Financially Underserved Communities Deserve Better: Here's Why
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Oct 20, 2017
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Article, Personal Finance, Financial Literacy, Current Events, Advocacy, Webinar
Just as food deserts unfortunately exist in abundance, so do bank deserts. The reality today is that so many Americans who live and work in financially underserved communities don’t have the time to go to the bank outside of their community because of their irregular work schedule. This issue cannot be ignored, as FDIC research has recently found that 67 million adults are unbanked, and this disadvantaged population has spent $141 billion in fees and interest rates in non-bank alternatives...
Looking for Games to Engage Your Students? Check Out NGPF's Interactive Library (With Worksheets)!
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ENGAGE YOUR STUDENTS: TRY OUR NEW INTERACTIVE ACTIVITY WORKSHEETS!
Sometimes students need to experience content on their own to be truly interested and invested in the content you have covered in class! Using interactive charts, graphs, quizzes, and games helps students become active learners and provides opportunities for them to hone their analytical skills. NGPF has just...
Why We Built the PAYBACK Game With McKinney
I saw this quote in a CNN Money article about student loan repayment becoming a new corporate benefit:
"When I got my salary, I thought it was so much money. But then I started making my budget and it became real to me how much my student loans would affect my day-to-day living," said Florentino, a 25-year-old single mom
The final screen that students see when playing PAYBACK shows two numbers: their monthly salary and their monthly student loan payment. Rather than wait until after graduation...
Financial Education Explained by Danielle: My First Job
Following my junior year in high school, I was looking to add to my extracurriculars since I knew my summer vacation would mainly involve going out with friends, spending time with family, and honing in on my tennis skills. As my parents didn’t want me working during the school year—they saw it as a distraction from my studies—I took it upon myself to apply to jobs to get some "real-world" experience. Personally, I believe that every young person should get a job while...
Credit for Life Fair by NGPF Fellow, Julie Giglia
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Oct 18, 2017
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NGPF Fellows, Financial Literacy, Advocacy, Activity, Teaching Strategies
Thanks to Julie Giglia, an NGPF Fellow and Business/Technology teacher at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School for this blog post. Julie strives to use technology in the classroom to enhance learning and make education innovative and fun for her students. Connect with her on Twitter @julegig or at julie.giglia@whrsd.org.
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In six months, April 2018, it will be National Financial Literacy month and one thing schools can do is host a Credit for Life Fair. The...
Question: How much free financial aid is lost to families who do not file the FAFSA?
Answer: $2.3 billion
The confluence of FAFSA season upon us (you could file beginning on October 1st) and our team working on an upcoming Question of the Day release is what led to the question that is the subject of this post.
From Quartz:
The US government awards federal, state, and institutional money every year to students who fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and meet certain household-income qualifications. But if students don’t...
What is the Most Popular Fund For Retirement Accounts?
Answer (with hat tip to Big Picture Blog who posted this research study 401(k)/IRA Holdings in 2016 published by the Center for Retirement Research): Target-Date Funds now used by 72% of participants in retirement plans at Vanguard.
For more on Target Date funds, check out this NGPF primer with an activity idea too.
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Check out this NGPF Case Study: Compound My Interest in 401(k)s
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NGPF Podcast: Tim Talks to Entrepreneur Michael Lyons
NGPF Fellow Steve Penley reached out to me a few weeks back and said, "I have this former student you need to have on your podcast because he has a great entrepreneurial journey to share with you." So, I reached out to Michael Lyons and this engaging conversation ensued. Michael shares how he came up with the idea for a business he started out of his dorm room, how he had to make a decision to turn down business in order to preserve his company's reputation for quality and how Steve's...
Question of the Day: Do More Americans Prefer Spending or Saving?
Here's what Gallup found (and I was surprised by the results): 59% prefer to save money!
Questions:
Which do you prefer?
Why do you think more people prefer saving to spending?
Why does America have such a low savings rate despite the fact a majority of people prefer saving over spending?
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Interested in more savings activities? Check out this page on the NGPF website!
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Two NGPF Interns Took On the Payback Challenge: Here's How They Did!
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Oct 13, 2017
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Paying for College, Student Loans, Savings, Activities
Donnesh:
The first quality about this simulation that stands out is how it gives the user the opportunity to blend their real life choices and starting position, with hypotheticals, to know exactly how much future decisions will cost. I saw what my potential earnings would look like with the major I’ve applied for and saw how my GPA and school really affect how much debt I’ll need to withdraw.
I played this game 4 times to see how different choices led to different outcomes. ...
Common Cents: Avoid Withdrawing Money From Out-of-Network ATMs
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Oct 13, 2017
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Article, Personal Finance, Current Events, Checking Accounts, Debit Cards
The creation of the ATM saved quite a lot time for bank customers, as they no longer had to wait in line at bank branches to withdraw their money. Could escalating out-of-network ATM fees lead to the decline of withdrawing cash in the near future? I predict that the recent trend of peer-to-peer payment could lead to the eventual—and most unfortunate—downfall of ATMs starting in large metropolitan areas. In these markets, more and more people are opting out of using cash and instead...
What's Trending On the NGPF Blog?
By Tim Ranzetta
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Oct 12, 2017
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Entrepreneurship, Parent Conversations, Career, Credit Reports, Paying for College
Here are some NGPF Blog posts (both old and new) that are trending based on pageviews:
How Can My Students/Children Under the Age of 18 Check Their Credit Report?
Why Are Soft Skills So Important in the Workplace?
Let's Pick A Side Hustle
One Strategy To Keep College Costs Down: Graduate in 4 Years!
Blog posts categorized as "Parent Conversations"
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Schools in the News
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Oct 12, 2017
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Schools In News, Personal Finance, Employment, Teaching Strategies, Financial Literacy
New financial literacy standards for Illinois schools (Fox Illinois)
Schools around Illinois are teaching students the ins and outs of spending and saving money. According to the Illinois State Board of Education, these standards are meant to better prepare students for college and careers. The new standards were required to be implemented this school year.
High schools host rock concert/financial literacy events (Nebraska Radio Network)
A touring Midwestern rock band will play concerts...
Financial Education Explained by Danielle: How I Finished College in 3 Years
The National Center for Education Statistics said in a recent study that it takes undergraduate students an average of 6 years to earn their Bachelor’s degree. That’s an extra 2 years worth of tuition and university related costs that could have been saved. In all fairness, some majors like biochemistry are difficult, and it takes more time to complete them. Additionally, everyone’s college experience is different, and sometimes students take a year or two off to save money,...
Time for Some Levity: Cartoons About Credit Cards
Questions:
What is the main point of the cartoon?
How can a person protect themselves if their credit card number is stolen?
Are consumers responsible for charges made on their cards that they didn't authorize?
Questions:
What point is the cartoonist making?
Who is the person "under the thumb?" Who is holding them down?
What are the ways that credit cards can do this to consumers?
What are ways that consumers can avoid being "under the thumb" of card companies?
Questions:
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