Everything's Chaos...and Then the White House Calls
I will never forget 6/11. For the very first time ever, I completely forgot about an online workshop I was doing for eBay. Yikes! My phone kept ringing as I was taking my time getting ready this morning. I finally answered at 10:04 to discover I was 4 minutes late.
Thank goodness Megan was online already and was fielding questions. We ended up 100 posts in an hour. And considering I was late and offtrack for the beginning, that was a hard time!
I started to get caught up on my emails and plan my day and then out of the blue…. I got an invitation to participate in a special round table at the White House next Wednesday. My first thought was, “Oh, I can’t do it. I have appointments. I haven’t combed my hair yet. I don’t even own a blue suit.” And then I thought, THIS IS THE WHITE HOUSE!
So, schedules are moving, tickets being booked and I actually teared up a little. Wow. That’s all I can say.
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Way cool. And that’s all * I * can say.
More precisely— totally way cool !
Then I got the formal invitation. It’s a new group called “Compassion in Action”. Here’s a snippet from the formal White House invitation:
For many Americans, the line between financial stability and financial distress is a thin one. Small decisions and simple habits can become a watershed, leading either to fiscal health and opportunity or severe challenges in virtually every aspect of life.
A brief review of national data reveals that many Americans walk on thin financial ice. Consumer debt is on the rise. An estimated 30 million Americans do not have bank accounts, and many of those who do are depleting their savings at an alarming pace. Saving rates in America are troublingly low. These numbers carry impact for every area of society—from mortgage foreclosure, bankruptcy, and divorce, to the high school dropout rate, detrimental borrowing practices, chronic poverty and inner city crime.
Many faith-based and community organizations have realized the tremendous benefits of financial literacy for the well-being of individuals and the broader society. Alongside leadership provided by government and the private sector, these discerning organizations are providing education on financial literacy that equips individuals with the tools they need to avoid the pitfalls of consumer debt, predatory lending and other traps, while succeeding in areas such as home ownership, budgeting, and credit repair.
The Roundtable will focus on innovative and effective programs and partnerships that promote financial literacy among Americans of all ages.
This is great stuff!
This is fantastic! And what a time for my new computer to start giving me problems! I've been trying for 2 hours to post this! Wow!
What else can you say to someone who is invited to The White House!!
You deserve it; you've worked hard to get here!
Congrats and well deserved. This is great stuff. They need to take this effert into the schools.
Adding on to the congrats! Will be most interested in hearing how this goes, who else is there and the potential follow-up that will come out of it.
I’m a strong believer that parents actually need to be (re)educated so that they can pass that education and knowledge onto the children. You can’t give what you don’t have…and many adults, unfortunately, do not have the financial literacy they need because they were never taught.
Don’t get me wrong - I am a huge proponent that we need to get the kids educated as well, but if kids learn one thing in school or in some program and they see totally different behavior at home — the impact of what they are seeing their parents do will negate a lot of the learning they receive from school or other programs.
Pittsburgh Mike
One of my other passions - the education of our children, especially in K-5; they are such sponges! At 4 or 5 our daughter, Kate, couldn’t wait to get a plastic card so she could get money from the bank machine…I had a hard time explaining that you had to put money in the bank first! But it points out that even very little kids are aware of what grown-ups do, from getting money from a machine to using a plastic card to pay for groceries.
I think Ive ranted in the Forum before about how we graduate kids who know advanced Calculus but have no idea how to write a check, never mind balance a checkbook! I know there is at least one big bank that has a banking program for the schools; I think that is great but needs to be expanded upon…I think it is “available” but the schools have to make the contact. Our older kids need to be taught the basics about money, savings and using credit…and it needs to be done before they get out of school. But unless it is mandated (which is unlikely) it is up to the community to step in and find ways to provide the education…banks are the most likely, but what about other businesses? Sponsorship of a program by any big business in conjunction with banks (not just one, but a bunch in order to cover small communities, and larger areas) would be a high visibility campaign for them.
What about encouraging banks to hold “banking fairs” where parents and kids could have fun and learn at the same time…it’s harder to reach adults overall, but if they were being exposed to tables and/or literature aimed at them on a more educational level (NOT sales pitches or “sign-up now for a new credit card”), while attending an educational community event with their kids? The kids could be learning in fun activities about money and savings and those plastic things (!) their parents use. At the same time the parents could be exposed to both what their kids are learning (and maybe even learning themselves) and other financial things they don’t understand (just what exactly is APR?).
“Nobody will believe in you unless you believe in yourself.” Liberace