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Event Part of the ABA Education Foundation’s Teach Children to Save Program

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., April 25– Today Malibu Elementary School third graders will learn a lesson on the importance of saving from U.S. Rep Thelma Drake (VA-02), Betsy Duke, COO of TowneBank, as part of the ABA Education Foundation’s Teach Children to Save program.

“Our youth are active spenders, but are they savvy savers?” asked Congresswoman Drake. “Today we put Malibu Elementary School third graders on the path towards making good personal finance decisions as adults, by sharing with them the value in saving and sensible money management practices.”

A 2008 America Saves survey reports that only 28 percent of Americans save the suggested 10 percent of their income.  Consequently, America’s poor saving habits are trickling down to our youth, with one in four assuming that they are too young to begin saving, reports Charles Schwab Teens & Money 2007 survey.

“Like other experts, good personal finance managers are made not born,” explained Duke. “The earlier we begin educating our children on how to use money wisely, the better.” 

TCTS lessons bring reality and learning together, incorporating hands-on scenarios and real-life experiences to help kids understand things like how interest makes money grow, how to budget and how to distinguish needs from wants.  Bankers choose from lessons like “Patty’s Pet Hamster” or “Survivor Island” to make learning fun.

The ABA Education Foundation works to build a generation of financially educated consumers by connecting bankers and young people.  The Foundation’s lesson plans and signature programs, Teach Children to Save and Get Smart about Credit, have helped more than 54,000 bankers teach money skills to nearly 2.6 million young people.

The ABA Education Foundation, a non-profit subsidiary of the American Bankers Association, is committed to developing and providing education programs that lead to financial literacy.  For more than eighty years, we have supported the banking industry’s efforts to teach personal finance skills in schools and communities across the country.  The programs we provide are specifically and uniquely created for young children, teenagers and adults to provide them with the skills they need to budget, save, and manage credit.  For more information, visit http://www.abaef.com  or call 1-800-BANKERS.

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