Identity Theft is a problem we talk about frequently. It’s still the #1 complaint the Federal Trade Commission gets, even after 15 years. “America’s fastest-growing crime” shows no signs of stopping. And now with data breaches affecting millions of users at once, the impact of ID theft has exploded. Because ID theft typically involves stolen…
Posts By: Melinda Opperman
Financial Literacy Month is drawing to a close, and we hope we’ve helped bring everyone a little closer to understanding their personal finances. The NFCC has completed their 10th annual financial literacy survey, and created an infographic with some of their key findings: For more about the NFCC survey, check out their press release…
Today we’re talking about competition in economic markets. This follows from previous posts we’ve offered so far for Financial Literacy Month: the Basics of Trade and Basics of Supply & Demand. Competition between sellers in a market is seen as a good thing for consumers. If there is only one restaurant in town, it’s free…
So far in financial literacy month, we’ve talked about banking, saving, and investing, but today we’re going to focus in on money itself. Currency is any money that is acceptable as a medium of exchange. Typically, that means a government-backed money, issued either in paper or metal coins. National Currencies Each country typically has a…
Insurance is a critical subject to understand for full financial literacy. There are many different kinds of insurance available to serve different purposes. Getting insurance is about mitigating risk. No matter how hard we try, we will always have some level of risk in our activities. We collectively and individually decide how much risk we…
At credit.org, we’re mostly concerned with helping people get educated and on their feet financially. Our clients are typically trying to eliminate revolving debt, or become homeowners. We don’t provide investment advice. But we are concerned with financial success. We want all of our clients and everyone we educate to have a bright future and…
A basic lesson of economics is that incentives matter. Incentives can be positive or negative, and their effectiveness can vary, but everyone agrees that people are influenced by incentives. Incentives don’t have to be purely financial. Sentences for various crimes vary depending on how strongly we want to discourage the crime. Possession of a drug…
Tax day falls in the middle of Financial Literacy Month. It’s a good opportunity for us to cover the basics of taxes and instill some financial literacy education while the subject is fresh on everyone’s mind. Kinds of Taxes Income Taxes are collected from people who draw an income in the US. The income taxed…
We talked about Saving in our last Financial Literacy Month Post, but banking involves more than just savings accounts. Banks earn money by providing services to paying customers. That might include loans (mortgage, auto, business and personal loans), as well as bank accounts of various types, and products like CDs and safe deposit boxes. Your…
We talk a lot about saving, both here and on our campaign site for America Saves. We offer advice, encouragement, and education about saving for the future. Today, in honor of Financial Literacy Month, we’re talking about the concept of saving at a broader level—we want to give a basic understanding of saving to help…
For today’s Financial Literacy Month lesson, we turn to inflation. It’s important to understand inflation for long-term saving and borrowing decisions. Simply put, inflation refers to the rise of prices of goods and services. As these prices go up, the purchasing power of money decreases. So essentially, inflation makes your money worth less over time….
Our next topic in our Financial Literacy Month series is about supply & demand. It’s important to understand how supply & demand affect prices and availability of goods & services. Getting a basic understanding of this topic will bring us closer to full financial literacy. Prices The starting point for this topic is prices. A…
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