Student Lending Analytics Blog

Next Gen Personal Finance: January 2015 Newsletter

Happy New Year!  Enjoy our January 2015 Newsletter:

Welcome to Next Gen Personal Finance's January 2015 Newsletter  Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) is a non-profit organization that believes all young people deserve a free, quality education to develop their financial capability. We hope you enjoy our first newsletter of the New Year. My goal is that you will find at least one engaging idea (and hopefully more!) that you can use in your classroom immediately. This idea might be a lesson from our FREE Lesson Library (60+ lessons and growing) or an activity, question of the day, lesson idea or current events analysis that comes from the NGPF Blog. Please send me an email (tim@nextgenpersonalfinance.org) and let me know how we can help provide you with the resources you need to succeed in the classroom.    Regards, Tim Ranzetta, founder NGPF Featured Unit: Paying For College With college acceptance letters and financial aid packages right around the corner, there is no better time to announce the launch of NGPF's Paying For College unit! Paying for College Basics FAFSA: The Gateway To Financial Aid Student Loans:  Friend or Foe? Grants & Scholarships: Free Money! Here are a few of the engaging activities students will complete during NGPF's Paying for College unit: How Much Should I Borrow for College? What Do I Need to Know Before Completing the FAFSA? What's The Difference Between Sticker and Net Price?  How Do I Calculate The Value of A College Education? Find Scholarships and Grants (for Me!) Activity Ideas/Case Studies Research tells us that students learn by doing. Here are some activity ideas that will engage your students: Case Studies:  How To Be A Financial Detective What Is Your Investing Risk Profile? Online Simulation:  How Does Online Banking Work? Who Has the Best Wireless Phone Plan? What Is Your Financial Resolution? Popular NGPF Lessons At Next Gen Personal Finance, we find and curate engaging videos, articles, activities and performance tasks and package them into full lessons. These lessons provide your students with both the practical knowledge and application to develop their financial capability. Looking back at 2014, here were the top lessons:     Budgeting Basics Credit Card Basics Reading Your Pay Stub Checking Basics The Costs of Not Paying Off Your Credit Card Bill What's the Catch?: Creating Savvy Consumers We have to create savvy consumers to navigate the minefield called the financial services industry. Our What's the Catch? posts provide students with opportunities to develop their financial savvy: Case Study:  How A High School Student Generated $72 Million in Stock Market Gains (or Not) Checking Accounts:  A $4.95 Fee To Not Overdraw Your Account? Do You Want Free Data On Your Smartphone? Video Resources You know students love videos but you also know finding great video resources can take time. At NGPF, we spend hundreds of hours looking for resources so you don't have to. Here are a few video (and one audio) resources that we uncovered the past month that we thought your students would enjoy: A Banking Rap (3 minutes) What is the Best Approach to Investing? (2 videos; 5 minutes total) Audio Resource: Financial Advice For The New Year (3 - 6 minutes) Questions of the Day Here are questions to engage your students in current events and serve as great ways to catalyze classroom discussions before you jump into your lesson: If You Dropped a Dollar In the Mall, What Are the Odds It Would be Returned? Are You Wasting Cash? What Percentage of Consumers Find Errors In Their Credit Reports? What Does It Cost To Make Our Most Popular Coins? How Much Would I Need To Save Monthly To Have a Million When I Retire?

Chart of the Month We often see stock market returns described in media reports in nominal terms, such as the S&P500 returned over 13% in 2014.  Well, it turns out as a result of expenses, taxes and inflation, the REAL returns are often much lower.  Which of these can investors control to maximize their real returns?  See this NGPF blog post and find out.                 Community Activity Next Gen Personal Finance actively supports the financial literacy community through workshops, conference sponsorships and volunteer teaching. We are based in the Bay Area but travel constantly so e-mail me at tim@nextgenpersonalfinance.org if you are interested in discussing a speaking or sponsorship opportunity. Previous Events: October 18, 2014: FBLA Conference (Santa Clara, CA) - NGPF provided a workshop for FBLA Advisors and students November 8-10, 2014: Jump$tart Conference (Los Angeles, CA) - NGPF participated as an exhibitor November 15, 2014: CBEA State Conference (Monterrey, CA) - NGPF exhibited and conducted a workshop for personal finance educators November 19-21, 2014: AFCPE (Bellevue, WA) - Exhibitor December 9-12, 2014: Pilot at Palo Alto High School (Palo Alto, CA) Upcoming Events: January 21-23, 2015:  Collaboration with Harvard University Winter Session Personal Finance Course (Cambridge, MA) January-March, 2015: Pilot at Eastside Prep (East Palo Alto, CA) February 28, 2015: Common Ground Speaker Series (Princeton, NJ) February 28, 2015: FBLA Bay Section Conference (Daly City, CA) April 10, 2015: FBLA California State Conference (Santa Clara, CA)

