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...
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...
Chart: What Are The Mental Mistakes We Make And Why Do We Make Them?
By Tim Ranzetta
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Oct 09, 2017
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Current Events, Chart of the Week, Behavioral Finance, Research, Question of the Day
Answer (from Visual Capitalist): There's a lot of them (and that's what makes us human). This chart shows all 188 cognitive biases we have (click for higher-res version):
Questions:
Chose 3 of the cognitive biases on the outside part of the circle (there are 20 of them) that you think you are most prone too.
Give examples of times that these cognitive biases have crept into your thinking. Here are a few examples:
We tend to find stories and patterns even when looking at sparse data: "I heard...
Financial Education Explained by Danielle: My Student Loan Story
My parents, both alumni of Loyola Marymount University, graduated in the late 1980’s. This was a few years shy of when FAFSA was officially created. As the eldest child in my family, I was designated as their “guinea pig experiment” when it came to applying for financial aid and navigating the student loan process. As tuition for higher education has risen over 400% since the 1980’s, and I could sense my parents’ hesitation when they told me to reach for the stars...
NGPF and McKinney Launch PAYBACK, A Game To Teach College-Bound Students How to Manage Student Debt
By Tim Ranzetta
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Oct 03, 2017
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Paying for College, Interactive, Current Events, Student Loans, New Products
One of the frustrating insights from our recent research report, Who Has Access To Financial Education In America Today? was how infrequently "paying for college" (or some variant) was covered in a personal finance course. Yes, while scouring 11,000 websites and 18,000 course descriptions, college was far down the list of terms that were most frequently cited. Yet, when you consider both the gravity of the college decision (and it's long-term impact) as well as the timeliness of such information...
Activity Idea: What Do You Wish You Knew About Money When You Were 18?
By Tim Ranzetta
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Oct 02, 2017
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Parent Conversations, Personal Finance, Activities, Activity, Current Events, Question of the Day
I am always looking for ways to engage students and their parents (and guardians or grandparents or older relatives) in conversations about money. This activity idea came from this article in FT (subscription) which was written by an intern and titled...yes, you guessed it, "What I Wish I Knew About Money When I Was 18." The intern asked reporters and other financial experts to share their sage advice.
Here's a sampling of what they said:
"Young people have to understand that they need skills....
NGPF Podcast: Tim Talks to Jeff Desjardins, Founder and Editor of Visual Capitalist
I discovered Jeff's company, Visual Capitalist, a few years ago while surfing the web in my daily quest for material for the NGPF Blog. Since that first discovery, we have used their resources multiple times. Why? They have an extraordinary ability to use infographics and data visualizations to take complex ideas and make them simpler. Given that we live in a world where data analysis is more important than ever, I thought his work would be appreciated by educators looking for fun ways to...
Question: Why Are Soft Skills So Important in the Workplace?
Tim: In the course of two days, I had three educators approach me to ask whether we had any activities or ideas to help their students develop the "soft skills" to thrive in today's workplace. So, we did what we always do and developed a game plan to create one. In the meantime, Danielle took the initiative (a "soft skill") to write a blog post with useful resources for educators
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Danielle's post:
More and more, employers are seeking to hire those who have “soft...
What I'm Reading...
Interesting articles I stumbled across this week:
Diversification sucks (Bason Asset Management)
We all know investors are supposed to diversify their investments. It's really hard in practice though because you accept that not all of your investments will be top performers. This article provides the psychology behind what makes diversification so difficult.
If You Want to Feel Better, Spend Money on Saving Time (Wall Street Journal)
"People feel happier when they pay to save time...
Steal of the Century: Equifax Hacked
You can't imagine a more enticing target to hack than one of the three credit reporting agencies. As you have no doubt heard at this point, over 1/2 of America has had the "crown jewels" of their financial history stolen. This will be a story that will unfold over months not days as Congress is sure to haul executives up to the Hill for hearings to learn a few things from company executives including:
Why did it take months for the company to let the public know about this hack?
Why did the...
Who Invests in the Stock Market (By State)?
By Tim Ranzetta
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Sep 08, 2017
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Stocks, Research, Current Events, Question of the Day, Chart of the Week
Hat tip to Big Picture Blog which had a post from a few St. Louis Fed researchers showing how stock market participation varies by state even when taking into account income levels:
Here's a chart showing how participation levels vary based on income level and highlights the state with the highest participation (Connecticut) and lowest participation levels (Mississippi):
Questions for students:
Average household income in the U.S. is around $50,000. What percentage of...
To Extend The Warranty or Not To Extend The Warranty; That Is The Question
Thanks to NGPF Fellow, Brian Johnson for this recent post on this fundamental question about a popular form of insurance:
This story actually begins in 2000 when flat screen TVs were starting to replace the big tube TVs. In purchasing my first flat screen TV I did the unthinkable…I bought an extended warranty plan! What I received was an education and confidence that would save me money in the future.
Sure enough, that TV went out with about two months left on the...
Let's Pick A Side Hustle!
A great infographic from Quid Corner listing 25 "side hustles" that your entrepreneurial minded students might want to consider. Since the infographic is so ginormous, I'll put the questions ahead of it:
Questions:
In your own words, what is a "side hustle?"
Have you ever had a "side hustle?" What was it and was it a positive experience?
Can you identify one "side hustle" from each of the five categories in the infographic below that you could do succesfully?
Pick one of the five that you...
What Were The Top 20 Best Selling Toys on Amazon in May?
Answer: Toys related to or similar in nature to fidget spinners.
From the Economist:
The fad started in America in February. By May, all 20 of the top-selling toys on Amazon, an online retailer, were either fidget spinners or fidget cubes, a close relation. There have been many such crazes—who can forget the great loom-band mania of 2014?—but none that spread as fast. Frédérique Tutt, an analyst of the global toy market for NPD, a data company, says that it...
Question: What's the Probability That You Will Live to 100?
Talking about investing for retirement may seem abstract to your students, but what if you framed it from a longevity perspective? Do you want to prepare your financial life knowing that you could live to 100? This MarketWatch article provided some actuarial tables showing the probability of living to 100 for different age groups:
So students in your class have a not too insignificant chance of making it to 100 (6.1% for men who are 25 today and 10.2% for women of the same age). Ah, the powers...
