The 16-member President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy was created in January by President George W. Bush with the purpose of assisting Americans in understanding and addressing financial matters. The President and Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson have asked the Advisory Council to work with public and private sectors to help increase financial education efforts for all Americans. In response to that charge, members of the council are hosting “listening sessions” with financial literacy leaders throughout the country.

Sponsored jointly by the Iowa State University College of Business and College of Human Sciences, the Greater Iowa Credit Union and the Iowa Credit Union League, the Iowa listening session is being convened by Tahira Hira, ISU professor of personal finance and consumer economics, who serves on President Bush’s Advisory Council.

“The information gleaned from these meetings may be applied toward the Advisory Council’s recommendations to the U.S. Treasury Department and ultimately to the President,” Hira said.

Dan Iannicola Jr., the U.S. Treasury Department’s deputy assistant secretary for financial education and the executive director of the Advisory Council, will moderate the session. He will also interact with local reporters during a 30-minute media briefing with members of the Advisory Council beginning at 9:15 a.m.

“We are in extraordinary economic times,” Iannicola said. “While financial education has long been seen as important, more people are now beginning to see that it is also urgent. With the concerns and questions many consumer have about rapidly changing events, we find ourselves in a national teachable moment for personal finance.”

“The President’s Council, through sessions like this, is fulfilling its important mission of gathering insights from people across the country to better inform their recommendations to President Bush and Secretary Paulson,” he said.

President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy members scheduled to attend the event include:

* John Bryant, Vice Chairman, and Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Operation HOPE, America’s first non-profit social investment banking organization, which has raised $400 million from the private sector to empower the poor.
* Ted Beck, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Endowment for Financial Education.
* Tahira Hira, Iowa State University, who has taught and conducted research in family financial management, consumer credit, gambling and consumer bankruptcy. She was a presenter and one of four facilitators at the Financial Education and Financial Literacy Research Symposium, sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in October.
* Sharon Lechter, Pay Your Family First, who is the founder of YOUTHpreneur and co-author of the best-selling book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and the Rich Dad series of books. She is one of the founders of the Rich Dad companies, and co-inventor of the “CASHFLOW for Kids” board game.
* Janet Parker, Chairman, Society of Human Resource Management and Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Regions Financial Corp. in Birmingham, Ala., one of the top 10 banks in the nation with nearly $140 billion in assets.

Bryant and Carrie Schwab Pomerantz — the daughter of Charles Schwab, chair of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy — will be the event’s keynote speakers. Pomerantz is Chief Strategist, Consumer Education, at Charles Schwab & Co. Inc., and President of the Charles Schwab Foundation. She also will also participate in the media briefing.

Financial literacy advocates participating in the listening session include Shazia Manus, President/CEO, Greater Iowa Credit Union; Cara Heiden, Co-President, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in West Des Moines; and Kevin Shields, FDIC Community Affairs Specialist. Financial literacy leaders from such organizations as the Iowa Credit Union League, Jump Start, the Iowa Department of Human Services and the Society of Human Resource Management will also participate. The listening session will feature five-minute constituent testimonials followed by 15-minute discussions with Advisory Council members.

Invited leaders from Des Moines’ financial industry will also meet with Advisory Council members during a private breakfast meeting at the hotel prior to the media briefing.

To view stories from this excellent day, please visit the following links.

Des Moines Register: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081114/BUSINESS/811140385

Credit Union National Association: http://www.cuna.org/newsnow/08/system111308-2.html?ref=hed

The Ames Tribune: http://www.midiowanews.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=20195747&BRD=2700&PAG=461&dept_id=554432&rfi=6

KCCI 8: http://www.kcci.com/money/17956013/detail.html

Radio Iowa: http://www.radioiowa.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=8C85D884-5056-B82A-379B8ABA276E700E

You can’t turn on the television these days without hearing about the economy. The stock market is fluctuating more each day with the numbers reported on the daily news. It has created fear and panic for a lot of people.

You have probably heard the blame game being played as to whose fault it is, but is it possible that it was fueled by people realizing that they were out of control in their financial lives? Financial expert Sharon Lechter thinks so. She is a member of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy and Rich Dad, Poor Dad co-author. She says this financial hardship should be your wake up call.

Here are the 5 things Lechter says you can do now to help you financial health during these top economic times:

1. Determine what you CAN control and control it. We cannot necessarily control the world economy, but we can control our own decisions about money. Thinking of ways to reduce spending and save money will empower you and put you back in control.

