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- Rubenstein Public Relations Adds National Endowment for ... - Yahoo Finance
- Football Game Designed to Teach Students Money ... - News Channel 7
- personal finance blog - MediaChannel.org
| Rubenstein Public Relations Adds National Endowment for ... - Yahoo Finance Posted: 04 Jun 2010 06:01 AM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. NEW YORK, June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Rubenstein Public Relations (http://www.rubensteinpr.com), a leading New York-based media relations and branding firm, recently added to its portfolio the National Endowment for Financial Education®(NEFE®), an organization that focuses on personal finance. NEFE selected Rubenstein Public Relations to provide innovative ways for extending its reach to a larger audience of American consumers and spread the organization's message about fiscal capability. The National Endowment for Financial Education (http://www.nefe.org) is the only private, nonprofit, national foundation wholly dedicated to improving the financial well-being of all Americans. The organization's mission is to help people acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to take control of their financial destiny. Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Football Game Designed to Teach Students Money ... - News Channel 7 Posted: 28 May 2010 02:16 PM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.
COLUMBIA, S.C. --
A computer game designed to help educate high school students about personal finance was introduced in South Carolina Friday. State Treasurer Converse Chellis and Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams unveiled the "Financial Football" game at a Columbia area high school. The NFL-themed interactive game is being distributed to every public high school in the state. "It's amazing what high school seniors don't know about credit scores and banking and checking and things like that, so it definitely is an awareness that we need to raise and this will be a big part of it," said Scott Newman, the Principle of Brookland Cayce H.S. in Cayce. "What's exciting about this is we're getting kids involved in financial literacy," said Chellis. "It's a football game. Everybody loves football and it's not about what the score is in high school football, it's what your credit score is about." The game uses trivia questions concerning financial matters to help teach students how to manage their money wisely. "It's important for them to understand the terms that they're dealing with, whether it's a balloon payment or simple interest or an APR, which is annual percentage rate. So, these are the types of terms they'll hear when they go out to buy a car or have a mortgage," said Chellis. Williams told students to be cautious with their money and to begin saving at an early age. "We just try to talk to them and let them know that we're not all going to live forever, but the short period that we do live, we want to have money while we're doing it, so to save your money early," he said. "A penny saved is a penny earned." The five-year NFL veteran said no one really discussed the importance of saving when he was in high school. "It's the reoccurring bills that get a lot of people (in trouble). You know they go out and they get houses and they get cars and they get all this other stuff and don't think about the bills that they've created for themselves," said Williams. Chellis said he encourages young people to become accustomed to saving five to 10 percent of what they earn. "The key to it is learning how to discipline yourself early and making those decisions when you first get started," he said. Financial Football was developed by Visa Inc. through their sponsorship of the NFL. The game has been introduced in 26 states across the country over the last five years. "We really want to make sure people of all ages learn how to manage their money wisely," said Jason Alderman, the Director of Financial Education for Visa. "We know that people love video games (and) we know they love the NFL, so by taking the people's interest and love of the game and combining it with personal finance, it's really a fun way to learn." Educators said they plan to begin using the game as a teaching tool in the classroom. "Our economic classes are going to be using it next year. We're going to devise a curriculum around this," said Newman. "A lot of great terms are being reviewed and a lot of great strategies. I see it as a win-win for everybody." Officials are also hopeful that the star-power of an athlete like Williams will give the message more meaning to students. "It definitely touches them in a different way, because they're used to seeing me in football pads and a helmet and talking about football," said Williams. "Any time I can help kids out, especially when it's dealing with saving money, you know I'm all for it." The game can also be played online at southcarolina.financialfootball.com. Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| personal finance blog - MediaChannel.org Posted: 05 Jun 2010 08:37 AM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. My column today focuses on the White House lawyer behind the Sestak stonewall: Bob Bauer — a familiar figure if you've been reading this blog closely. He's the hubby of former White House Fox-basher-in-chief Anita Dunn and a veteran Democrat legal fixer. In related news, here's a new video contrasting Sestak's accusations with Team Obama's blubbering denials: More follow-up from Jeffrey Lord at AmSpec and Ben Barrack at the American Thinker. *** After three months of zipped lips and feigned ignorance, the Obama White House is finally taking real heat over Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak's consistent claims that the administration offered him a job to drop his Senate bid. Now it's time to redirect the spotlight where it belongs: on the top counsel behind the Washington stonewall, Bob "The Silencer" Bauer. On Sunday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs glibly asserted that "lawyers in the White House and others have looked into conversations that were had with Congressman Sestak. And nothing inappropriate happened." With whom were these conversations had? Gibbs won't say. Neither will Attorney General Eric Holder, who dismissed "hypotheticals" when questioned about Sestak's allegations last week on Capitol Hill by GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of California. Holder is simply taking his cue from the commander-in-chief's personal lawyer and Democratic Party legal boss. You see, on March 10, Issa also sent a letter to Bauer, the White House counsel to the president, requesting specifics: Did White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel contact Sestak? Did White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina (whom another Democrat, U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff, has accused of offering a cabinet position in exchange for his withdrawal)? How about the White House Office of Political Affairs? Any other individuals? What position(s) was/were offered in exchange for Sestak's withdrawal? And what, if any, steps did Bauer take to investigate possible criminal activity? Bauer's answers? Zip. Nada. Zilch. While the veteran attorney ducked under a table with the president, Gibbs stalled publicly as long as he could — deferring inquiries about the allegations one week by claiming he had been "on the road" and had "not had a chance to delve into this," and then admitting the next week that he had "not made any progress on that," refusing the week after that to deny or admit the scheme, and then urging reporters to drop it because "whatever happened is in the past." But the laws governing such public corruption are still on the books. And unlike Gibbs, the U.S. code governing bribery, graft and conflicts of interest is rather straightforward: "Whoever solicits or receives … any … thing of value, in consideration of the promise of support or use of influence in obtaining for any person any appointive office or place under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both." Bauer is intimately familiar with electoral law, Barack Obama, ethics violations and government job-trading allegations. And he's an old hand at keeping critics and inquisitors at bay. A partner at the prestigious law firm Perkins Coie, Bauer served as counsel to the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Obama for America. He also served as legal counsel to the George Soros-funded 527 organization America Coming Together during the 2004 campaign. That get-out-the-vote outfit, helmed by Patrick Gaspard (the former Service Employees International Union heavy turned Obama domestic policy chief), employed convicted felons as canvassers and committed campaign finance violations that led to a $775,000 fine by the Federal Election Commission under Bauer's watch. As I've reported previously, it was Bauer who lobbied the Justice Department unsuccessfully in 2008 to pursue a criminal probe of American Issues Project (AIP), an independent group that sought to run an ad spotlighting Obama's ties to Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. It was Bauer who attempted to sic the Justice Department on AIP funder Harold Simmons and who sought his prosecution for funding the ad. And it was Bauer who tried to bully television stations across the country to compel them to pull the spot. All on Obama's behalf. More significantly, Bauer has served as Obama's personal attorney, navigating the corrupted waters of former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich's pay-for-play scandals in Illinois. Bauer accompanied Obama to an interview with federal investigators in Chicago. And he's got his hands full fighting Blago's motion to subpoena Obama in the Senate-seat-for-sale trial — a subpoena that included references to a secret phone call between Obama and Blagojevich; an allegation that Emanuel floated his own suggested replacement for Obama's seat; an allegation that Obama told a "certain labor union official" that he would support (now-White House senior adviser) Valerie Jarrett to fill his old seat; and a bombshell allegation that Obama might have lied about conversations with convicted briber and fraudster Tony Rezko. With not one, not two, but three Democrats (Sestak, Romanoff and Blagojevich) all implicating the agent of Hope and Change in dirty backroom schemes, "Trust Us" ain't gonna cut it. Neither will "Shut Up and Go Away." What did Bob "The Silencer" Bauer know, when did he know it, and how long does the Most Transparent Administration Ever plan to play dodgeball with the public? J.D.Roth on DIY finance J.D. Roth is the founder of the personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly.
