John Heywood?s “a penny for your thoughts” could be said ? in inflation-adjusted pennies ? to apply here.
With national savings levels at historic lows, record credit card debt edging $1 trillion, and ? as President Bush noted in his State of the Union address Tuesday ? Social Security benefits at risk for the post-baby boomer generation, financial literacy for Americans is now of critical importance.
And a jackpot of enriching ideas in the matter has just been released.
“The credit union movement has been a leader in the area of financial literacy,” Mark Wolff, senior vice president, communications for the Credit Union National Association, said of CUNA?s fall financial literacy summit, “and we have a number of terrific programs out there. There are so many, in fact, that [CUNA chair Yuri Valdov] thought it would be helpful to bring key players together so they could share their expertise in this area.”
The association?s first-of-its-kind one-day Washington summit drew 60 participants from throughout the nationwide credit union system; featured speakers such as Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., co-chair of the Congressional Financial Literacy and Economic Caucus, and U.S. Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Education Dan Iannicola; and resulted in a just-published, 41-page bonanza of financial literary loot.
“I thought [the summit] was very helpful,” said Maureen McAtee, vice president for government and public affairs for the Columbia-based Maryland/D.C. Credit Union Association. “Financial literacy is an important subject from youth education to adult education because it helps individuals understand how to protect themselves from predatory lenders and people taking advantage of them.”
The summit report, which underscored numerous personal finance red flags such as the fact that the average U.S. college student graduates with $20,000 in debt, compiles summit presentations and working group actions for general consideration. It can be found at www.cuna.org/download/finlit_summit_2006.pdf.
“The defined benefit pension plan, where you get a guaranteed monthly income for life, is a dinosaur,” said Allen Cox, director of the Towson-based Maryland Coalition for Financial Literacy. “And then if you look at Social Security, 45 years from now it may look a lot [less generous] than Social Security now.
“So that leads me to just one conclusion: Our kids today need to learn not just how to save, but how to invest.”
