"you don't grow up until you have to balance a check book."
Is that just shorthand for "be properly aware your own budget and finances" or are there literally still enough people using check (cheque as I might write) books in the US that this is still a literal task people learn.
But getting my first apartment at 19 was definitely a great experience. I didn't have my parents paying my rent. Either I was going to figure it out or get evicted a 3rd time.
It was much easier back than, my rent was around 40% of a minimum wage income. Now the same apartment is closer to 70%.
After a while, I grew to love it. I left the monitor out because I was tired of being afraid all the time, I hugged the floor since it meant the next eviction would be up to me.
I have so many fond memories of 2009/2010 KTown, such a great place to live on a budget.
It's gone now, you need a six-figure income to live there like anywhere else in Los Angeles
Even the $6,000 water main replacement and $24,000 roof replacement allowed me to pay through ACH online and so I didn't have to write a physical check.
EDIT: Actually, 10 years would include the last few months I lived in an apartment. I paid my rent with a physical check back then. If I lived in an apartment today, if they accepted online payments of some sort without an extra fee, I'd do that.
However I have never used the balance recording part of the checkbook and I think it's completely unnecessary if you know how to operate a computer.
There are likely some older people who still balance their checkbooks but I never was explicitly taught to do it. Instead I see it used as a kind of metaphor for personal budgeting in general.
(From what I remember of my parents discussing this, they would be annoyed if someone they'd paid by cheque didn't deposit it promptly. This was probably before online banking, but when they could conveniently check their balance at an ATM in most supermarkets.)
Its more than just balancing the check book. The reason's behind why you do it are many. One is in creating a documentation path of evidence you can fall back to if there are any discrepancies, which do happen both as mistakes/errors as well as maliciously.
Rare as they may be, having a teller add an extra 0 to the end of a $100 payment when processing is enough for most people to find out the hard way why you need to do these things a certain way.
If the bank refuses to correct the issue, you can take them to small claims court and use your documentation as evidence in support along with other evidence such as invoices, etc. Even memorializing something and sending a copy to the person for their documentation can be considered implicit acceptance when they do not respond which bad actors often will not.
If you don't have this, its your word versus theirs. A he-said she-said, and there are presumptions in law that may force you to pay if you do not know.
Things like failing to dispute amounts/demands for something owed within a certain period of time, may make you liable for remedying a non-existent credit/debt when it goes before a judge.
What you likely do not realize is there are additional protections inherent with checks that you likely do not have with what you are using.
Payment systems often force you to pay a percentage of the total as a fee, just like using your ATM card at a out of network ATM will impose a fee both at the ATM, but on your banks side as well.
That's more than you would pay than if you provided a check.
There are also many things inherent in the processes involving cashing checks that protect you from various forms of fraud, and the documentation you generate (with carbon copies) can be used in court to support claims as well when bad actors lie.
By utilizing something else because its convenient, you effectively sign away protections you didn't know you had.
Not knowing the how's and why's, and not being taught, becomes detrimental to your future without you even realizing it.