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In March, I hosted a guest post from Mike Young about the ongoing battle with lifestyle inflation. Young runs The Secure Student, a program that teaches high school students how to manage their money.
At the time, I thought The Secure Student might be worth sharing during Financial Literacy Month, but I forgot about it until yesterday. This morning I spent some time reviewing the program. According to the website, The Secure Student is designed to help young adults create lasting positive habits with credit and money before they leave home:
Our program features interactive online classes with quizzes and games, an online community, and most importantly, our habit building exercises…These exercises are key to our program and immerse the kids in activities so that they retain the information and build the habits they need to succeed, making sure that kids actually learn the importance of credit and money through application.
The core curriculum seems to be built on the same concepts we discuss here at Get Rich Slowly: good credit habits, conscious spending, and an awareness of advertising and marketing. The program even draws some of its content from Your Money or Your Life, one of my favorite personal finance books.
The site offers several free resources:
- The Secure Student orientation video provides an overview of the course curriculum.
- The Secure Student blog features information about funding and preparing for college.
- The Secret Guide to Understanding Your Credit Rating [PDF], a detailed guide to how credit scores work. (This info isn’t just for young adults!)
The Secure Student program comprises 40 lessons, most of which are six to seven minutes long. The first lesson is available free online, and you can obtain two more lessons by providing your e-mail address. But the complete course costs $297. Is this cost worth it? I’m not sure.
I’m a strong supporter for financial literacy, and I applaud the aims of The Secure Student, but I worry that $297 is a steep barrier to entry, especially for the families that might profit most from the information. (I’m thinking of myself here — my parents could not have afforded $297 for a program like this when I was in high school, and yet I desperately needed it.)
There’s a $200 “graduation package” — which apparently contains gift cards to youth-oriented retailers — once a student completes the course, which seems to imply that the net cost for The Secure Student is only $97. But I’d rather see a $97 course with no graduation package.
Would you spend $297 to enroll your children in a financial literacy course? If not, do you have other plans to help them develop sound money habits? Has anyone in your family used The Secure Student or anything like it?
This article is about Basics, Education Wednesday, 29th April 2009 (by J.D. Roth)
April 29th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Hi J.D.! I had to do a personal finance course in high school; it was part of the regular curriculum then, but they’ve probably had to cut it by now.
If I had kids, I wouldn’t pay for them to do a course like The Secure Student. Paying for information makes no sense in this day and age. I’d instead spend an hour a week online with the kids, looking at and talking about one or more finance articles by writers I respect.
I’d also include them - way before high school - in the household money conversation … the easiest thing to start with is grocery shopping.
I think one thing that even educators often forget is that kids like to learn new stuff. They like to have skills and information because when they do, they have more confidence and feel more self-sufficient.
April 29th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
who else finds it ironic that the reward for course completion is a $200 shopping spree.
April 29th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
I would not spend $297 on something like this. Even if I got $200 back in the end in gift cards (especially, gift cards expire, you lose them, they’re for stores you don’t shop at, etc, plus it just promotes spending more). Much like you, my parents would not have had $297 to spend so frivolously. Hell, we couldn’t afford many simple school trips (nor drivers ed and other “normal” high school experiences). I understand that the person who made this program deserves compensation for their work. But charging this much money for it puts it well outside the realm of being affordable for the kids who probably need it most: kids of parents who have poor money skills and hence don’t have the $297 to spend to begin with.
April 29th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
The $200 in gift cards is probably a “sponsorhip” type setup - in an attempt to decrease the “total cost” to those who purchase the program, they offset the amount you’ve paid with gift cards from companies willing to support the company’s objective. While some may disagree with it, and it is definitely ironic that a spending program then offers gift cards for the graduates to spend, I am always for decreasing my personal cost. As long as the gift cards are to places I would already be spending money, I don’t think it’s a bad idea at all.
April 29th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I would pay $300 for my kid to have this but that’s because I have the means which also means that I’m able to teach him this stuff myself for free.
Seems kind of like a Catch 22.
April 29th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Well, I could afford this, but think it would be more effective to teach kids via example, which is what they learn from anyway. Plus, I find it dispiriting to outsource another family responsibility to a commercial enterprise.
April 29th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
If I had children I would not spend $297 for this course. I would not spend $97 for this course without the graduation package.
