MoneyWizdom

Great Summary of Issues in Financial Literacy Education

2010-01-30T15:43:00.000-08:00

One of the best articles written about the challenges we face in training people to be competent in money matters.

I have believed for a long time that financial literacy education's failure to date is not about the content, as there has been enough written, produced and printed about the in's and out's of the world of money. But instead, it is an issue of delivering the training information to the right person at the right time in a form that will be most effective for them. Not such an easy task.

The article, by Tom Hanza, the President of the Investor Education Fund, needs to be read by all people interested in and working on the education of kids, young adults and seniors in money matters.

A Brilliant Poem

2010-01-30T10:06:00.000-08:00

Smart: By Shel Silverstein

My dad gave me one dollar bill

‘Cause I’m his smartest son,

And I swapped it for two shiny quarters

‘Cause two is more than one!

And then I took the quarters

And traded them to Lou

For three dimes — I guess he don’t know

That three is more than two!

Just then, along came old blind Bates

And just ’cause he can’t see

He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,

And four is more than three!

And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs

Down at the seed-feed store,

And the fool gave me five pennies for them,

And five is more than four!

And then I went and showed my dad,

And he got red in the cheeks

And closed his eyes and shook his head–

Too proud of me to speak!

Charitable Giving: Helping Those In  Haiti

2010-01-19T19:56:00.000-08:00

In light of the recent ruinous earthquake in Haiti, we are all looking for ways to help. If you are considering making a donation here are a few things to keep in mind to help ensure your kindness gets to those who need it most.

Check the Better Business Bureau Web site for information about the charity's mission, compensation, expenses and rating. The site makes it pretty easy to check that the charity is ok.
Check out The Wise Giving Guide, published quarterly by the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, which summarizes the results of the Alliance’s latest national charity evaluations and features a cover story, usually with giving tips, on charity accountability issues or other topics of interest to donors.
Visit a charity rating site, like Guidestart.org, to help you find some of the top rated charities and direct links to make a donation.
It never hurts to see what others are saying about an organization in chat rooms, forums, and by checking postings or ratings about the charity you are considering donating to. A lot of negative comments could signal a red flag.
Consider mobile giving. MGive Foundation makes it really easy to donate $10 and have it charged to your phone bill. There are other organizations doing this now as well. You can search Google for other options.
Facebook has created a disaster relief page on which users can keep track of the latest information regarding the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, as well as relief organizations that are helping the cause.

Even small donations contribute to the efforts to help the many homeless and injured in Haiti.

Live MOMTV: The Spin Cycle Interview: Wednesday (1/13) 9PM ET

2010-01-12T20:40:00.000-08:00

Join me on momtv: The Spin Cycle, in conversation with Host Danielle Smith, as we discuss all sorts of things related to teaching kids about money. The why, the how, the when, answer questions and give practical advice.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

9PM ET/ 6PM PT

http://www.momtv.com/TheSpinCycle.html

Just go to the website and feel free to enter questions in the chat box. No need to log in or create any user id's.

Hope to see you there.

Denise

How to painlessly sneak in money lessons for your kids in 2010

2009-12-30T17:34:00.000-08:00

Here are three of my top things parents can do in 2010 to bring (ok, sneak) money lessons into day-to-day family time, in simple and fun ways. Great for parents who want to do small things for their kids that add up to big, long-term results.

1. Read books/watch movies that help teach about money.

Sharing stories or great movies with kids is a great way to add in a bit of money training. Find books/movies with direct money lessons/messages like The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein or The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, by Dr Seuss. You can also find other books and movies that help open a conversation around a money value or concept. For example, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a great story to discuss what families have and don't have, about what is enough, and about winning and loosing, etc. Lots and lots of good choices to pick from.

2. Take advantage of the teachable moments that arise each day.

Consider weaving a bit of money training into day-to-day activities like going to the grocery store, piano lessons, or getting ready for the next birthday party. These activities provide endless opportunities to share money values, discuss the "how and why" of money and teach basic concepts and principals to your kids in small bits, over time.

Money Wizdom Money Moments email tips are full of ideas and inspiration for grabbing (or creating) teachable moments and making the most of them. Click here to sign up for the free weekly email.

3. Start kids managing their own money.

All kids need to learn how to balance saving, spending and sharing their money. When kids have money to manage, the "I want it now" requests stop, kids become better at making decisions, learn how to delay gratification and become more aware of the value of things. The key is to give kids money responsibilities commensurate with their developmental level.

If you have a 5-8 yr old, click here to download our free Money Wizdom budget program Quick Start Guide. Four simple steps to get your kids up and running today!

