurse making forty-five thousand a year. Peter, you’re a certified mechanic making forty-two thousand. Combined household income: eighty-seven thousand dollars a year.”
“Peter, you got laid off yesterday. The auto shop where you work is cutting staff because of the recession. You came home and told Linda, and she...” James paused, looking at Linda. “How did you react?”
Linda, getting into character, let her face show genuine distress. “I ... I probably freaked out. We’re barely making ends meet as it is, and now with the baby coming...”
“More specifically,” James pressed. “What did you say to Peter when he told you he’d lost his job?”
The room was quiet. This wasn’t the playful banter of previous sessions. He was asking them to explore the kind of real marital stress that destroyed relationships.
Linda considered carefully. “I probably said something like... ‘How could you let this happen? What are we going to do now?’”
“And Peter, how did that make you feel?”
Peter’s jaw tightened—he was connecting with the emotion. “Like it was my fault. Like she was blaming me for something I couldn’t control.”
“So, what did you say back?”
“Probably something like, ‘It’s not my fault the economy sucks. Maybe if you hadn’t insisted on the expensive apartment, we’d have some savings.”
The class winced collectively. They could hear their own parents in these words.
“And then?”
“Then we probably started yelling,” Linda said quietly.
Jason spoke up, “James, based on their current financial situation, how long can they survive without Peter’s income?”
James had his laptop open. Their fictional budget was displayed on the screen behind him. “With their current expenses and no emergency fund? About six weeks before they start missing payments. Three months before they’re facing homelessness.”
He clicked to a new slide showing their cash flow crisis. “Without Peter’s forty-two thousand a year, they’re looking at a monthly deficit of thirty-five hundred dollars. Linda’s income alone won’t cover their basic expenses, let alone the baby costs.”
“So, what are their options?” James asked the students.
“Peter could find another job.”
“How long does that typically take?” James asked.
“I don’t know ... a few weeks?”
“Try three to six months for a skilled position, longer if the economy’s bad.”
“Linda could work more hours,” offered Maria Santos.
“She’s already full-time, and she’s seven months pregnant,” Jason pointed out. “Plus, pushing herself harder now could lead to medical complications that cost even more money.”
The students were starting to understand the trap.
Sarah Thompson raised her hand tentatively. “What about unemployment benefits?”
“Good thinking,” James said. “That might cover about sixty percent of Peter’s previous income for six months. But that still leaves them short every month.”
The reality was stark. Jason could see students doing math in their heads, recognizing scenarios that might be playing out in their own homes.
“Here’s another thing that’s gonna happen,” James said. “Peter and Linda are about to learn that being broke doesn’t just hurt your bank account—it destroys relationships. When you’re stressed about money, you stop being kind to each other.”
He turned to Linda. “Linda, when Peter goes to Wendy’s for lunch and spends ten bucks, what are you thinking?”
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.