With many Americans struggling to pay off thousands of dollars in credit card debt or a mortgage they can ill afford, the nation has apparently lost sight of the old-fashioned virtues of frugality and saving money. Getting back to those values is a key to ensuring Americans”™ maintain their standard of living. To help the next generation avoid making the mistakes of their parents, a handful of employees at Rhinebeck Savings Bank are taking time out from their busy days to go into the schools and teach kids skills on how to save money and protect their credit.
“The bank is passionate about getting this information out to communities, particularly children,” said Carol Gordon, executive vice president and chief operating officer at the Poughkeepsie-based bank. “We have a lot of responsibility to make sure children know how to save and how important good credit is.”
Mary Lou Fugazzi, the bank”™s employee development officer, started the program in 2005, sending out a letter to teachers about the two separate classes, which are 30 to 40 minutes long. At first, the response was lackluster. However, as more teachers found out about the program and the bank invested more resources in marketing it ”“ brochures now go to superintendents as well as teachers ”“ demand is growing.
In 2005, bank employees taught three classes, collectively amounting to 50 students. Last year they reached out to more than 2,200 students, including some parents. A few of the adults “came up afterward and said they were sorry no one did this for them when they were in high school,” said Gordon.
So far, the cadre of eight to nine volunteer bank employees have presented the sessions in public schools in Kingston, Red Hook, Rhinebeck, Pine Plains, Poughkeepsie and Hyde Park. “We have no boundaries,” said Fugazzi, noting that volunteers have also gone to several area private schools and to the Girl Scouts.
The curriculum for both the Teach Children to Save program, which is presented to elementary school children, and Get Smart About Credit, aimed at high-school students, is provided by the American Bankers Association, which also supplies handouts and teacher”™s notes, said Gordon.
Last fall, Fugazzi taught the credit class to juniors and seniors at Kingston High School attending math classes. “We compared different terms and options on loans for a $14,000 car,” she said. “When they discovered they”™d have to pay $3,000 more in interest, they were stunned.” Fugazzi said the exercise was also designed to show students that their credit ratings would affect the amount they had to pay for loans.
“That”™s an important lesson to tell people,” said Gordon. She said many young people who apply for jobs at the bank don”™t get hired because they don”™t have good credit. “We make sure we teach them that their credit score can affect the amount of interest they pay. If they abuse their credit and need to borrow money, they have a higher rate of interest.”
In the lower grades, Fugazzi said a book called “Bunny Money” has brought home to children the idea of staying within a budget. Two rabbits headed to town to buy their grandmother a birthday present get distracted along the way and end up spending most of their money on food, drink and other trifles. The story is a fun way to teach them “how to spend smarter,” Fugazzi said. “We tell lots of stories.”
Gordon said the bank has never used the teaching sessions as an opportunity to pitch its services to the kids. The whole reason for the program “is to get the next generation to be smarter about budgeting and credit than some of us have been. They should be the ones holding control over their money. We try to encourage them not to let the credit card companies own them, to be proactive (in managing their money) rather than victims.”