At the end of the day, the more we expose kids to money choices, and give them plenty of opportunity to practice making money decisions - we will set them up for a much better and financially sound future.

Why Teach Kids About Money?

2009-09-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

We teach young kids about money to ensure they build the skills necessary to make informed financial decisions throughout their lives. The life-long benefits of teaching kids good money habits and skills will make it well worth the effort.

Where do young kids learn about money anyway?

Pretty much everywhere — and especially at home! Young children learn about money by what they see, hear and experience in the world around them. They primarily learn about money by watching their parents use and talk about it. They are also keenly aware of how their parents feel about money by watching facial expressions, listening to word choices and tone of voice.

If you think about it, money is part of most of our daily conversations. We consider what we need (or want), if we need (or want) it now, go through the process of buying it or deciding to do it another day, embrace or bemoan a prior choice, plan for tomorrow, etc. As a consequence of the ever-present money conversations happening at home, kids are exposed to the ongoing successes, struggles and the unending money decisions of every day life.

Why do parents hesitate to teach the skills?

Parents tell us they want their children to grow up with the skills to handle money wisely — yet they often do not feel comfortable teaching children to manage money. Some parents feel they are not qualified, or that money is just not supposed to be discussed with kids. Other parents believe schools should be responsible for teaching kids about money. Others still tell us since they never had training and seem to be doing ok, so there is no need to teach their kids. We recommend parents take the time to teach children about money regardless of their income, their current knowledge level or how they were raised in order to fulfill on their wishes to see their children build money skills that can serve them throughout life.

When should the training begin?

Training, in our view, should start when kids are young — by early elementary school age when money habits are already being formed. We encourage parents to think of their kids childhood years as a money apprenticeship. From pre-school until high school graduation, with parental guidance, children have a chance to practice using money with little risk. And with responsibility for making independent money decisions (with plenty of room for making mistakes), children can learn that money is just a tool — something to be understood, continually learned about and used wisely.

What is the bottom line?

You do not have to be an expert to teach kids money skills and habits. We would like to show parents and other money mentors that it is easy to provide suitable learning opportunities and experiences for children to build good money skills and habits. Please check out our resources for working with your young kids (more resources coming soon for older kids) and let us know if you have any questions. We are here to help, so do not hesitate to ask.

Budgets. Yuck. Who Needs One!

2009-09-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

Everyone. Period.

A budget is the tool to manage what we choose to do with the money that comes in and goes out to support our life.

After all money is about choice.

Do we spend some now, do we set it aside for a rainy day, or do we give some away today? We deal with choice in any decision we make that involves our money – most of our decisions.

To know which decision is best requires knowing what money is due to come in, what money is already spoken for and what money is left over, if any. That, simply put, is what a budget helps us understand.

The sad fact is that most people do not know how to build, stick to or just plain manage a budget. Just look around – do your friends do a good job with their budgets? How about your partner/spouse? Do you feel confident in your budgeting skills?

Most importantly, what are you doing to teach your kids how to budget wisely? Do tell!

What is Enough?

2009-09-18T16:00:00.001-07:00

I hear in so many conversations that their is not enough. Not enough jobs, enough money, enough resources, enough blue jeans, enough fun, enough opportunity, enough time, enough personal responsibility, enough love, enough freedom and the list goes on and on and on.

In other conversations I hear that "we" are not enough. How many of you have said at least one of the following about yourself at some point?

I am not:

good enough
smart enough
compassionate enough
skinny enough
happy enough

So if this language is in our day to day conversations, what are our kids thinking and taking in about the enough question? And better yet, how to we teach them the answer to the question - especially as it relates to money?

Seems to me that if anyone is to be good at making money decisions, they need to know what is enough for each purchase or giving or saving decision we face.

For myself, I start with these questions and try to figure out in the moment if I have enough:

Do I have enough right now?
Do I have too much right now?
Do I need more right now?
Do I just want more right now?
Do I have enough to give away to others right now?

What do you do to evaluate if you have enough?

How do you share this decision making with your kids?

Great Summary of Issues in Financial Literacy Education

2009-09-17T08:31:00.000-07:00

One of the best articles written about the challenges we face in training people to be competent in money matters.

The article, by Tom Hanza, the President of the Investor Fund, needs to be read by all people interested in and working on the education of kids, young adults and seniors in money matters.

I am back

2009-09-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

After a long absence, I am back.

Been busy putting together a new website to bring tools and information to parents who want to take a lead role in teaching their kids foundational money skills.

More to follow. Check out the site at www.moneywizdom.com.

Tell your friends. Sign up for the free weekly newsletter.

