Tuesday, May 11, 2010

“Choosing between personal finance and personal time - Honolulu Advertiser” plus 3 more

“Choosing between personal finance and personal time - Honolulu Advertiser” plus 3 more

Choosing between personal finance and personal time - Honolulu Advertiser

Posted: 11 May 2010 01:24 PM PDT

Racing for a morning meeting, I made an expensive choice. Instead of public transportation, I took a long and costly cab ride to work, a decision that created extra family time and allowed me to collect my thoughts before a long work day. It was a smart move that paid emotional dividends.

Too often, our daytime dramas force us to choose between personal finance and personal time. And at crucial moments, we can either be frugal with our time or our money. In an ideal world, money-saving options can also be step-savers. But that's not always the case. Here's how I sort through a few daily dilemmas:

  • Time-bound: Not all deadlines are created equally, and when we're running late or under pressure, it's important to determine which commitments carry extra personal or professional weight. High-priority events could include a kindergarten graduation ceremony or a special meeting with a senior executive. In a time crunch, I will spend additional money to meet key deadlines.

  • Quality vs. price: Sometimes well-made products are worth higher prices. That lesson hit home when I purchased a plastic blender at a discount. Buyer's remorse struck when I opened the box and tried to assemble the appliance on the kitchen countertop. The blender was flimsy and did not fit into base. When I returned the device, the store manager offered a tip: Upgrade to the glass version, she told me. The higher quality blender was worth the expense. Of course, not every household item needs to be top of the line. Choices can be made based on lifestyle, future plans and day-to-day use of gadgets.

  • Health issues: One of my favorite skincare products is free of fragrances, dyes and parabens — a potentially harmful chemical. Unfortunately, this organic product line is expensive, albeit effective. Cheaper substitutes are available, but I am willing to pay more to minimize long-term health risks. Realistically, it's not always possible to make the healthiest choices. Frankly, when my budget is tight, I bypass the organic produce section and stock up on conventional fruits and vegetables. Or I'll buy organic produce in smaller quantities to save money. It's a difficult menu of options.

    ———

    Sharon Harvey Rosenberg is the author of the "Frugal Duchess: How to Live Well and Save Money" — a coming-of-age memoir about money — and a contributing writer in Wise Bread's "10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget," both available on Amazon.com.

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    Business - Personal Finance - YAHOO!

    Posted: 11 May 2010 09:14 AM PDT

    Personal finance lessons bounce off some teens, stick ... - Philadelphia Daily News

    Posted: 11 May 2010 07:41 AM PDT

    ST. LOUIS - When Gateway Metro Credit Union opened its newest branch in April, budding bankers Allyson Hinrichs and Brandi Baker were ready for business. Both are 16 years old.

    That may be a little young to be raking in depositors' cash. But many of their customers are younger.

    Gateway's new branch is in Trinity Catholic High School in north St. Louis County. It's part of the school's effort to get students used to saving money and handling checking accounts. It also gives student tellers, such as Allyson and Brandi, a taste of the banking business.

    Brandi and Allyson seem to be on the right track. Brandi got her first job two weeks ago, flipping burgers at McDonalds. "My first two paychecks I actually saved," she boasted.

    Why not blow it all on clothes and pizza? "If you spend all your money, and you have an emergency, you'll be broke," she said.

    Allyson, who works at a Pizza Den, turns her paycheck over to her pop. "My dad saves it for me. He'll put $50 on my debit card, he puts the rest in the bank."

    Despite such wisdom from Trinity High, the evidence indicates that America's young people are going backward in their money knowledge.

    The JumpStart Coalition, a Washington-based group that encourages financial education, surveys high school seniors every two years, asking questions about mortgages, credit cards, investing and basic personal finance.

    "It's not real arcane stuff. It's intended to be consumer finance," said Laura Levine, director of JumpStart.

    In the last survey in 2008, students averaged a score of 48.3 percent. That was down from 52 percent in the 2006 study.

    For instance, only 48 percent knew that a person who pays off his entire credit card balance each month will pay less in interest than someone who makes only the minimum payment.

    Therese Leonard confronts that problem firsthand as she teaches personal finance at Trinity. "I'm amazed that they don't know what interest is," she said.

    Many have checking accounts and debit cards, but they don't keep track of their balances. "They say, 'I just put a paycheck in there, and it was $120, and I spend about $80 on gifts, so I guess I have about $40 in there.' "

    They soon learn what overdraft fees are. At a median fee of $27 a pop, that's learning the hard way.

    "My objective is to prepare them for the immediate future," Leonard said. That means teaching them about car loans, student loans, insurance, how to handle a checking account and the dangers of credit card debt. She teaches how to budget and the benefits of saving.

    "Some kids say, 'I'll never get a credit card after you told me this,' " said Leonard, who graduated from St. Louis University with a degree in business education.

