Murphy Wall State Bank Champions "Teach Kids to Save" Program
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Each April and throughout the year bankers use their expertise to inspire students to become life-long savers through the Teach Children to Save program.
The Murphy Wall State Bank & Trust Co. is one of Southern Illinois' banks that has taken the nation's lessons of the past six months to heart with respect to teaching children to save.
According to Claudia Choate of Murphy Wall, these out-of-the-ordinary lessons bring a fresh face to the classroom to encourage a greater appreciation of saving and spending wisely. Her bank is hosting workshops for students in every major school district in the region. TCTS lessons couple reality with learning, incorporating hands-on scenarios and real life experiences. Students explore the difference between needs and wants, learn how to identify expenses, trade-offs and ways to cut spending, how money can influence priorities and how to identify needs in order of importance.
The TCTS program is sponsored by the American Bankers Association Education Foundation.
Since it began in 1997, over 60,000 bankers have taught basic finance skills to almost 2.8 million young people.
Murphy-Wall State Bank has participated since 1997 by inviting Pinckneyville area schools 4th grade classes to the bank. During their visit they are given a brief tour of the facility with a various financial lessons being presented. The students are provided with refreshments and of course they are given $1, which they are taught how to identify where the dollar originated from and different icons on the bill.
What is the Million Child Challenge?
This year the ABA Education Foundation is calling on bankers to accept the Million Child Challenge and teach saving lessons to 1 million students through the Teach Children to Save program and teachchildrentosave.com. This Million Child Challenge will help build a generation of savers and aid in our nation's economic recovery.
The Million Child Challenge will kick-off with the 13th annual Teach Children to Save Day Tuesday, April 21.
Thousands of bankers will teach saving skills to young people on this day. Taught in classrooms, during the school-day, these lessons focus on the fundamentals of saving, such as how to save, why to save and where to save. Bankers will report the number of students reached to the ABA Education Foundation to be counted as part of the Million Child Challenge.
Teachchildrentosave.com, provided by the ABA Education Foundation, allows families to take part in the Million Child Challenge. Parents and young people can learn more about saving, how to open a bank account, and how to find a Teach Children to Save bank in their community. Young savers can make a commitment to saving by taking the Saver's Pledge. The young pledges will be counted as part of the Million Child Challenge and encouraged to report back on their saving experiences.
Many of our nation's youth develop spending habits before they develop savings habits. The Million Child Challenge aims to reverse that trend. Now is the time to build an army of savers when, unfortunately, the pitfalls of not saving are more apparent than ever. Financial education will not reverse the economic downturn, but it will help to speed our nation's recovery.
Basic Financial Knowledge
High school seniors answered only 48.3 percent of questions correctly on the 2008 Jump$tart Coalition survey measuring knowledge of personal finance basics.
A little under half of all parents (48 percent) have discussed the importance of needs versus wants, reports Capital One's 2008 Annual Back-To-School Survey. Spending Ability
Young adults represent a yearly income of $80 billion, according to recent research by Packaged Facts and First Data.
Seventyseven percent of teens admit to having a strong influence over household buying decisions, explains a 2007 poll sponsored by the Allstate Foundation.
Savings Slump
Nearly two-thirds (63percent) of Americans acknowledge not saving enough, reports the Pew Research Center.
Charles Schwab Teens and Money 2007 Survey found that 24 percent of teens think saving is unimportant because they are young.