The roundtable at the White House is Wednesday, 6/18. Now I’m doing my research, with some help from some friends (thanks Beta Joe and Mary100!).
The roundtable is co-sponsored by the White House and President’s Council on Financial Literacy. Here’s a link to the transcript of the Council on Financial Literacy’s first meeting. http://www.treas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/financial-institution/fin-education/council/Transcript_2-13-08.pdf
I was shocked to see that there are 10 million Americans who are unbanked. Buried in the 100+ pages of transcript (sorry, should have gotten the page number) is a poignant story of a 12 year Mexican-American girl. She handled the family’s finance by keeping a cookie jar with cash. Each Friday she bought money orders to pay the bills. They thought that was how you did it! They thought that “Bank of America” meant the bank that the government used. (Bank of AMERICA) They thought that check cashing places were our banking system. I did a little quick research on the fees for two of the leading checking cashing store fronts. One had a fee of 31.48% PER MONTH and the other was 15% EVERY TWO WEEKS.
I think basic misunderstandings about math is a big reason why the economic divide is growing wider every day.
June 15th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
~ Not to be too concrete here, but when I heard roundtable, I envisioned a ball room filled with round tables. LOL!
I looked up some images from past events, and maybe that’s not true. (It looked like maybe a rectangle or horseshoe shape to the tables.)
Can’t wait to hear what it really turns out to be.
~ Did they give you any briefings on civilian protocols for the Pledge or National Anthem?
~ Our credit union rejects people after checking their credit. I know at least one person who they sent on to the bank at Walmart.
It makes sense that there is a whole invisible world of people without formal banking services. People with bad credit. People without ID. People afraid of the INS. People working off the books in an all-cash economy.
~ I remember reading about the military’s displeasure with pay day loans a couple years back:
>>One of the provisions of the FY 2007 Military Authorization Act, makes it illegal for creditors to grant payday loans and car title loans to military members.
The change also prohibits charging more than 36 percent interest to military borrowers. Fees, service charges, renewal charges, credit insurance premiums or any other product sold with the loan must be included when calculating the interest rate. In the past, there have been “horror stories” of military members paying up to 800 percent interest by using such gimmicks. <<
June 15th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
LOL on the round tables. I picture a big round table with a lazy susan in the middle so we can pass papers around.
June 15th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
That would have to be quite a big lazy susan!!
I’m not sure which I’m more appalled by, the lack of financial literacy in otherwise educated people or the mind-blowing figure of 10 million unbanked Americans. Does that count the illegal aliens or just legal citizens?
And the issue with the military…prohibiting charging more than 36% interest??? Whoa, I had no idea of the extent of financial predators!
June 15th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
When I first saw the 10 mill number, I assumed it must be undocumented workers - but it is not. These are US citizens who do not have a bank account. Some of the reasons: don’t understand banking, intimidation (one lower income area had a big increase in deposits when they took the bankers out of suits and put them in casual clothing), lack of financial process.
June 15th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Unbelievable! We have a much bigger problem than I ever imagined.
June 16th, 2008 at 4:50 am
I am shocked also about the number of 10 million Americans who are unbanked. It will be interesting to see your comments after the 18th.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:19 am
This is an article about kids and money: Class helps grow kids’ money sense .
The link may be a tad screwy because of the funny url.
http://www.gazette.com/articles/kids_37300___article.html/money_leatherman.html
Try cutting and pasting it into the browser box, or go to gazette.com and search for the title: Class helps grow kids’ money sense .
(The Gazette, June 14, 2008)
June 16th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Had no problem with the link…good article. I started my kids at a very young age with an allowance equal to their age. Then I explained that 1/2 of their money had to be put in their savings account for things they would want later (a car when they were 16 was their goal!) and the rest was for them to use for things they wanted now. I would count out their $6.00 (or whatever) in singles and then show them that we were going to take $3 and put it in savings. We’d look at how their savings were growing, especially when we opened a bank savings account and learned about interest.
When they got a little older (and they loved when they got a “raise” on their birthday!) I told them that the “extras” they wanted when we went to the movies (popcorn, drink), etc. had to be part of their spending money now.
And contrary to the article’s view, when they were a little older and misbehaved I would “fine” them a quarter or whatever the deed deserved. We talked about when you are a grown-up and don’t follow the rules you often have to pay a fine (speeding, parking ticket, etc.) as punishment. Actually, they responded to the fines better than “time-outs” or other punishments!
Of course they never did save enough for a car, but they both loved having money in the bank and often would set their spending money aside toward a game, a doll or Pokeymon cards, etc.
And I’m very happy to say that although they think we have “lots of money” LOL (and compared to some of their friends, we do) they are very careful and conscious of how they spend the money we provide for their support (they’re both in college now) and insist on using their birthday money, etc. from Grandma and other family members for part of their spending money.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I’m not surprised, particularly for those coming from south of the border. My husbands family is from Mexico - and most of them don’t bank…. have a much larger faith in cash money…. the money you can FEEL in your hands.
The family ranch was sold a few years ago - for millions. The 15 siblings all sat down with big duffel bags and literally divided the cash into 15 different piles and then loaded it into their bags.
Staggering!!!
It is really hard to use ATM’s too - - - they are few and far between and often out of cash.