Next Gen Personal Finance: December 2014 Newsletter

 

 

Welcome to Next Gen Personal Finance's December 2014 Newsletter Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) is a non-profit organization that believes that all young people deserve a free, quality education to develop their financial capability. We hope you enjoy our second newsletter. It was gratifying to see the interest, emails and calls that came from our November newsletter. You confirmed our hopes by telling us that you found ideas/activities that you could incorporate into your classroom. We love your feedback so please let us know how we can continue to serve you. Also, please be sure to bookmark our FREE Lesson Library and check back frequently as each month we will be adding new lessons (check out our Investing Basics lesson which we recently added).   Regards, Tim Ranzetta tim@nextgenpersonalfinance.org Activity Ideas/Case Studies As a personal finance educator, I know first-hand the importance of activities and having students "learn by doing." These activity ideas and case studies provide students with the opportunity to apply their learning: Boeing 401K Plan: The Case of the Missing Millions Creating a Holiday Spending Budget How To Choose a Checking Account Case Study: Millionaire or Not? Popular NGPF Lessons We find and curate engaging videos, articles, activities and performance tasks and package them into full lessons. These lessons provide your students with both the practical knowledge and application to develop their financial capability. Here are the most popular lessons this month: Budgeting Basics Reading Your Pay Stub Checking Basics The Costs of Not Paying Off Your Credit Card Bill Online and Mobile Banking What's the Catch?: Creating Savvy Consumers We have to create savvy consumers to navigate the minefield called the financial services industry. Our What's the Catch? posts provide students with opportunities to develop their financial savvy. When Is a "Free" Checking Account Not Free? What Makes A Company "Naughty"? (from Consumer Reports' Naughty/Nice List) Can I Really Get Free Access To Credit Scores? Video Resources You know students love videos but you also know finding great video resources can take time. At NGPF, we spend hundreds of hours looking for resources so you don't have to. Here are a few video (and one audio) resources that we uncovered the past month that we thought your students would enjoy: The Psychology Behind Our Money Decisions (4-6 minutes) The Marketing Messages Behind Bank Commercials (3 commercials, 30-60 seconds each) Scared Straight Approach to Student Debt: A Documentary Playlist (7 videos, 3 to 27 minutes in duration) Audio Resource: Before You Buy A Car From A Dealer, Listen To This...(76 minutes) Questions of the Day Here are questions to engage your students in current events and serve as great ways to catalyze classroom discussions before you jump into your lesson: Why Was Black Friday So Glum For Retailers? What's The Right Amount Of Student Debt? Which Checking Account Is Better? Should High School Students Get A Part-Time Job? What Is Apple Pay? Chart of the Month This set of charts shows how spending patterns for middle-income families have changed over the last six years.  See what insights student glean from analyzing these charts.     On The Couch: The Psychology of Money Understanding the psychological factors behind many financial decisions serves as a critical first step behind making better decisions. Here are a few resources that explore money's relationship to happiness, generosity, bargain hunting and fears: How Much Money Do You Need To Be Happy? Why Don't People Give More? We Love A Bargain: The Psychology Of Discount Prices What Financial Fears Do Adults Have? Pain of Paying (15 minute video) Community Activity Next Gen Personal Finance actively supports the financial literacy community through workshops, conference sponsorships and volunteer teaching at local high schools. Contact us at tim@nextgenpersonalfinance.org if you are interested in discussing a speaking or sponsorship opportunity. Previous Events: October 18, 2014: FBLA Conference (Santa Clara, CA) - NGPF provided a workshop for FBLA Advisors and students November 8-10, 2014: Jump$tart Conference (Los Angeles, CA) - NGPF participated as an exhibitor November 15, 2014: CBEA State Conference (Monterrey, CA) - NGPF exhibited and conducted a workshop for personal finance educators November 19-21, 2014: AFCPE (Bellevue, WA) - Exhibitor Upcoming Events: December 9-12, 2014: Pilot at Palo Alto High School (Palo Alto, CA) January-March, 2015: Pilot at Eastside Prep (East Palo Alto, CA) February 28, 2015: Common Ground Speaker Series (Princeton, NJ)

Next Gen Personal Finance: November 2014 Newsletter

Check out our November 2014 Newsletter...