Denise

Can you beat 97% discount while grocery shopping?

2009-04-28T16:12:00.000-07:00

While we might not want to clip coupons, file them in some folder, create a shopping list and remember to take the list and the coupons to the store. Susan, known as the "coupon queen," takes her weekly grocery bill from $152.86 to $9.43 with all of her advanced planning and coupons. Watch her video and be amazed.

IT is not that hard to PLAN ahead, CUT coupons, CREATE a shopping list and only BUY what is on the list, oh, and BRING the coupons.

Raising I.Q.

2009-04-17T15:37:00.000-07:00

So what does the ability to delay gratification have to do with IQ?

Richard Nisbett, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, in a superb new book, “Intelligence and How to Get It,” provides suggestions for raising kids IQ's:

praise effort more than achievement
teach delayed gratification
limit reprimands
use praise to stimulate curiosity

So one of the founding concepts in successfully managing money (learning how to delay gratification) has been implicated in higher IQ! And we all know — a higher I.Q. has been shown to correlate to greater success in life.

Now how is that for some new motivation Mom, Dad, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and any other money mentors our there — get out and start modeling, teaching or reinforcing the idea of delayed gratification.

Need for financial literacy rising in importance

2009-03-31T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well after a few weeks away, I am happy to see the news out of Schwab today http://tinyurl.com/cossw2 that a recent survey of 22-28 yr old's indicates they now place being personally responsible for understanding how to handle money above all else!

Yahoo!

Should we live within our means, under our means or a balanced financial life?

2009-02-19T10:29:00.000-08:00

This is an appropriate question for our current financial times. Should we strive to teach people to always live within their means, live under their means or some form of a balanced life which may lead one to be over or under at times?

Here is an interesting article that looks at the options.

What do you think?

In search of a NEW Financial Literacy Advocacy Pulpit

2009-02-10T14:35:00.000-08:00

The time is now to bring financial literacy to the national stage, but IN A NEW WAY. I believe it will only be solved if we tackle it in BOTH at school and at home.

So far, most public, high profile organizations have been focusing on getting national financial literacy curriculum standards into our public k-12 system or giving tools to after school programs. These have been met with limited success- not enough funding, no one agrees on what should be taught, AND there is no carry over to the home environment.

There is no one advocating at the national level, to ALSO build and supply families with tools.

Why do we need to support parents in this task?

First: Kids are learning about money at home, all the time. They watch and model what their parents do because this is where money is used and discussed on a daily basis.

Second: Real life decisions about how to save, earn, invest, borrow, spend or share money happen at home- not in school. Schools can teach how to add, subtract, calculate returns, etc-- but when it comes to making real decisions with money, it happens at home. " I have 15$, should I buy the new CD now or should I wait and save it so I can buy a new IPOD?" No school can replace this type of experiential learning.

Third: Parents want their kids to learn their money values (like we give 10% to charity each pay period). Schools are designed to teach in a values neutral way.

Fourth: Habits are set early in life and are very difficult to change. Setting good money habits in place early is key. It is much easier to teach a 5 yr old that each time they get money, some must be saved, some given away and some can be spent---setting up the habit of a balanced approach to cash management.

I seek a new advocate at the national level, to build a partnership of companies, government and experts to create an integrated set of products, tools and support for BOTH parents and schools to teach financial skills to our youth. The time is NOW!

Who is ready to lead? Who will support this effort with real MONEY?

Why Teach Your Kids About Money

2009-01-02T11:28:00.000-08:00

If we are to start to share how to teach young kids about money, it makes sense to begin at the Why?

Here are a few reasons....

To ensure that children build the necessary skills to make informed financial decisions in their lives.

Training should start when children are young — by early elementary school age when money habits are already being formed

Kids who learn to manage their own money early are on their way to becoming financially secure adults.

Giving children the responsibility to earn, spend, save and share money helps build confidence and self-esteem.

Kids who give to others will benefit from learning that life is bigger than one.

Do you have other reasons we should keep track of? Let us know.

A New Year's Resolution

2009-01-01T17:14:00.000-08:00

Welcome to 2009.

If we ruled the world, it would be the year of educating kids in personal finance. But since we don't - how about if this blog serves as a place to get information, advice, and share tips, tricks and tools on how to teach young kids money skills?

Look for use to layout a simple plan to share what we know and we look forward to your comments, ideas and suggestions.

Welcome to the Year of the Money Smart, Wise, Savvy - Kid.

The Paradox of Thrift

2008-12-23T10:47:00.000-08:00

A great conundrum we all face is that in these crazy economic times, when we feel frightened and not very interested in spending money, yet if we do not, our economy will continue to falter because no one is buying goods and services and therefore companies keep laying folks off.