The best way to teach kids to develop sound money habits is to *model* sound money habits for them. Talking to them about the financial decisions you make and why you make them is another obvious and effective tactic.
April 29th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Actually I plan on using the same thing that taught me - Boy Scouts Financial Merit Badge. Failed it the first time saidly, but it helped me actually learn all the basics. And the book like … 20 bucks tops.
April 29th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
@Dave (#8)
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it here yet, but I’ve been on a sort of “more kids should be involved with scouting” kick lately. I did cub scouts when I was a boy, and a little bit of scouting when I was older. The experience was great, and it taught self-reliance. I think that more young people should be involved with these programs.
(Actually, I just realized I haven’t yet mentioned this at GRS because it came up in an interview that I’m publishing tomorrow morning!)
April 29th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
I teach a section of Senior Project at St. Helens High School. While the class is focused around a capstone project, I try to cover some personal finance and time management topics, as well. I introduce my students to student financial blogs and resources that will be useful tools after high school (google calendar, mint, etc.) I am a long time reader of GRS, IWTYTBR, Zenhabits, and many other blogs. There is so much important information in these blogs that needs to be shared with today’s high school students.
One resource I recently found was the NEFE High School Financial Planning Program (http://hsfpp.nefe.org/). I havent had much time to review the material, but it looks pretty good. Workbooks can be ordered by teachers for free - I just got a box of 40 books in the mail. Something to check out if you don’t want to pay $297.
April 29th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
It seems like you’d be setting a bad example to spend $300 to educate your kids on topics that you can learn so much about for free.
April 29th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
I should also note that I’m not completely opposed to the idea of paying $297 for something like this. I mean, that’s money that might be well-spent if it helps your child develop smart money habits, right?
I just don’t have any frame of reference for this. I don’t have kids, so I don’t know how much soccer leagues cost or dance lessons or summer camp. Nor do I know what free resources are out there for kids.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m coming down on The Secure Student (or Mike) for the cost involved. I’m just calling it into question…
April 29th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Kiplinger had a great post recently about three Web sites to teach kids about money. One for elementary age kids, one for middle and high schoolers, and a third for college students. http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/drt/archive/2009/dt090408.html
April 29th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
The idea sounds good but I’m not so sure about it. The parents who are likely to enroll their kids in the Secure Student program are probably the ones who already understand the basics of personal finance and have already passed that knowledge onto their children. Thus meaning that their children don’t need the program and they can keep the $300.
The kids who need the course probably come from parents who don’t know (or care) much about personal finance and thus would be unlikely to enroll their children in the first place.
I think giving everyone a semester of personal finance in high school is a better idea. Although perhaps impractical for other reasons.
April 29th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I wonder if the thought on the price was along the lines of “if we make them invest money in it, they’ll actually complete it”.
My brother does some high school correspondence courses, and he wouldn’t finish them except that my dad says he’ll make my brother pay for them himself if he doesn’t pass them.
April 29th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
I think the concept is good but it is priced way, way too high. I suppose if that was the only place (or even best place) to get that information then it would be worth it given what the cost of not knowing this stuff. But…there are so many other options…
April 29th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Teaching kids about finance is an admirable goal, but there’s no way I would pay for a PF course.
1. The internet and its wealth of PF info is available to everyone… it’s even free if you use a public library.
2. The best learning starts at home. I think it’d be more worth it for an adult education program that requires parents to educate their children by modeling good behavior as part of a graduation requirement.
Personally, I could think of many better things to spend $300 on than a course that purports to teach good spending behavior, but actually may reinforce negative habits.
April 29th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
What about offering this as a birthday gift or a Christmas gift? It is a better idea than a video game! Although it is not as fun as a video game for the kid but he can still get the $200 graduation package at the end. And he will probably enjoy that part!
April 29th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
I do have kids, two of them. And I would not pay a penny to a teaching organization for a neatly packaged curriculum demonstrating the principles of personal finance.
What I actually do is demonstrate my line of thought daily, regularly. Also, I have given them an allowance (for discretionary spending) ever since they were old enough to keep a ledger (one did, one didn’t; but the skill was there).
Interestingly, one of my kids saved up enough for a laptop from the $5/wk allowance, the other keeps at least enough on hand to finance an entire holiday season. They’re both savvy shoppers, they both pick up change on the street - and they’ve each made mistakes which were irritating to them (but not disastrous; you can’t get TOO disastrous with that kind of income stream).