Welcome to Next Gen Personal Finance's November 2014 Newsletter Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) is a non-profit organization that believes that all young people deserve a free, quality education to develop their financial capability.   Four years ago, I started teaching personal finance at an East Palo Alto, California high school and spent dozens of frustrating hours doing Google searches to find that "perfect" resource for my students.  At NGPF, we spend hundreds of hours finding those "perfect" resources for YOU, package them into engaging lessons and create rich performance tasks to ensure students can apply their learning.  Check out our FREE Lesson Library, which now has over 50 easy to implement lessons.   My hope with this newsletter:  You will find a few ideas that you can implement immediately in the classroom.  We love your feedback so please let us know how we can continue to serve the personal finance educator community.   Regards, Tim Ranzetta tim@nextgenpersonalfinance.org   Top 5 Questions of the Day (from NGPF Blog).  Voted on by personal finance educators like yourself, these five questions proved most popular in engaging your students: What do High School Students Spend Most of Their Money On? What is the Lifetime Value of a College Education (By Major)? What is the Highest Interest Rate I Can Earn on a Standard Savings Account? What is the Preferred Method of Payment for Consumers? What is the S&P500? Top 5 Lessons.  These Next Gen Personal Finance lessons proved most popular to educators visiting the NGPF Blog.   We build our free lessons by curating web content, including videos, articles and calculators and creating our own performance tasks.   Checking Basics Should I Get A Credit Card? Budgeting: Needs vs. Wants Define Your Savings Goal Purchasing a Used Car Featured NGPF Lessons:  We are constantly adding to the NGPF Lesson Library so let us know if there are specific lessons that we can develop for you. Here are some of the new additions: Investment Basics Family and Money Scams, Fraud and Identity Theft Chart of the Month:  They say a picture tells a thousand words.  How about one picture showing 500 companies?  Check out the chart in this post(larger image appears in blog post) which provides a graphical representation of the S&P500 while also reinforcing investing concepts such as diversification and return on investment.   Interpreting Data:  We hear from many educators about the need for students to hone their analytical abilities. Here are a few charts for them to interpret that also serve as great discussion starters: Why Are Young People Saving Less?   How Do Consumers Pick Checking Accounts? What's the Relationship Between Risk and Return?  On The Couch: The Psychology of Money Understanding the psychological factors behind many financial decisions serves as a critical first step behind making better ones.  Here are a few resources that address the behavioral aspects of personal finance: The Psychology Behind Our Money Decisions (Video) Psychology of Budgeting and Managing Your Finances Three research studies at the top of this postdescribe the psychology behind credit card usage.   Is There Balance In Your Life? On The Couch: The Psychology of Money Understanding the psychological factors behind many financial decisions serves as a critical first step behind making better ones.  Here are a few resources that address the behavioral aspects of personal finance: The Psychology Behind Our Money Decisions (Video) Psychology of Budgeting and Managing Your Finances Three research studies at the top of this postdescribe the psychology behind credit card usage.   Is There Balance In Your Life? What's New?: Current Event Ideas For teachers looking to incorporate current events into their lessons, you are in luck.  We scan the financial news everyday looking for topics that will engage your students and develop lesson ideas or activities.  Here are a few from the past month: Evaluating Apple Pay As A Payment Choice With So Many Retailers Being Hacked, How To Protect Against Fraud How Did One NBA Star Lose $110 Million While Another Earned Hundreds of Millions After His Playing Career Ended (Video)? Should You Get a Credit Card? Investing Trends: Here Come the Robo-Advisors Trends:  The one constant in the personal finance world is change.  We meet that challenge head-on with timely updates on new developments.  Here are some examples of what we have been tracking:   Credit Cards: Here are some of the trends we noted in our last credit card update: Millennials using credit cards less than older generations What are new credit cards going to look like? Apple Pay had a million credit cards entered in first three day. Checking Accounts:   Yes, even in the staid world of checking accounts, lots of new developments:   Recent research shows how consumers choose a checking account and why they keep overdrawing their accounts; Banks now offering checking accounts without checks (?); Online banks and credit unions have better terms on checking accounts; Debit cards have hidden dangers that your students should be aware of. We also provide regular updates on credit scores, student loans and investing.   Recent and Upcoming Events:   October 18, 2014: FBLA Conference (Santa Clara, California): NGPF provided a workshop for FBLA Advisers and students November 8-10:  JumpStart Conference (Los Angeles, CA):  NGPF participated as exhibitor November 15th:  CBEA State Conference (Monterey, CA):  Exhibitor and workshop for personal finance educators Follow Us on Social Media Facebook Twitter Website Share this Newsletter Share Tweet Forward Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences  *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*

Next Gen Personal Finance: Creating Financially Capable Students

I thought you would be interested in some of the recent activity at Next Gen Personal Finance.  We are developing engaging, real-world personal finance curricula for high school and college students that work great in a classroom setting as well as for independent study.  Teachers have found our resources to be a great supplement to their existing curriculum.  