My name is J.D. Roth, and for the past four years, I've been writing a popular personal finance blog. I am not a trained financial professional; I don't have a degree in finance, and I'm not a certified financial planner. I have no formal training. I'm just an average guy who was deep in debt, and finally got fed up with his situation. After deciding to turn things around, I read dozens of financial books, and used what I learned to pay off my debt and begin to save. In four years of reading and writing about money nearly every day, I've learned some things. Sure, I've learned how to manage credit cards effectively and where to find good savings accounts. But I've also learned that in nearly every instance, the way to take control of your finances is to embrace the DIY ethic. Instead of trusting others to manage your money, you need to have the guts manage it yourself. DIY Personal Finance Last summer, O'Reilly media — the folks behind Make magazine (which Mark edits) and the computer books with the animals on the cover — asked me if I'd be willing to write a book about money. But not just any book about money. Your Money: The Missing Manual would let me share the tips I'd gleaned since starting to write Get Rich Slowly in 2006. I knew right away that I wanted to encourage readers to take control of their financial lives. One of my mantras is: "Nobody cares more about your money than you do." Other people, both pros and amateurs, are keen to offer advice, but their recommendations are often counter to your own interests. To really build a financial future that meets your needs, you have to learn how to save and invest, set financial goals, and master the art of conscious spending. My belief that you need to take charge of your own financial life has only been strengthened over the past two years. The housing crisis, the market meltdown, the controversy over credit card policies — while these things can't be avoided entirely even by smart money managers, their effects can be mitigated. If you call the shots when buying a house, the real estate agent can't talk you into spending more than you can afford. (My brother lost two houses to foreclosure because he listened to his real estate agent instead of making his own decisions.) If you invest based on your risk tolerance, you can avoid catastrophic losses during a market crash — or insure that you don't miss out on the subsequent boom. Why Bother? Why bother with DIY finance? There are many advantages to taking control of things yourself, including:
Now, it's important to understand that DIY finance is just like DIY anything else. You can't enter a woodshop and expect to be building Stickley furniture overnight. You need to read. You need to practice. You need to start small. If you try using the heavy powertools first — say, directing your own investments — you can get into a lot of trouble if you don't know what you're doing. And there will always be times you'll want to call in an expert. I've promised my wife that I won't mess with major plumbing or electrical work; for big jobs, I call in somebody who knows what they're doing. The same is true with money. Though I can handle most of the routine stuff myself, I have a team of trusted experts at my disposal for when strange stuff happens: if I sell a business, if a parent dies, if the IRS audits me. An important part of the DIY ethic is knowing when to pass things off to the pros. Action Steps If you've decided you want to take control of your financial life, there are a few essential steps to get you started. I can't give you the secret to wealth and happiness in a single blog post (I just wrote a 300-page book, and even that felt short!), but I can give you some basic guidelines to get started. 1. Take Control of Your Spending I'm not a big believer in detailed budgets. They work fine for some people (and if you're one of them, that's great), but for many others, a broader budget makes more sense. After trying (and failing) to use all sorts of detailed budgets, I finally settled on the Balanced Money Formula, as described by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi in their book, All Your Worth. Here's what it looks like: Whatever you decide to do, start tracking what you spend. Sign up with a service like Mint or Wesabe and start watching your pennies the same way you watch your calories. Some people think frugality is a bad thing. It's not. Frugality is an important part of personal finance. While it's true that you can save tons of money by being smart when you buy a car or a home, chances to save on these things don't come along very often. But there are tons of opportunities to save at the grocery store or when shopping for your kids' clothes. Make the most of them. Save on the big stuff and the small stuff. The bottom line? By practicing conscious spending, you can spend on the things that are important to you while pinching pennies on the things that don't matter. Note: If you have trouble with compulsive spending, you can try "hacks" like the 30-day rule, but you may need to seek outside help. 2. Take Control of Your Debt The only way you're going to get out of debt is to start spending less than you earn. I know that some people are in tight spots, trapped by medical problems or catastrophic accidents. But most Americans are in debt because they buy things they can't afford. In the past four years, I've talked with hundreds (thousands?) of people who have struggled with debt. Those who have managed to kick debt to curb have one thing in common: They've stopped waiting for help and decided to help themselves. If you're willing to put in the time and effort, you can get out of debt. I tend to favor the debt snowball method of debt reduction, which has been made popular by financial guru Dave Ramsey. Using this technique, you pay off your lowest balances first (instead of your highest interest rates). You pay a little more in the long run, but it works. This free debt snowball calculator lets you compare different debt-reduction strategies to find one that works for you. Once you've taken control of debt, you need to avoid it in the future. To do that, you need to learn how to use credit wisely. 