Making Financial Matters Count For You

Tuesday, March 1, 2005

Making Financial Matters Count For You (NAPSA)—How long do you think it would take to pay off a credit card debt of $5,000 if you made the typical minimum payment? 5 years? 10 years? 30 years? The answeris 46 years and if you guessed wrong, you're not alone. Experts say many youngadults lack critical information about taxes, employment benefits, balancing a checkbook, debt, basic business concepts, managing credit cards and other essential financial tasks. For instance, few understand the price they pay for the convenience offered by credit cards. By making the minimum payment of 2 percent, youre still going to be chipping away at your $5,000 credit card debt almost half a century later. However, if you made a payment of $120 every month the debt would be cleared in just six years. It’s also believed that this lack of financial understanding is behind the fact that 25 percent of all employees who areeligible to enroll in their employers’ 401(k) savings programs don’t take advantage of the program. At the same time, according to a survey by Fleet Boston, nearly 75 percent of parents feel unprepared to teach their kids about personal finance. In addition, a juror perception survey conducted by DecisionQuest/MCCAA found that three out of four young males say they do not trust corporations. Some think this distrust stems from a lack of understanding about the way the business world works. Fortunately, a new program is makingit easier for young adults to learn what they need to know about economics and personal alls (teen Ve sn A new program is making it eas- ier to learn about economics and personal finance while having a goodtime. finance—all while they are enjoying themselves. The program, called Econ4U and sponsored by the FirstJobs Institute, presents financial facts in a brief question-and-answer format on the screens at select movie theaters and on scoring machines at Brunswick Bowling Centers nationwide. The program also has three online quizzes people can take to learn more about personal finance, government economics and business economics. These questions and answers can be found on the Web site www. Econ4U.org. Do you know,for example, how much the owner gets as profit for every $100 of a restaurant’s sale? Research shows that while a server may make a $15-$20 tip on a $100 charge, the restaurant will makea profit of, on average, only $5. Andif you thought the answer to what percentage of their incomes Americans saved last year was 10 percent—guess again. It was only one percent, the lowest rate of savings since 1938. To learn more about the program or to take a quiz, visit the Website at www.Econ4U.org. wane nnn e eee MOC Note: April is Financial Literacy Month.

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