Below is a transcript of a story that airs November 6 and 7, 2009, on American Public Media's Marketplace Money.

Some school districts offer courses with a personal finance focus. In Los Angeles, there is a requirement for all public high school students to take a course called Life Skills. It teaches the basics of budgeting, savings, and ethics. Youth Radio's David Dominguez thought the requirement seemed silly---until now.  

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It seemed dumb to take a class that taught you how to live . . . well, now I know.

See, in 9th grade, I transferred from a public high school to a charter school in Los Angeles. So I skipped out on taking a class all my public school friends had to take: Life skills.

At first, I was glad I missed out.

Now that I'm a senior, I know I missed out on something important. Big financial choices are waiting for me around the corner: credit card applications, paying for college, saving money. How do you decide when to splurge and when to save?

My friends who took Life Skills said it forced them to talk to their parents about money. They had to create a budget. Figure out what to spend, how much to allocate money.

But I lucked out.

When people think of Los Angeles, the first thing that comes to mind is either the beautiful weather or the Hollywood scene. But what most people don't think about is the food scene here. Since L.A. is a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, there's equally tasty pots of food to be eaten. Problem is, in certain places in L.A., usually low-income neighborhoods, it's really hard to find quick food that's isn't fast food.