“Working to help parents raise money-smart kids.”
Hello, friends!
I participated in a Twitter chat last week to celebrate National Financial Literacy Month. You can search #CreditChat (It was hosted by Experian.) to review all the conversation points.
I mined the threads and found a few useful nuggets I think you’ll like from my expedition to the financial education frontier. ⚒️
So I hope you enjoy these 3+ Ideas to Share and Save!
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Pocketing Good Advice: I thought Pockets Change, an organization that uses hip hop to bring money smarts to schools, struck gold with many of its comments.
I love the idea that financial education programs could be as commonplace as reading ones. In fact, I’ve even written about emergent financial literacy, the notion that you should introduce your kids to the “language of money” from a very young age to build the foundation for later financial literacy.
This approach, which I first came across in this paper by Martha Henn McCormick and David Godsted, is analogous to emergent literacy, a concept which you no doubt understand even if you don’t recognize its scientific name. We read to our children as soon as they’re born because doing so helps form the foundation for later literacy — reading and writing. 📚
I appreciate this tweet as well, as I’ve joked that an alternative title to my book, The Art of Allowance, could be The Art of Money Conversation. This is because an allowance functions as a catalyst to begin a lifelong, open money conversation with our kids.
And if you like these two tweets by Pockets Change, then you’ll enjoy my podcast discussion with their co-founder, Andrea Ferrero.
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Dial 211: Speaking of friends of the podcast, Barbara O’Neill (You can listen to our conversation here.) is a deep financial thinker who is also prolific on Twitter. She shared thoughtful, practical information during last week’s chat.
I had no idea there was an emergency line for counseling services and financial literacy materials. Dial 211! 📞
And in case you’re looking for a research-backed financial education course for yourself, Barbara also teaches parents.
Finally, Barbara provided her perspective on how we parents might bring more financial literacy learning into our children’s schools.
Her tweet serves as an ideal segue to the last idea I want to share with you this week.
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How can I encourage schools to teach money smarts?: We are a proud partner of the Jump$tart Coalition, which advocates for K-12 financial education. This wonderful organization was an active participant in the chat and made the following useful contribution.
Jump$tart would like to get more money-smart learning in classrooms, and its Check Your School resource can help you advocate for financial literacy in your own community. Simply enter your city and state, find your child’s school and email a prewritten message that will be sent directly to the principal. 📩
And though you’ll find that some schools don’t include the principal’s contact information, you can add it to help others wanting to get involved in the money-smart movement.
I hope you’re enjoying this journey with me. If you like receiving this newsletter, then can you share it with one friend who might benefit? Thank you!
John, Chief Mammal
P.S. Please consult with a financial or investment professional before engaging in any decisions that might affect your own financial well-being.
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