2. How do you spend your time? Spare time is the breeding ground for fear and worry. Use your spare time to be active, don’t be frozen by fear. By spending your time in physical activity or doing something you love, you will have less time to worry and fret. Productivity is what turns economies around.

3. Turn your hobby into a part-time business. That hobby of yours could be your financial future. Entrepreneurship is the surest path out of a downturn in the economy.

4. Prepare to take advantage and profit from the upswing. You can also spend time educating yourself on the ‘fundamentals’ of investing. This could be the beginning of your successful investing career; there are many companies that are currently trading well below their true value due to panic selling. This is depressing their market value and creating an opportunity for you!

5. Demand financial education for our children and stop the fear! We must demand financial education in our schools so our children can be better prepared to control their financial lives than we are today.

You can view the whole story and video interview at: http://www.abc15.com/content/living/familylife/story.aspx?content_id=1914aabd-b137-4ef8-a8ca-5a77f5fb360d

Over the next hour and a half each girl, from ages 6 to 12, would learn concepts such as a budget, balance sheet and investments – financial concepts many adults today can’t identify. The Pay Day games and YOUTHpreneur business tools each girl received were donated by Sharon Lechter, the founder of YOUTHpreneur, a member of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy and a WPO national board member.

“This wonderful event allows young women to learn first-hand from successful women business owners and entrepreneurs,” said Lechter. The YOUTHpreneur lessons learned will help the girls to tackle their financial future for years to come.

Parents value lessons learned

At the Sam’s Club on Pecos Road in Las Vegas, a city known world-wide for its excess spending and luxurious living, 18 girls sat down to play the pay day game and learn YOUTHpreneur lessons. The concepts hit home with the parents of Girls Scout Troop 328.

“Any time you can get a group of girls involved in a game where they can learn an important life lesson is just great,” said Lisa Alrick. Alrick’s daughter Taylor, 6, had generated the most income at her table. Many of the parents found the lessons their daughter’s learned especially important in the wake of the credit bubble burst.

“Obviously, with the state of the economy right now, this is the sort of education a lot of people should have gotten when they were children as well,” said Alrick. The lessons learned through the YOUTHpreneur program aren’t taught in schools anymore, something that might have helped our financial crisis.

“The game gives the girls the opportunity to learn skills not out there,” said Christie Chang, assistant scout leader. Chang had two daughters at the event, LeAnn, 9, and Jasmine, 5. “They don’t get this anywhere else. There just isn’t this kind of financial exposure between school and home.”

The event’s success was a combination of real world lessons taught by the WPO mentors and the game’s ability to teach financial concepts in a fun and easy to understand manner.

“Learning is about playing at this age, so if you can incorporate the two it’s something they will carry with them,” said Alrick.

Becoming YOUTHpreneurs

The girls of Troop 328 made some startling revelations that will help them become financially independent and free throughout their lives.

“Sometimes if we spend money, we get money back,” said nine-year-old Kai. Kai, one of 18 girls participating in the YOUTHpreneur event in Las Vegas, hit upon a financial concept in a half hour that a vast majority of Americans don’t learn throughout their entire lives.

“We get more money if we buy [businesses],” added 8-year-old LeAnn. While the concept LeAnn noted – investing – might not be universally applicable in every financial situation, it certainly has got the girls thinking about ideas that they might not have otherwise. Money management was a key lesson the WPO mentors passed on to the girls – how it’s spent, earned and the benefits of passive income from assets. The benefits and importance of giving to charity and collaborating with others were also experienced by the girls.

At Sam’s Club, the girls talked about financial lessons Americans should take to heart while they examine their own finances. “You learn how you earn money and how you lost money,” said Victoria, 8. “You just can’t spend money on useless stuff.”

“Many of us think of our business as our job,” Lechter told the women, who came to Thunderbird for two weeks of intensive business education through a program called Project Artemis. “I want you to reprogram that. Your business is not your job. Your business is an asset, and that asset can grow and give you financial freedom.”

The women enrolled in Project Artemis listened with rapt attention to Sharon as she laid out complex financial terms with ease and simplicity through simple visuals. Half of the class spoke fluent English and half required the use of a translator. However, every word rang strong with the group of women as they learned about assets and investments.

“So you can say we are selling our knowledge,” said Mariam Ahmadi. “As we get more knowledge, we get more assets.”

The group expressed extreme enthusiasm during both class sessions and returned speedily from lunch to continue learning. Each showed their deep desire to not only grow their own business, but improve the state of their country, the problems it faces and the role of women in its future. They tackled problems Afghanistan faces such as the lack of high-tech machinery and the struggle of high import prices for various goods and services. Together, they managed to work out unique solutions to these complex problems during the session.