My method is *way* more expensive than $300 (in both time and money), and requires a lot more attention. I wouldn’t have it any other way, though. Teaching (living) personal finance is the *fun* part. (If I could have skipped the glitter-glue phase, though, I’d have skipped it in a heartbeat.)
Edited to add: if I told them about this course, *both* my kids would ask for the $297 and each would argue that they could find a better investement for the money.
April 29th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Surprised to see so many parents against this when many parents willingly fork out much more than this for their kids to pass a single test (SAT or ACT).
I always find the whole “I would never pay for information!” line amusing, too. You mean you’ve never bought a single book? Watched a documentary? Read a newspaper? That’s paying for information.
-Erica
April 29th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
This idea of “lifestyle inflation” is at work in a recent book - “Guyland” - in which a sociologist examines the spending behavior of the male college and post-college demographic. The crux of the issue is expectations in lifestyle beyond one’s means, especially when starting out with a career.
April 29th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
I would not spend that much money, especially since all of this information is freely available online at finance blogs, etc. And students today are savvy enough to find this information.
What I WOULD do is schedule a weekly meeting/follow up session with someone who wants to learn about this stuff so that she/he stays on top of it and continues her/his financial education.
April 29th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
What happened to Consumers Education classes and drivers education classes?
I think Dena Bugel-Shunra should be commended for teaching her children to manage money. They will have no problem understanding a check book and credit card statements.
Not only are her children learning good habits they are spending quality time doing it.
I taught my daughter using the Quicken program (She had her own accounts) Her checking was her allowance, and she had her savings accounts she kept track of. She had catagories for movies, candy, etc
April 29th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
I think $297 is a drop in the bucket compared to the financial damage kids could do without being properly equipped. The perfect demographic for a program like The Secure Student would be parents who have done pretty well for themselves, but don’t know how to translate that into financial coaching/mentoring for their kids.
April 29th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
There are a few free programs available to junior high and high school students. Thus, $297 is too much when Junior Achievement will provide the same for free.
EDITED because I’m having a dyslexic day.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
I have three kids: two in college and one married. I wouldn’t use this program. There are sooo many other ways to teach this! Here’s what we did: From age 12 to age 18, we gave each of our kids a set amount of cash every month for their clothing, plus a tiny bit more for “fun”. With that money they were responsible for completely clothing themselves. They could spend more if they earned it, or they could spend less, but they could never come to mom and dad for more money, or for a loan, or for a special clothing purchase. All three learned very valuable lessons about necessities vs. wants, saving up for bigger purchases, not self-indulging, and many other lessons.
For our two younger ones we also had them read Dave Ramsey’s book “Total Money Makeover”. They are all responsible money managers today. I also second the Boy Scouts Personal Finance merit badge. The book is only $3 - what a bargain! (Our son is an Eagle Scout).
April 29th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
If I had kids, I wouldn’t pay them to take a finance course, I’d teach them myself =)
April 29th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
I wouldn’t spend any money on financial literacy courses. Doesn’t it kind of defeat the purpose. It’s all about diligence. I am a student and I never did anything like that. I’m graduating in 3 weeks from graduate school with ZERO debt (I paid my way through) and I didn’t need a course to teach me how to budget my money. It’s all about breaking down your monthly earnings into needs and wants and saving accordingly. I agree with LOTS, teach the kids yourself. Everyone’s circumstance is different, a generic course can’t successfully teach students how to be financially literate.
April 30th, 2009 at 1:21 am
@JD:
You know that you can’t be a Scout in America if you are atheist, agnostic, gay or bisexual, right? Whilst Scouting is mostly a good thing (especially in practice), it’s not without ethical considerations.
In other countries, and in the Girl Scouts/Guides, the membership requirements are generally less restrictive - pretty much it’s only the atheists that are excluded.
April 30th, 2009 at 5:29 am
@plonkee -
Well, just so you know Scouts is kinda alot like the Southern Baptist convention (Jez, never in my life would I thought I’d say that) where each troop is on its own for defining and implementation of policies. You have the over arching umbrella, but can have variances of para-military to frat club to hippie.
The problems you describe come from the troop sponsor, usually a church but could be 4H or even private individuals. I can tell you for a fact that my Troop had no religious ties and didn’t give one whit about sexuality. In fact we broke off a church when they wanted us to take a larger role in services as well and more evangelical stuff.
