An article in today's NY Times noted that the recession has brought frugality into vogue. Let's hope that this is more than temporary. Click here to read the article.
-John
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Coloring Is Cool - Going Green Saves Green
With both Earth Day and Credit Union youth week coming up next week, I just had to post this really cool coloring page we created with our friends at Carbonfund.org for our Money Mammals "Saving Money Is Fun Kids Club." One of the panels is specific to the club, but the overall message that Going Green saves Green is universal. We hope you download it here and print it out and use it with your kids, class or whomever else might enjoy it.
-John
-John
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Interesting - Compounding for Kids?
I came across an interesting post on frugaldad.com - he taught the concept of compounding to his eight-year-old. Good stuff.
-John
-John
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Financial Literacy's time is NOW!
A terrific recent article in The Economist (click the link above) highlights the global push towards improved financial literacy. It shines a bright light on the desperate need for financial literacy worldwide and it underscores two of my core beliefs and what drives The Money Mammals project:
1. TEACH KIDS YOUNG - Jeroo Billimoria, a social entrepreneur who founded Child Savings International, teaches kids 6-14 in 35 developing countries about money through a course called Alfatoun ("Explorer"). She notes that it's imperative to start young because "by 14 most of their habits are formed." Not surprisingly, she encountered skepticism but has fought past that to create a successful worldwide financial literacy program for youth.
2. USE NOVEL METHODS - Lewis Mandell, winner of the William E. Odem Visionary Leadership Award in financial literacy, says, "clearly the way we are going about teaching personal finance needs to be improved" The article notes, "the only classroom method that seems consistently to raise financial literacy among high-school pupils is playing a stockmarket-investing game - which rewards taking high-risk bets."
Kids need to be engaged to be educated. Bland presentations or classes don't cut it. Saving Money Is Fun?! It can be.
It is clearly important to do something and to do something for our children NOW. We cannot wait. We all must work together to improve financial literacy education in this country. But we also can't wait for education system to handle this. Take advantage of the numerous services offered by many of your local credit unions to help teach you and your children about financial literacy. But more than anything else, start educating your kids yourselves. If your discomfort with the subject is holding you back, keep it simple. Teach them to share, save and spend smart, understand the difference between needs and wants and to make smart money choices. Want to get started? Take The Money Mammals Challenge (see previous post this month).
1. TEACH KIDS YOUNG - Jeroo Billimoria, a social entrepreneur who founded Child Savings International, teaches kids 6-14 in 35 developing countries about money through a course called Alfatoun ("Explorer"). She notes that it's imperative to start young because "by 14 most of their habits are formed." Not surprisingly, she encountered skepticism but has fought past that to create a successful worldwide financial literacy program for youth.
2. USE NOVEL METHODS - Lewis Mandell, winner of the William E. Odem Visionary Leadership Award in financial literacy, says, "clearly the way we are going about teaching personal finance needs to be improved" The article notes, "the only classroom method that seems consistently to raise financial literacy among high-school pupils is playing a stockmarket-investing game - which rewards taking high-risk bets."
Kids need to be engaged to be educated. Bland presentations or classes don't cut it. Saving Money Is Fun?! It can be.
It is clearly important to do something and to do something for our children NOW. We cannot wait. We all must work together to improve financial literacy education in this country. But we also can't wait for education system to handle this. Take advantage of the numerous services offered by many of your local credit unions to help teach you and your children about financial literacy. But more than anything else, start educating your kids yourselves. If your discomfort with the subject is holding you back, keep it simple. Teach them to share, save and spend smart, understand the difference between needs and wants and to make smart money choices. Want to get started? Take The Money Mammals Challenge (see previous post this month).
Monday, April 07, 2008
The Challenge Continues
How is your Money Mammals Challenge going? I thought it might be helpful if I posted a completed challenge sheet right here. Take a look and you'll see that our daughter is saving for a new pair of shoes. She's turning five and tells us (oh, about every five minutes) that she's getting bigger and will need some new clothes and shoes that fit her better. This is a bit of an exaggerating (she's doing just fine with most of her clothes), but her choice was pretty practical and she could use some shoes. $3/week (her allowance) will net her $12 by the end of the month. Enough for the pair she'd like.
We used to have a beautiful hibiscus plant that recently died so my wife is saving for a replacement plant - a new palm tree. We're lucky enough to live in Southern California and she's always wanted one of these iconic trees.
