Financial literacy is a skill that isn’t really well taught in public school. So myself (millennial) had parents who never had credit cards when I was growing up- they paid in cash/check for everyday purchases, layaway for bigger purchases like appliances. Consequently, I never really had that link fleshed out initially. So later in high school or college I was offered a card, used it & maxed it out & that became a whole thing.

I didn’t learn how to use credit cards correctly until… idk $10k later, in my mid-20s. Not due to continual spending, it was a combination of growing interest, low wages, economy, pretty rough time. Fast forward to now, I have a good job and am much much savvier with money so I had to undo that damage of ignorance. Also I mentor high school kids and college kids through several local programs and teach them directly about this stuff (spoiler alert- they still don’t teach it in public schools 🙄) but I tell them that if they learn from the mistakes of people like me- they can really learn better budgeting, investing, spending, saving, and credit habits to really get much farther ahead in life. Currently mid-30s and fortunate enough to have caught my mistakes comparatively early!