The Importance of Financial Literacy...

Financial Literacy is a priority among Missouri bankers. MBA member banks are teaching children to save, educating teens to use credit wisely, helping young adults with budgeting and financing a home, and more. There are many financial literacy resources that can be used to improve basic knowledge of personal finance.  Listed below are some helpful resources. Click the link on the bottom of this page for additional personal finance and educational resources.

TEACH CHILDREN TO SAVE

During the month of April, bankers across the United States participate in the Teach Children to Save program. The American Bankers Association (ABA) Education Foundation has developed resource kits with lessons designed to help students gain age-appropriate skills through hands-on activity and discussion.Click here for more.

FINANCIAL LITERACY REPORT FORM

Financial education is the key to responsible consumerism and a responsible banking industry. We want to know what kinds of financial literacy efforts your bank sponsors. Click here for a copy of the MBA Financial Literacy Report Form. Completed forms may be FAXED or mailed to the Missouri Bankers Association.

GET SMART ABOUT CREDIT

Young people need to know how to use credit wisely. So, to raise awareness among teens and young adults about the importance of credit smarts, the ABA Education Foundation sponsors Get Smart About Credit Day in October.  Bankers go to classrooms, connect with youth groups, and visit college campuses to help young people in the community get smart about credit now, so they can make smart financial choices later in life.

You can bring personal experience and much needed expertise to this important life lesson. So, please contact your local high school, community college, university, youth group, and vocational training facility about teaching their students how to budget, use credit cards responsibly and build a positive payment history.

MONEY SMART MONTH, KANSAS CITY

Money Smart Monthis an effort coordinated by financial institutions, non-profits, schools, libraries and government agencies to advance financial education within the greater Kansas City metropolitan area. It's designed to promote and encourage sound financial behavior throughout the region. Free educational seminars and activities are held during this week-long event. To learn more, register an event, or to view a calendar of events visit www.moneysmartkc.org.

MONEY TALKS NEWSLETTER

MONEY SMART 

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) created Money Smart to help adults enhance their money skills and create positive banking relationships. Financial education fosters financial stability for individuals, families, and entire communities. The more people know about credit and banking services, the more likely they are to increase savings, buy homes, and improve their financial health and well being.

The Money Smart curriculum helps individuals build financial knowledge, develop financial confidence, and use banking services effectively. The FDIC encourages banks to work with others in their communities to deliver financial education by sponsoring workshops. To order a free copy click here.

MONEY MATH: LESSONS FOR LIFE  

Twenty partners, including the U.S. Treasury and the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, created Money Math: Lessons for Life. Money Math is a four-lesson curriculum supplement for middle school math classes, teaching grade 7-9 math concepts using real-life examples from personal finance.

A downloadable 86-page Teacher's Guide complete with lesson plans and reproducible activity pages is available free online. Click here to learn more. 

PERSONAL FINANCE CLASS CURRICULUM 

Grade level: 9-12

It's Your Paycheck! is designed for use in high school personal finance classes. The curriculum contains three sections—"Know Your Dough," "KaChing!" and "All About Credit." The lessons in each of these sections employ various teaching strategies to engage students so that they have opportunities to apply the concepts being taught. Each lesson includes black-line masters of the handouts and visuals needed to teach the lesson.

 Grade level: 8-12

 Cards, Cars and Currency is a curriculum unit that challenges students to become involved in three specific areas of personal finance:

• credit cards
• debit cards and
• purchasing a car

The unit is divided into five lesson plans. The activities in each lesson plan are designed to address problem-solving, critical-thinking and higher levels of learning, using real-world scenarios. With a focus on responsibility for personal financial decisions, students will be able to identify the bottom line of financial decision making: income kept or lost. Click here to learn more about Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis programs.

THE MONEY MARATHON: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom

Long time banker, Ed Douglas, retired Chairman and CEO and certified financial planner, has written a book specifically for bankers and their customers. Topics include how to increase income, lowering expenses, saving techniques, investing fundamentals, debt management, protection and making your money work for you. Click here for more infomation.

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT 

Junior Achievement is dedicated to educating students in grades K-12 about entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs. Programs help prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs which make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace. Students put these lessons into action and learn the value of contributing to their communities. Click here to learn more about Junior Achievement's programs.