The biggest thing finding out who the sponsors are.
April 30th, 2009 at 6:14 am
The way to teach kids sound money principles is to set a good example for them through your own actions — they’ll learn more from you than from any class.
If you don’t think you can provide that example, spend $297 on a personal finance program for YOURSELF.
April 30th, 2009 at 6:51 am
I’m GirlScoutleader, and yes, every troop decides it’s own destiny…we leave it up to he girls.
My girls are moving up to a new levl of scouts this year, so I’m going to check about whether or not the GS have a financial program like the Boy Scouts. I also run a GS program for girls who are in 6t-12th grades,and this is a great idea to offer next year for one of those meetings. Thanks!
April 30th, 2009 at 7:04 am
@plonkee
Dave covered most of what I was going to say, I just second him. The troop I was in met in a church hall, but the only religion was mentioning God in the pledge of allegiance. I think the only thing that is true about what you said is they disapprove of gay leaders. There is no policy related to the sexuality of the scouts, however. For the record I can’t say I agree with this, but that part is factual (or was last I knew, which was 5-10 years ago).
April 30th, 2009 at 8:05 am
I’d be pretty willing to spend $10,000 a year to send my kids to better schools than the “free” public ones, and they teach “the same things”, too — math, reading, science, etc.
There’s no reason I would rule out a program like this if I actually thought it was better than what my kids would get otherwise. But, I don’t actually have kids yet, so this is really fairly speculative on my part. I do know that my kids will get the best education I can afford to give them.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:27 am
@Dave and Matt T
I’m aware that many Scout troops(?) fudge the rules. I guess that in some parts of the country a blind eye is turned more than in other places. That there are (for me at least) ethical considerations in supporting them doesn’t in anyway detract from the generally excellent work that that is done with and for young people by the Scouts.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:40 am
I’d rather pay $100 for a LIFETIME FAMILY MEMBERSHIP to Financial Peace University and go through the course with my kids (if I had kids)
April 30th, 2009 at 10:20 am
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I’m sorry for using caps, but I needed to get my message heard. People that truly NEED this advise(me) don’t have that type of money to invest into programs that require such a high fee. I would rather them be forwarded to getrichslowly.org/blog :).You truly you offer free incredibly necessary information.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Reading the comments, it does not surprise me that most would not want to spend $297 on materials to teach financial literacy to their children. After all, the people that are reading and commenting on this blog, know a bit about financial literacy and are looking for additional tips and information.
But what about those families who do not have a clue? For example, one survey, I read, stated that 52% could not describe the advantages of a ROTH retirement account.
Another survey, stated that college seniors are graduating with an average of $4,100 in credit card debt.
In my opinion, avoid the self-study program. Sign up for a course at a local adult or community college. The cost is usually quite reasonable and the classroom interaction is an added bonus.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:48 am
@Tim #31 re:
“If you don’t think you can provide that example, spend $297 on a personal finance program for YOURSELF.”
LOL! So very, very true!
April 30th, 2009 at 10:55 am
I recommended it to my sister (currently studying abroad in Australia and apparently more clueless than I thought about money and credit - I’m a terrible teacher!) through my mom, but I don’t know if she’s passed it on yet. I’m also leery of the price tag, but if it’s doable for the “student” or family, the returns on this investment could be huge! Or… would they just be not-losses?
April 30th, 2009 at 11:09 am
@plonkee
Heh, I was just sharing what I know and have seen. I’m from the rural south, so not quite the bastion of “liberal policies”. That and used to be heavy into the council level stuff. So I know/am aware of some of the dirty politics. *laugh*
aaanyways, my whole point was more of “look around and comparison shop”
April 30th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
I have two kids, ages 19 and 17, and I’ve had a lot of success teaching them the basics of our credit-driven lifestyle by giving them each one of my credit cards. They are responsible for paying me at the end of each month for what they’ve charged. This way they learn what credit cards can and cannot do. They are necessary in some circumstances - gas pumps with no attendants, or online purchases - but their ease of use can cause anguish at the end of the month. Because I can monitor what they’re doing, the boys have learned the necessity of spending less than they have as well as the necessity of paying the darn bill at the end of the month. Works for us.