I found this article in the SF chronicle which does a nice job of explaining the Paradox of Thrift.

Take a read. Do you agree?

Inspiring and Important Facts

2008-12-01T14:34:00.000-08:00

Seems that financial literacy has the usual paradoxical elements...the good and not so good. I found these inspiring and important facts when you look at the topic through the lens of women.

The 10.6 million privately-held, women-owned (by at least 50%) businesses post over $2.46 trillion in sales annually and employ over 19.1 million people. (Center for Women's Business Research 2004)

90% of all women will be solely responsible for their finances at some point of their lives. (National Center for Women and Retirement)

Women represent nearly half of all investors with $100,000 or more in investable assets. More than half of them are financially independent rather than relying on their spouse, family or inheritance (Women's Financial Network at Siebert, 2002)

80% of all widows living in poverty were not poor before their husbands died. (HHS Administration on Aging, 2000)

Women retirees receive 50% of men's average pension benefits. (Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement, 2001)

Women make up 43% of Americans with assets over $500,000. (Private Banker International, 2003)

75% of elderly persons living in poverty are female. (HHS Administration on Aging, 2000)

Teens Clueless but Confident!

2008-11-12T16:32:00.000-08:00

According to a study by Schwab and written up on Yahoo! by Carrie Schwab Pomerantz, 73% of teens think they will earn lots of money when they're out on their own---maybe as much as $145,500. And 63% say they are knowledgeable about money management-- they know how to budget, save and invest.

But then the numbers start to look a bit more murky----13% say they know what a 401(k) is, 14% say they know how income taxes work, and 23% say they know what a credit score is. But when Jump$tart gave students a basic financial literacy test the average high school senior got a test score of 52.4%-- an F!

As we all know teens are often both a bit clueless and way over confident in their abilities and if you consider that less than 20% of teens have taken a course on personal finance and, in this era of predatory lending and self funded retirement plans (401(k)s, IRA, etc.) teaching kids solid money skill before they leave home is far more important than it's ever been before.

The Numbers Tell a Chilling Story

2008-10-12T07:03:00.000-07:00

More than 50% of US HH could live no more than 4 months with existing savings at the poverty level, not even their current standard of living! This is sooo scary.

Check out this podcast! http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5598.html

Worth listening to all of it.

The State of Financial Literacy in America

2008-10-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

I am deeply passionate about finding solutions to teaching our children important money skills and habits before they leave home to go off to discover their role in the world. How wonderful it would be if all kids could grow up to be money savvy adults!

We live in a world today in which each of us has the responsibility to learn about and actively manage our financial lives. While the importance of financial literacy as a basic life skill is obvious to many parents, educators and policymakers, how to develop the skills in our children remains a challenge.

In a nation where nearly a third of high school seniors already use a credit card, a higher proportion have an ATM card, and over a million families filed for personal bankruptcy last year, the need for personal financial literacy is apparent. Yet fewer than 30 percent of young Americans are given the opportunity to take as much as one week’s worth of coursework in money management or personal finance in high school--from the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy 2002 Survey of High School Seniors.

Schools, who struggle with insufficient resources to deal with the large set of societal requirements--like No Child Left Behind, aren’t able to add money skills development to their curriculum.

Parents, who struggle with managing their own debt and planning for their retirement just want their kids to be armed with a level of financial literacy they did/do not have themselves.

And to make matters more complicated (as if they weren't already) parents also have a hard job in walking a fine line in teaching kids about money between overprotecting them from the realities of money and setting their kids up for a life long preoccupation with money as a source of power and well being.

So what can we do about it??

MoneyWizdom

Great Summary of Issues in Financial Literacy Education

A Brilliant Poem

Charitable Giving: Helping Those In Haiti

Live MOMTV: The Spin Cycle Interview: Wednesday (1/13) 9PM ET

How to painlessly sneak in money lessons for your kids in 2010

Why Teach Kids About Money?

Budgets. Yuck. Who Needs One!

What is Enough?

Great Summary of Issues in Financial Literacy Education

I am back

Can you beat 97% discount while grocery shopping?

Raising I.Q.

Need for financial literacy rising in importance

Should we live within our means, under our means or a balanced financial life?

In search of a NEW Financial Literacy Advocacy Pulpit

Why Teach Your Kids About Money

A New Year's Resolution

The Paradox of Thrift

Inspiring and Important Facts

Teens Clueless but Confident!

The Numbers Tell a Chilling Story

The State of Financial Literacy in America

Charitable Giving: Helping Those In  Haiti