Money Mammals in Wall Street Journal!

My DVD, "The Money Mammals: Saving Money Is Fun," appeared in the Personal Journal section of The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.  Click here to check out the piece on "Toys to Teach Saving Savvy."  

Willa Plank writes about the DVD, "Teaching simple concepts such as money transactions, saving allowance money, and sharing in the form of gifts through catchy songs and funny dialogue, it isn't hard to see why our 5-year-old tester enjoyed it."  The article reviews other financial literacy products for kids, including The Money Savvy Pig, The Millionaire Kid$ Club books and Big Pay Day.  

It's great news for all of us involved in getting the word out that it's imperative to teach kids about money as early as possible.  

-John

The Thrift Shift?

I heard a very interesting story this Thursday on NPR's Morning Edition.  Linda Wertheimer chatted with the Wall Street Journal's David Wessell about the recent rebound in the savings rate from near zero to 5%.  

Click here for a link to audio and print

Click here for NPR's Savings Rate Tracker

I'm hopeful but skeptical that America's relatively sudden interest in saving will keep but I'm mostly curious to know what you think.  Once conditions improve economically, do you think Americans will go back to their spendthrift ways or do you think that the current crisis has or will radically alter American consumption and that we're entering an "Age of Frugality"?  In short, are we seeing a "Thrift Shift?"  Please comment.

-John