The stories of the women will be told in an exclusive CNN International news story that will catalogue their experiences in America and a review on their success back in Afghanistan. The class session is extensively covered by Thunderbird. Here’s what others are saying..

In a Thunderbird Knowledge Network blog, Thunderbird Professor Greg Unruh, Ph.D. said:

Using an easy visual graph to show the flow of money into, out of, and through their businesses, Sharon was able to demonstrate how investing in the company could yield big returns over time.  She told the women how many small business owners make the mistake of pulling money out of the company after they experience a little success.  And instead of re-investing that profit, they squander it and have nothing for growth or for the hard times.  The women understood this and even offered an Afghan proverb that mirrored the point… you don’t need to eat meat every day when beans will do.

To read more on the Thunderbird blog posts, please visit:

http://newsandopinions.thunderbird.edu/globalcitizenship/2008/10/16/project-artemis-day-6-my-business-is-not-my-job/

and

http://newsandopinions.thunderbird.edu/blog/2008/10/16/your-business-is-not-your-job-rich-dad-author-says/

A key component of the success of many entrepreneurs is their confidence in tackling any project and their ability to communicate well. The YOUTHpreneur team taught the teens at the conference their motto for confidence - BE FAB; Back Straight, Eye Contact, Firm Hand Shake, Ask Questions and Be Bold. YOUTHpreneur instructors really wanted to show that a great entrepreneur is only as good as their ability to communicate their ideas to others.

The Boys & Girls Club Keystone Conference is just another way the YOUTHpreneur team is staying active in the community and reaching out to new audiences to spread the lessons of financial literacy and education.

In the picture to the left, Sharon speaks with Kathy Wills Wright, Special Assistant to the President, and Charles Schwab vice president of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, Michael Townsend.

The roundtable featured a presentation by fellow advisory councilman John Hope Bryant. The roundtable brought together some of the brightest minds in both the financial and government sectors dealing with the nation’s economy. The economy has been an increasing spotlight in the 2008 elections amidst a national credit crisis, a struggling mortgage industry and an overall economic slow-down. The work Sharon and others do on the council will help shape the information our next President will receive and act upon to ensure a future bolstered and expanding U.S. economy.

All of it will be a lesson the YOUTHpreneurs have to carefully consider as they put together their revenue sheets next week.

Following the group were reporters from Raising Arizona Kids, a popular parenting and education magazine in Arizona. The YOUTHpreneurs laughed and smiled as they posed for photos for the magazine, blew giant bubbles and answered questions for a story.

About YOUTHpreneur
YOUTHpreneur is the culmination of one local Valley mother’s desire to encourage children how to become entrepreneurs and make the most of their financial futures. Sharon Lechter, a passionate financial educator and entrepreneurial advocate, is well-known throughout the world as the co-author of the #1 NY Times best-sellers Rich Dad, Poor Dad and the Rich Dad series of books. In cooperation with her son Phillip, husband Michael and a team of educators and experts, Sharon established the model of YOUTHpreneur to teach children entrepreneurial skills.

The kids, enrolled in the YOUTHpreneur program will monitor their machines over several weeks and see how much money they have made. The program aims to teach underprivileged youth entrepreneurial skills and is founded by Rich Dad, Poor Dad co-author Sharon Lechter, whose books have sold over 28 million copies world wide. One-hundred percent of the proceeds from the gum ball machines will go towards Boys & Girls Club programs

Phillip Lechter, son of Sharon and Program Director for YOUTHpreneur guided the 12 kids to the four different stores as they approached store managers and made their pitch. Decked out in their YOUTHpreneur t-shirts and readily handing over their very own business cards, each team of four had to ask the manager if they could place their machine and thank them.

“We were so amazing and proud to see how these teens stepped out of their comfort zone and took the first step to owning a business,” said Phillip Lechter, Director of the YOUTHpreneur program. “It was incredible to see the lights turn on and their confidence soar.”

The YOUTHpreneur program will run for six weeks in cooperation with the Boys & Girls Club of Metropolitan Phoenix. In two weeks the kids will check back with their machines and in another month they will collect them and count their final profits, providing two great media opportunities.

About YOUTHpreneur
YOUTHpreneur is the culmination of one local Valley mother’s desire to encourage children how to become entrepreneurs and make the most of their financial futures. Sharon Lechter, a passionate financial educator and entrepreneurial advocate, is well-known throughout the world as the co-author of the #1 NY Times best-sellers Rich Dad, Poor Dad and the Rich Dad series of books. In cooperation with her son Phillip, husband Michael and a team of educators and experts, Sharon established the model of YOUTHpreneur to teach children entrepreneurial skills.