    She finishes up with several days of role playing, with students pretending to rent apartments, buy cars and work within a budget. Leonard throws monkey wrenches into their plans by conjuring up layoffs, apartment fires and the like. The idea is to teach them to save money for emergencies.

    Do such lessons do much good? Maybe not.

    Children who take personal finance courses in high school actually do slightly worse in the JumpStart survey, scoring 47.5 percent compared with an average of 48.3.

    "There is no evidence whatsoever that courses in money management or personal finance, as they are now taught, improve the financial literacy of their students," said the survey's author, Lewis Mandell, a professor of finance at the University of Washington.

    "The problem is stickiness," Mandell said. Good students study for the test, then forget what they learn.

    Of all the high school classes taught, drivers education has the greatest long-term effect, says Mandell. That's because 16-year-olds want drivers licenses, so they pay attention.

    On the other hand, a 16-year-old might think, "Why should I care about mortgages?"

    Making lessons stick with teenagers isn't easy.

    "It's hard to teach kids about budgeting when they do not have a job," Leonard said. "For the most part, they get what they want, so the value of money is not what it should be. Their needs are provided for them."

    A clue to better teaching may lie in another statistic from the JumpStart survey. Students who play a stock market game in high school do slightly better than average, scoring a 51 percent. The classroom game puts students in competition as they research companies and try to pick winning stocks.

    "It has ignited interest," said Mandell, and that interest helps lessons sink in.

    Ignorance becomes costly when students hit college. A study last year by Sallie Mae, the student loan company, showed how costly.

    Only 17 percent of college students with credit cards pay off the bill in full every month, the survey showed. The rest are running up debt at interest rates averaging 14 percent. The median credit card debt is $1,645, while one in five undergraduate owes more than $3,000.

    Clearly, whatever schools and parents are telling kids about credit cards, the lesson isn't sinking in.

    Part of the problem may be that personal finance is actually hard to teach, said Mandell, and teachers aren't trained for it. Missouri requires no special certification for personal finance teachers. So, the job often falls to teachers in business, social studies and family and consumer science (formerly known as home economics). In small high schools, gym and health teachers are sometimes tapped.

    To encourage savings, Gateway Metro is offering students $5 to open a savings account at Trinity High. It's also offering 10 annual percent interest on a certificate of deposit if they hold it until they're 18. A credit-union employee will be watching over the student bankers' shoulders when the branch is open each Tuesday.

    Farmington High School, 70 miles south of St. Louis, has hosted a First State Community Bank branch - complete with an ATM and a vault - for two years. Students take the same training as the bank's own tellers.

    The branch serves students as well as adult customers who walk in from the street.

    "We often talk about doing something hands-on and real-world," principal Matthew Ruble said. "What can be more real world than an actual operating bank?"

    Besides tellers, students act as "financial officer," "marketing officer" and "chief of maintenance." They're all students in a banking and finance class. An adult First State banker is on hand during the two hours a day the branch is open.

    Do adults have any qualms about trusting their money to high school students? "I've not had a complaint in two years, and my accounts are always right," said Ruble, who keeps his own money at the student branch.

    School districts all across Missouri have been boosting efforts to teach kids how to manage money, and how not to go broke. The districts are responding to a state law passed in 2006. As of this year, the law makes instruction in personal finance a requirement for graduation. Schools across Missouri have set up one-semester classes in personal finance.

    Illinois has required financial literacy education in high school since 1986.

    There are three ways to meet the Missouri requirement for financial education. Students can pass a one-semester class in personal finance: That's the way most St. Louis area school districts are meeting the mandate.

    Students can test out of the requirement by getting a 90 percent score on a state-administered test.

    School districts can also choose to embed personal finance lessons in other courses. If that's the choice, students have to pass the state personal finance exam, but the passing grade is set by the school districts.

    The Rockwood School District, the second-largest in metro St. Louis, chose to mix personal finance into its courses in business, economics and family and consumer economics.

    "It's really an accountability factor," said Stephen Ayotte, the district's coordinator of practical arts. Passing the state exam proves that children have learned their lessons, he says. Rockwood sets a passing grade at 60 percent - the same percent level as its other courses - and 90 percent of students pass.

    (c) 2010, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

    Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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    Questions about personal finance and investments? We'll ... - Tacoma News Tribune

    Posted: 11 May 2010 07:12 AM PDT

    How's your portfolio? Do you have any questions about investing about stocks, bonds, or where the markets seem to be going?

    Now's your chance to get some answers from one of the most respected financial planners in the South Sound.

    Dorothy Lewis, principal at Financial Insights of Tacoma, will be our guest host for a Personal Finance Webcast beginning at 11 a.m.

    Tune in at thenewstribune.com and feel free to send any early questions to Ms. Lewis at webmaster@thenewstribune.com.

    You will also be able to ask questions online once the session begins.

    Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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