April 30th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
hah! I kind of wish this had been around when my husband was a kid. His parents have money and have always done well for themselves; both college professors, so never made a LOT, but saved and invested wisely and now live comfortably off a trust as well as their pensions. However as far as I know they never discussed money with their children and never taught them to save or invest or even balance a checkbook. They’d have had the money for this course, and clearly did not have the inclination to do the teaching themselves.
April 30th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
heck no i would not pay $297 for some financial classes. instead they could look at this blog for FREE!!
April 30th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
If I had kids, I would not spend $297 on a financial literacy course. I’d:
go to the library and create one for free,
use online resource (like get rich slowly) for ideas, and set a positive example myself.
My parents never could have paid $297 for a financial literacy course. I learned from a combination of a high school “economics” class and my grandparents showing me the compound interest they earned on some of their assets.
I have no consumer debt, put myself through college, and have a modest savings cushion.
May 1st, 2009 at 4:58 am
@Dave:
Totally, no snark intended in my response. There are multiple ways to get to what you really want, whether that’s not supporting, making a fuss, corrupting from the inside (e.g. allowing local policies to be more flexible)…
Scouts do good things. I just want ‘Scouts for All’ to be a more accurate slogan.
May 1st, 2009 at 7:55 am
JD,
I agree with most of your readers and that is why I love your blog as well. You stimulate thought, conversation and most of your readers clearly get the point that personal finance is exactly that, personal.
Most of your readers seem to have a pretty good handle on their personal philosophy with money, however, the statistics show a different story for most American’s today. Most are learning about personal finance only after digging a significant hole and making many common mistakes.
Our mission at The Secure Student Program is to help high school students avoid those mistakes.
Your readers are right on the money in these areas:
1. Parents teaching early and by example is best
2. Parent should talk and stimulate thought in their kids
3. Kids should learn about money through experience and not just more information
The information today is abundant and free, but to most, overwhelming and confusing. The statistics show that most people are actually feeling:
1. Confused
2. Isolated
3. Powerless
Too much information, not enough personal experience and action.
There are many parents and teachers that can make a difference to the kids and for free, however most are just feeding more and more information to the kids.
When you talk directly to the kids, they are saying that adults are providing them more and more information, trying to solve the problem, but the more information they get, the more it’s confusing them.
More information is not the solution.
Students today would benefit much more from experience, and that is our challenge and our goal. Our program was designed for the kids that are not getting the relevant information from schools and parents (about ½ of the country). Our lessons are relevant and designed to inspire thought and give them real world exercises to get the kids into action. We also try to teach the things that are not readily available and are extremely relevant for their immediate years after high school. How to protect and master your credit scores through the 5 key categories, how credit card companies scout and prey on college campuses and how lenders manipulate rates and fees for maximum profit with minimum disclosure.
Once they are a member of our community, they are always a member and we plan to stay in front of them throught the next few years until they have a handle on their personal plan. We need to do this because the rules of the game are changing rapidly every day.
I challenge most of your readers and adults to answer 2 questions.
1) What are the 5 key categories of credit scoring?
2) What is the average rate on a credit card in America today?
The reality is that most American’s simply don’t’ know, or worse, think they know and are wrong. If you talk with the average person today, they have no clue how credit scoring really works and they think the average rate on a credit card is 14.3%, just because they saw it on the news last week.
However, when you add in the average penalties, late charges and interest manipulation, the average credit card has an APR over 150%.
So that is our goal, to get the kids talking, in action and they will learn through experience, not just more of the same information. Hopefully giving them the direction, confidence and capability they need to develop their personal philosophy with credit and money.
PS. On a side note, we are in negotiations with several institutions to have the graduation package a savings vehicle vs. a spending vehicle and I couldn’t agree more about that.
We can’t do it alone, we have to do it together. If any of your readers would like to contact me directly are get involved in our mission, my personal email is below.
Cheers to you,
Mike Young
mike@thesecurestudent.com
May 1st, 2009 at 8:14 am
Darnit, I had this idea a year ago but didn’t put it together fast enough I guess.
Anyway, this is absolutely worth the price of $297. Can you put a price on your child growing up to become a financially secure adult? What is the price of $10k in credit card debt, two car payments, a house full of expensive gadgets and a mountain of debt they can’t afford? If you could help them avoid all that would it be worth $297? I think the answer is obvious. Now, if you can teach it to them yourself that is a different story. This would be a great thing to implement in every single junior high school in America but I don’t think it’s on the list for the “No Child Left Behind” program. 