The American Bankers Association’s Education Foundation declared April 21 as the 13th annual “Teach Children to Save Day.”
The Foundation is challenging bankers from across the country to reach out to at least a million children on April 21sby giving them a lesson in saving money. Last year, bankers throughout American spoke to approximately 540,000 students.
Valley National Bank is a proud supporter of the initiative and will have bank representatives speaking in area schools.
Obviously young people need more than one brief lesson in saving to capture the value of a subject that will play a major role in their lives. While some schools provide units and career oriented short-courses in financial literacy, the greatest responsibility for teaching children about the fundamentals of money management falls upon parents.
Helping youth obtain a well-rounded, financial education is challenging, though, because of the spectrum of topics connected to financial literacy, including saving, deposit accounts, investments, managing debt, establishing good credit and loans.
One recent assessment, a national survey of high school seniors conducted by the Jump$tart Coalition® for Personnel Financial Literacy and funded by the Merrill Lynch Foundation, showed high school seniors answered 48.3 percent of the survey’s financial questions. The 2008 mean score was a drop from those posted by the senior class of 2006, which correctly answered 52.4 percent of the questions.
The survey’s scores raise a red flag. Perhaps schools, parents and bankers need to provide youth with more opportunities for learning about financial literacy.
The year’s economic downturn has also reinforced the need for all citizens to be better educated when it comes to financial literacy and saving.
It is never too early to begin teaching children the basics of financial literacy. And, we are never too old to stop learning about saving and finances.
Along with our health, family and faith, having financial security is one of life’s great blessings.
Opportunities to learn about financial literacy abound on the web, bookstores and your local financial institutions.
If you need a reason to start a discussion about savings or financial literacy with a young person, you may want to use April 21 as a springboard. Today, however, would be just as good a time to start that conversation.
Al Hernandez is CEO of Valley National Bank in Española.