The 100 children chosen for the program, ages 12 to 15, will work and learn in groups of three spread throughout several different clubs across Phoenix. Each group will receive a gumball machine and supply of gumballs and each child will receive a business kit, business cards and t-shirt.

The goal for each group is to place their gumball machine in a local business, monitor its success, maintain it and compete with each other to generate the most revenue. Proceeds from the machines will go directly to fund other Boys & Girls Club programs.

The YOUTHpreneur course will teach the kids valuable business etiquette skills including how to “ask” a business owner to allow their gumball machine to be placed in their business as well as the appropriate way to thank the business owner for his or her support.

YOUTHpreneur is the culmination of Sharon Lechter’s desire to encourage children how to become entrepreneurs and make the most of their financial futures.

“The education system today is working hard to teach our children how to become better employees,” said Sharon Lechter, founder of YOUTHpreneur. “Why isn’t it working hard to teach them how to become better entrepreneurs? That’s why we’ve launched YOUTHpreneur.”

“With all the attention presently focused on solving the subprime mortgage crisis, there is a very real possibility, I believe, that lending to the poor, the under-served and even the middle class might effectively dry up. This would not be good for America,” said Committee Chairman John Hope Bryant. He went on to say, “Responsible subprime mortgage lending has done more to lift the poor out of poverty than anything else over the past 50 years. The problem has been irresponsible, predatory and greed-based subprime lending, and massive levels of financial illiteracy amongst many borrowers that fuels it, and not subprime lending itself.”

Committee member Sharon Lechter, CEO and founder of Pay Your Family First, LLC and best-selling author added, “The ‘need’ for providing affordable housing, rational financing, and the opportunity for home ownership has never been greater. We have the opportunity to work together to develop responsible subprime lending programs that will serve the population who needs them the most, while also providing essential financial education to them through the process.”

The Committee will gather information (1) to better understand efforts needed to identify and to differentiate responsible and irresponsible subprime mortgage lending, and furthermore to outline what a responsible subprime loan product might look like in the future, (2) other related issues such as proper and “common sense” clear loan disclosures and the overall context in which these products, disclosures and other related mortgage factors become active positive or negative contact points with respect to financial literacy. Finally, (3) one key objective of the effort should be to identify what financial literacy initiatives are needed to address the massive levels of financial illiteracy that contributed to the current subprime crisis.

“Our goal in this country should be to raise up generations of children who have an equal chances to live healthy, happy, and productive lives. Without sound policies supporting financial literacy, this goal will be unobtainable. This is not about getting rich. It’s about the survival of both our working poor and our economy,” remarked Committee member Rev. Dr. Robert Vernon Lee, III.

Committee member Ignacio Salazar said, “This committee will make every effort to provide greatly needed financial literacy information to underserved communities. By empowering our communities with sound financial habits, we can take the first step in restoring confidence in the relationship with lending institutions.”

Already the FDIC, the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision, the Securities Exchange Commission, HUD and the FHA, the National Credit Union Administration, the Banking Commissioner for the District of Columbia and the Superintendent of Banking for the State of New York, along with a core of some of America’s leading financial institutions amongst others, have made commitments to serve as expert advisors to the Committee.

Members of the newly created President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, Committee on the Under-Served include Ignacio Salazar, member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy and president, SER National-Jobs For Progress, Inc.; Sharon Lechter, member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy and founder and CEO, Pay Your Family First, LLC — she is also the co-author of international best-selling “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” book series; Reverend Robert Lee, member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy and founder and CEO, Fresh Ministries, Inc.; and John Hope Bryant, Committee chairman, and vice chairman of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. Mr. Bryant is chairman, founder and CEO of Operation HOPE.

Financial guru Charles Schwab, CEO of Charles Schwab Corporation is chairman of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, and U.S. Treasurer Anna Cabral and Carrie Schwab Pomerantz, president of the Charles Schwab Foundation, are advisors to the Committee.

About the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy

The President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy (the Council) was created on January 22, 2008 by President George W. Bush. The Council’s purpose is to help keep America competitive and assist the American people in understanding and addressing financial matters. Each member of the Council represents an industry involved with the delivery of financial education to American citizens. The President and the Secretary of the Treasury have tasked the Council to work with the public and private sector to help increase financial education efforts for youth in school and for adults in the workplace, increase access to financial services, establish measures of national financial literacy, conduct research on financial knowledge and to help strengthen public and private sector financial education programs.