Some people love math, and some people hate it. Growing up, teachers told us that whether we liked it or not, we’d need math in everyday life. For a long time, they also told us we wouldn’t always have a calculator in our pocket to do that math, but with the popularity of smartphones, that’s no longer true. However, you still need math a lot. Keep reading to see three examples of when you’ll use math in everyday life as you continue to grow into adulthood.
Creating a Budget
As a young adult, you’re probably a recent college graduate working one of your first full-time jobs. With a college education, a new job, and adult life stretching ahead of you, you need to learn how to budget. Unfortunately, budgeting is one of those things you’ll need math for to help you better understand your everyday life. You’ll need to know how much money you bring in and spend every month.
Besides that basic addition and subtraction, you should also know how to calculate percentages of your income and outcome. How much money will likely go to taxes based on where you live? How big of a nest egg do you need to save to be comfortable just in case you lose your job? Knowing all this information and doing this math will help you establish yourself and your finances as you continue to mature.
Shopping and Cooking
If you’re out of your parents’ house and college dorms for the first time, then you’re probably grocery shopping and cooking on your own for the first time too. Grocery shopping and cooking are also examples of when you’ll use math in everyday life.
You’ll need to set a budget for your grocery shopping and know how to calculate good deals when you see prices marked by pound and discounts. When you bring your food home, you’ll need to be able to cook according to recipes, using math for measurements, especially if you don’t have the right cup or tablespoon size. Depending on where you live, you may also need to know how to convert US measurements to mass units.
Home Renovation and Repairs
No home is perfect, especially a first home. It’ll need work, and you’ll need to understand how to do that work or at least how to explain it to a professional. This requires math as well, such as measuring cubic feet per meter for a new range hood or knowing how much paint you need for one room. Understanding basic equations, such as volume and perimeters, requires basic math skills like multiplication and addition. These will come in handy when you get to work.
While some career fields will require you to use lots of math, others won’t. Regardless of how much you use math at work, you’ll still need it in everyday life for everything from your finances to your groceries. Keep your math skills sharp so that you can use them when you need them.