I have a good friend who has multiple sclerosis and I missed the MS Walk in which my wife and kids recently took part. So I'm saving to "Share" my money with MS. $80 is only a dent, but it will help.
For the month, my wife and I will be making a point to show our kids the money going into our clear "Save" and "Spend" jars for the month. I want them to physically see that the money is being saved and that's it's accumulating over time (albeit a short time).
Comment here to let me know how your challenge is going.
We used to have a beautiful hibiscus plant that recently died so my wife is saving for a replacement plant - a new palm tree. We're lucky enough to live in Southern California and she's always wanted one of these iconic trees.
I have a good friend who has multiple sclerosis and I missed the MS Walk in which my wife and kids recently took part. So I'm saving to "Share" my money with MS. $80 is only a dent, but it will help.
For the month, my wife and I will be making a point to show our kids the money going into our clear "Save" and "Spend" jars for the month. I want them to physically see that the money is being saved and that's it's accumulating over time (albeit a short time).
Comment here to let me know how your challenge is going.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
The Money Mammals Challenge
Fellow Money Mammals,
April is now my favorite month. Why? Well, it's National Financial Literacy Month of course. It's a great opportunity to spread the word about youth financial literacy. I'll be doing a live Money Mammals event in Eureka, California, later this week sponsored by t
he Consumer Credit Counseling Services up there. Then I'll be heading to DC to for Financial Literacy Day on Capitol Hill with the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy to help spread the good word.
But I wanted to do more. I thought long and hard about how to make this month more relevant to all of us and our kids and I think I may have come up with a compelling idea...
he Consumer Credit Counseling Services up there. Then I'll be heading to DC to for Financial Literacy Day on Capitol Hill with the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy to help spread the good word.But I wanted to do more. I thought long and hard about how to make this month more relevant to all of us and our kids and I think I may have come up with a compelling idea...
The Money Mammals Challenge. And we want you to take the challenge with us.
It's simple. You and your children each set financial goals to achieve this April 2008. Download this super-simple worksheet here and put pictures of you, your little savers and, most important, pictures of the goals you will be trying to achieve. They need to see the goals. Also, make sure you're saving money in a jar or something so that they can see your money being saved as well as theirs. As the sheet suggests, break the goal into four parts and enter those incremental amounts into the weekly rows. I've tried the goal-saving approach with some success (see my previous blog posts) and I think it can work for you.
Let us know how you're doing by adding comments to this post. The second step in the challenge will be to spread the word. More on that later.
-John
Let us know how you're doing by adding comments to this post. The second step in the challenge will be to spread the word. More on that later.
-John
Monday, March 17, 2008
Goal-Setting for Kids
So it wasn't a one-time occurrence.
Immediately after having success with pasting a goal on my daughter's bank to encourage savings (see 12/26 post), I decided to ask her if she'd like to try it again. She did, picked out a scooter that she wanted and, lo and behold, she successfully saved again. Most importantly, she allocated most of her allowance EVERY week to saving for this goal. Over the course of almost three months, and with a little help from her friends (read "grandmother"), she saved enough to purchase a scooter that she wanted.
To those who might downplay the importance of starting young, don't underestimate the importance of starting this process sooner than later. Learning to delay gratification is a very important trait that your kids can develop early. Columbia University Psychologist Walter Mischel found a link between preschoolers who displayed this trait and future success. He found in follow up studies that preschoolers who displayed this trait were better adjusted and achieved more academically. Want to know more? Click here.
-John
Immediately after having success with pasting a goal on my daughter's bank to encourage savings (see 12/26 post), I decided to ask her if she'd like to try it again. She did, picked out a scooter that she wanted and, lo and behold, she successfully saved again. Most importantly, she allocated most of her allowance EVERY week to saving for this goal. Over the course of almost three months, and with a little help from her friends (read "grandmother"), she saved enough to purchase a scooter that she wanted.
To those who might downplay the importance of starting young, don't underestimate the importance of starting this process sooner than later. Learning to delay gratification is a very important trait that your kids can develop early. Columbia University Psychologist Walter Mischel found a link between preschoolers who displayed this trait and future success. He found in follow up studies that preschoolers who displayed this trait were better adjusted and achieved more academically. Want to know more? Click here.
-John
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