3. Take Control of Your Credit Credit can be a convenience, or it can kill you. Establish some ground rules: Don't buy on credit if you wouldn't (or couldn't) pay cash, pay off your balance at the end of every month, and always read the fine print. Pick a card that works for you (from a site like CardRatings.com or Index Credit Cards) and use it responsibly. Don't just accept a card that is loaded with fees. At the same time, take control of your credit score. Take the time to educate yourself on how credit scores work. A great place to start is Credit Report Card, a free service that rates your credit and gives you advice on how to improve it. (If you want to really geek out on this, pick up a copy of Liz Weston's Your Credit Score, which is packed with information.) You can stay up-to-date with the world of credit and credit cards by reading CreditBloggers, where Mark is a regular contributor. 4. Take Control of Your Banking Why are you with your current bank? Because it's close to home? Because they gave you a free Frisbee when you signed up? Your bank won't make you rich, but it's the central hub for much of your financial life. You should choose a place with features and fees to match your needs. Rates are low right now, but they'll rise over the next couple of years. As they do, take the time to be sure your money is working hard for you. Like many readers at Get Rich Slowly, I use a local credit union for my checking account, and I use a high-yield online savings account for my savings. (I use ING Direct, but there are other great options.) Here's a tool to help you find a credit union near you. You may also want to look into reward checking accounts, which often give better returns than high-yield savings accounts! 5. Take Control of Your Investing If your employer offers a retirement plan, use it — especially if they offer any sort of matching contributions. While it's wrong to say that an employer's 401(k) is "free money," it's still a damn good deal. Whether or not you have a retirement plan at work, start a Roth IRA, which is an easy way for individuals to set money aside for the future. (Here's a free Roth IRA e-book that explains the basics.) What should you invest in? First off, don't make the mistake of believing that you need a broker or adviser to pick your investments for you. Studies show that paying others to make these decisions for you generally costs more than you gain from it — if you gain anything at all. If you want to learn about stocks and bonds, do some research at the American Association of Individual Investors website, or borrow a stack of books from the public library. But I'd encourage you to instead consider index funds, which are mutual funds designed to track the movement of the stock market (or a section of the stock market). For example, Vanguard's VFINX fund is designed to mirror the movement of the S&P 500 index. Some people argue that index funds don't make sense because they can never beat the market. While that's true, they still perform better than 80% of investors (professional or otherwise) over long periods of time. If you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe Warren Buffett, the most successful investor the world has ever seen. He advocates index funds for most investors, having once said, "I believe that 98 or 99 percent — maybe more than 99 percent — of people who invest should extensively diversify and not trade. That leads them to an index fund with very low costs." 6. Nobody Cares More About Your Money Than You Do These tips just scratch the surface. In Your Money: The Missing Manual, I spend over 300 pages explaining how you can reclaim your financial life by taking back control from other people. I want you to learn how to negotiate, not just when buying a car, but when buying furniture and appliances. I also want you to know how to negotiate your salary. I want you to read contracts instead of blindly signing them. I want you to learn how to research big purchases. I want you to know how to buy a house you can actually afford. None of this is rocket science. But many of us never learned the basics. Our parents did their best to teach us, but they didn't know a lot of this stuff, either. And we live in a society that is hell-bent on encouraging us to spend, so it can be tough to master the mental side of money. My goal is to help as many people as possible realize they can be masters of their financial destiny. Taking charge of your own finances has a powerful side effect: When you encounter new financial situations — buying a home, starting a business — you feel less intimidated. You're able to grasp the basics quickly, and can have the confidence that you'll be able to figure out the rest. Plus, you put yourself in a position to parse the advice from the so-called experts. (You can even use your bullshit detector to process articles like this one.) So, don't wait for someone to give you permission to do this stuff. You're an adult. Nobody's going to give you the go-ahead. Take charge of your own financial life today.
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