About the Author
Beth Tallman
Beth Tallman entered the working world armed with an MBA in finance and thoroughly enjoyed her first career working in manufacturing and telecommunications, including a stint overseas. She took advantage of an involuntary separation to try teaching high school math, something she had always dreamed of doing. When fate stepped in once again, Beth jumped on the opportunity to combine her passion for numbers, money, and education to develop curriculum and teach personal finance at Oberlin College. Beth now spends her time writing on personal finance and financial education, conducts student workshops, and develops finance curricula and educational content. She is also the Treasurer of Ohio Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy.
Reading List for August 27-29
By Beth Tallman
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Aug 27, 2021
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Current Events, Economics, Cryptocurrencies, Budgeting, Behavioral Finance, Checking Accounts
Banking
Curious about how banks are doing with overdraft fees? Overdraft fees dropped during the pandemic in 2020, but have jumped back up 40% over a year ago. (BankingDive).
Budgeting/Behavioral Finance
Ally Bank survey shows about half of adults are not talking discussing finances with their partner and launched a program to try to address this. PRNewsWire
Tik-Tok partners with Shopify to add in-app purchase link. Sounds like a dangerous development for users susceptible to FOMO and...
What's New With Cryptocurrencies
The "What's New With..." posts are usually focused on one of the NGPF curriculum unit categories. This one steps outside a bit to hit a topic that is likely of interest to students. For more background on BitCoin, take an hour to work through the NGPF on-demand PD The Basics of Bitcoin.
Headlines
El Salvador is making bitcoin legal tender. Some think it is a hoax. President Bukele claims it will increase the proceeds from foreign remittances which currently account for 20% of the...
Reading List for August 20-22
By Beth Tallman
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Aug 20, 2021
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Current Events, Economics, Budgeting, Investing, Student Loans, Retirement
Economics
Retail sales dropped more than expected in July. (CNBC) But there are signs that back to school shopping for 2021 has rebounded, and may help August numbers. (NRF.com)
Goldman Sachs economists have cut back their third quarter GDP projections due to the resurgence of Covid/Delta variant. (Reuters)
2020 was the year of the entrepreneur. Startups jumped 24% over the previous year according to Census data. (NYT)
Here is this week’s data-heavy suggestion. A Data Scientist from the...
What's New With Managing Credit (2021)
Consumer debt rebounded in the second quarter of this year after falling off during the pandemic. Much of this recent activity was driven by mortgages. Credit card debt is up a bit, but still $140 billion below December 2019 levels. (Reuters) Many are still struggling to pay their balances, and have seen credit limits decreased and accounts closed. (ABC7news)
BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later).
With that as background, the credit management tool talked about most in the news in recent months has...
Reading List for August 13-15
By Beth Tallman
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Aug 13, 2021
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Current Events, Financial Literacy, Economics, Investing, Cryptocurrencies, Student Loans
FinLit/Financial Health
Extrapolating data from a collaborative report with LendingClub, “Reality Check: The Paycheck-to-Paycheck Report,” 43 of the 71 million millenials in the US are living paycheck to paycheck, even those with higher incomes.
“Per the August report, “Many millennials are beginning to make larger expenditures for the first time, whether that means purchasing a car, taking out a mortgage or preparing financially to have children. These are all...
What's New with Taxes (2021)
The pandemic continued to impact the collection and payment of taxes this year. Here are the highlights:
The date taxes were due was moved out again this year, this time to May 17. (Most states followed this as well)
The IRS had a huge backlog on tax processing, due to staffing issues as well as extra volume of work due to various relief efforts based on IRS data.
One significant relief effort was the exclusion of up to $10,200 worth of unemployment benefits from taxable income.
Another relief...
Reading List for August 6-8
Update 8/8/21: Department of Education extends student loan payment freeze one more (last) time until January. (NPR)
Financial Literacy
This might be a good one to assign to the families of your students: NPR on having family money conversations.
Economics
The July jobs report came out this morning and showed an increase of 943,000 and an upward revision of June. Unemployment dropped to 5.4%, wages were up, but labor force participation was largely unchanged. Jobs are still 5.7...
What's New With Paying for College (2021)
The Pandemic has taken a huge toll on college students. Thousands, particularly those who are lower-income, minority, first-generation college students, have had to shift to lower-cost programs or delay their education altogether. Community colleges saw enrollment down over 9% last year, compared to about 3% for total college enrollment. It was estimated that twenty-five percent of last year’s high school graduates delayed going to school because of Covid and related financial issues last...
Reading List for July 30-Aug 1
There were lots of headlines this week, including a bunch on Robinhood. Choose what looks most interesting and dig in!
Economics
GDP for the second quarter was announced this week, and the US is officially back to where it started before the pandemic hit. Sounds like good news, but the growth fell short of expectations, and jobless claims were a bit higher than expected. (CNBC) (DOL)
The Urban Institute published its assessment of the impact of government benefit and stimulus...
What's New With Investing (2021)
All in all it has been a great year so far for the stock indices. The Dow just hit another record high and is up 14.56% so far this year. The S&P 500 is up almost 18%, and the NASDAQ almost 14%. IPOs and SPACs are grabbing headlines. Thanks in part to low mortgage rates and the pandemic creating supply shortages, housing prices surged. Bond yields have been quite variable. The biggest loser this year has been Bitcoin (and other crypto currencies), dropping to about half its peak price...
Reading List for July 23-25
Economics
Was the Covid recession really the shortest on record? Read about how the NBER makes the call on recessions. (CNBC)
As Covid-related assistance programs like the eviction moratorium, extra unemployment assistance, student loan deferment, etc. begin to unwind, this NYT article offers advice on where to turn for help, and explains what programs are still out there.
Is the bond market telling a different story about expectations for the economic recovery than the stock market? (NYT)...
What's New With Careers (2021)
It will be hard to talk about careers in the coming year without talking about the pandemic, and what it has done to alter the labor market and shift the entire dynamic between employers and employees.
The phenomenon occurring now is that unemployment numbers are still high (over 9 million), but employers are having trouble filling jobs. For example, retail and hospitality jobs are offering much higher starting wage rates (>$15) and even signing bonuses, and it isn’t enough...
What's New With Banking (2021)
This is the first of the 2021 “What’s New With…” series. As I began my research for the series, a common theme emerged. The Pandemic has altered, perhaps permanently, many aspects of our financial lives. In terms of banking, the pandemic really accelerated three trends:
Accelerated movement along the continuum from in-person banking to online banking to use of banks’ mobile apps;
Proliferation and growth of digital-only banks (challenger banks) competing...
Reading List for July 16-18
By Beth Tallman
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Jul 16, 2021
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Advocacy, Personal Finance, Economics, Investing, Cryptocurrencies, Financial Scams, Taxes
Advocacy
The state of states’ financial literacy efforts explained, and NGPF Bill tracker mentioned. (CNBC)
Personal Finance
There are many myths floating around about what happens to a couple’s credit when they marry. This sets the record straight. (PRNewswire)
Speaking of couples, the Fidelity 2021 Couples and Money Study was released and is full of interesting stats. Communication is key, (and maybe counseling would help?)
The pandemic made people totally reevaluate...
Abbreviated Reading List for July 10-11
I was on vacation this week, but here are a few articles worth a look in case you haven't seen them.
This story hit NPR on Tuesday, and most news outlets followed with their own versions throughout the week. Watch out for “SHRINKFLATION.”
What are shrinking bond yields telling us investors think about inflation? (CNN)
What the Executive Order signed by President Biden this week means for various industries. (APNews)
One of the largest Federal Student Loan Servicers is quitting. What...
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