I wanted to give you access to our FREE content that you might find useful as you look for ideas that you can quickly implement to supplement your existing personal finance curriculum:

• Questions of the Day can be good openers to get your class started off on the right foot with a thought-provoking question.  
• What do High School Students Spend Most of Their Money On?
• How Do Lifetime Earnings Vary Based On Your College Major?

• Current events can be a great way to engage your students too. Here are some lesson ideas that come straight from the headlines.  

• Our Financial Forms unit provides students with real-life financial statements to interpret and master in 10-15 minute mini-lessons with assessments
• Reading Your Credit Report
• Reading Your Pay Stub
• Mastering Your Bank Statement

• Our online lessons provide students with videos, articles, simulations coupled with in-class projects to engage and educate.  Here is a sampling from our 30+ lesson library:
• Define Your Savings Goals
• Costs of Not Paying Off Your Credit Card
• Budgeting Basics
• Purchasing a Used Car

Reach out to me at tim@nextgenpersonalfinance.org if I can be helpful in any of your financial literacy efforts!

This Week in Financial Literacy: Private Student Loan Growth at Sallie Mae, Fed Data Shows Persistently High Delinquency Rates

We'll start this week with student loan news and go from there...

Meanwhile, Sallie Mae continues to grow their private loan originations which they reported as of the end of the 3rd quarter were up 21% year-to-date and 29% in the 3Q (a seasonally strong quarter) as compared to last year.   Other highlights from the call:

• Growth is being driven by market share gains vs. overall market growth:  "appears more like market share gains than market size gains."

• Borrowers have strong credit profiles:  "FICO scores in excess of -- an average in excess of 750 (752) and with more than 90% cosigners (94%)."

I'm Back......What's Happening With Financial Literacy?

This weekly (or perhaps more frequent) compilation of tips, trends and news is intended to help readers improve their level of financial literacy.  Have any ideas for stories or topics feel free to send them along to me at tranzetta@studentlendinganalytics.com.  I hope you enjoy it!

SmartMoney provides a top ten list of what student loan companies won't tell you including "you may be in over your head" as default rates on loans increase:

"Nearly 10% of federal student-loan borrowers defaulted during the two years ended Sept. 30, 2010, according to the Department of Education, up from 7% in 2008. Private student loan defaults are rising also: Around 5.4% of private student loans defaulted during the second quarter of this year, up from 4.5% a year ago, according to Moody's Investors Service Private Student Loan Indices, which tracks loans."

On the subject of increasing student loan defaults, Penn State is considering bolstering their financial literacy offerings:

This Week in Financial Literacy

• National Foundation for Credit Counseling releases video focused on credit issues facing college students:  ""College Credit for Life," a nine-minute video that introduces students to lessons surrounding the temptations and responsible use of credit cards. Much of the video features young people talking about the mistakes they themselves made in college. The video also features other voices, in the form of an apartment rental agent, a car salesman, and a human resources executive, all discussing the implications that both responsible or irresponsible use of credit can have as students prepare to move on from college and into the real world."

SLA 2010 Financial Literacy Survey Finds 49% Of Colleges Offer Financial Literacy Program; Budgeting, Credit Cards, Loan Repayment Are Top Subject Areas

Full results for the SLA 2010 Financial Literacy Survey are available here (view 2009 results here). 

Here are the highlights:

• Prevalence of programs:  48% of the 230 respondents indicated that their school is currently offering a financial literacy program.  For those schools that don't currently offer a program, 51% expect to start one over the next 12-18 months.
  • 66% of schools with a financial program did not have any budget monies set aside for this purpose; 16% had a budget less than $5,000.

Which Financial Literacy Programs Are Aid Administrators Recommending?

The results come from the SLA 2010 Financial Literacy Survey (full results to follow in the next day or two).  Thank you to the over 220 respondents to the survey.  Sixty-three programs were named by the sixty-nine respondents to this specific question indicating the multiplicity of literacy programs available from a variety of providers.  For the second year in a row, NEFE's CashCourse is the top program mentioned by financial aid administrators (click here for last year's results).  Their website now indicates that their product is being offered at over 502 campuses making them the closest to a market standard at this point.  Please note however, that it is difficult to gauge the usage patterns of their product.  I didn't come across such statistics (if anyone has them, please feel free to pass along). 

Here are the programs mentioned, with the frequency that they were named in response to this open-ended question on the survey:  What source(s) would you recommend for a financial aid administrator interested in developing a financial literacy program for his/her institution?

Financial Literacy In The News

• SLA is the midst of their 2010 Financial Literacy Survey which closes on Friday.  Ping me at tranzetta@studentlendinganalytics.com if you would like to participate.  We have almost 200 responses already. 

• Elizabeth Warren, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, spoke to student journalists earlier this week about financial literacy: