When we posted about “30 Rock” last Friday, a reader SHOUTED IN ALL CAPS that someone—either NBC, or Tina Fey, or maybe The Consumerist, we’re not sure—is a government shill for basically being paid by the gov to write about financial advice. Turns out Mr. Shouty is right, sort of: the U.S. Treasurer, Anna Escobedo Cabral, was on the radio news program “Marketplace” a couple of weeks ago to talk about how she’s been meeting with the creative teams of soap operas and telenovelas to find ways to incorporate financial storylines into their plots.
education
6 Basic Things Teens Should Know About Credit Cards
By 10.25.07
Organizations like the Jump$tart Coalition and NFCC have rolled out programs that help you teach your kids about the ins and outs of credit cards, credit ratings, interest rates, etc., but Janet Bodnar at Kiplinger says that there are some basic facts that you should focus on. She thinks too much detail bores a kid; we think it depends on the kid, but agree that at the very least, hitting each point on the following list would give your offspring a decent foundation for making good credit decisions.
Use Halloween Candy To Educate And Annoy Your Kids
By 10.24.07
Sometimes parents like to drive their kids crazy by showing up on Facebook, or listening to rap music, or professing that Zac Efron is a cutie-patooty, but Grad Money Matters suggests a whole new level of annoyance: use their Halloween candy to teach them about money. Here’s how: on Halloween night, you buy all their candy off of them, then give them a pre-set limit of how much they can spend each day to buy choice pieces back, and as the days go along, you drop the “prices” on the candy so that they can purchase more if they want or forego the sweets in order to increase their savings.
College Costs Rising At Double The Inflation Rate
By 10.22.07
College costs are accelerating in price, according to a new study released this morning.
By 10.4.07
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Don’t buy grades from your kids, cautions Kiplinger—it’s a slippery slope, and confuses the issue, which should be about achievement and investing in the future rather than turning eduction into a Rewards Program that will eventually run dry or lose its appeal. [Kiplinger]
By 9.26.07
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Health organization Kaiser Permanente has launched an online game for kids that teaches them about nutrition and healthy lifestyles, then “locks” the kids out of the game after 20 minutes so they’ll go outside and play. We imagine the lock-out functionality won’t be needed, as the educational aspect of the game should organically repel the target audience of 9- and 10-year-olds in 10 to 15 seconds. [Reuters]
Harvard Bookstore: "We Own ISBN Numbers"
By 9.24.07
The Harvard Crimson ran a story last week about a student who was asked to leave the premises for writing down the prices of six textbooks at the Coop, Harvard’s bookstore of record. The bookstore’s president says that there’s no official policy against students writing down information, but “we discourage people who are taking down a lot of notes.” But what’s more surprising, he tells the Crimson that the textbooks’ ISBNs—which can be used to look up the same books online—are “the Coop’s intellectual property.”
IRS Reminds You To Keep Your Education Related Receipts
By 9.11.07
When you’re cleaning out your purse or wallet this week, make sure to save your education related receipts because, depending on your situation, you may be eligible for some spiffy tax breaks in April.
Half Of Consumers Are Not Aware Of Online Threats?
By 8.15.07
Ars Technica quotes a recent study by Microsoft that found that 58% of American consumers didn’t even know “online threats” existed. The study also found that of the ones that did know about said threats, 17% of them had fallen for some sort of Internet scam—and 81% of those people said it was their fault for opening suspicious emails or sending information to strange companies because they had a nice logo.
Tips For Educating Your Kids About Money
By 8.7.07
Bankrate has put together 4 lessons you should teach your kids about money.
Professor Says Textbooks Are Too Expensive, Quits Using Them
By 7.20.07
Ron Hammond, Phd, professor at Utah Valley State College, has quit using textbooks in his classes. Why? They’re too expensive.
New York Takes Deeper Look Into Student Lending
By 3.1.07
Concerned that guidance offered to students is tainted by conflicts of interests, Cuomo’s office asks schools to disclose if there are financial relationships with lenders and if any favors were offered to individual financial aid officers.
Busting the College Textbook Monopoly
By 1.17.07
- Consider: How often does someone have the authority to order consumers to purchase a product with a limited number of vendors? University professors have just that power, requiring students to purchase particular books for their courses. The often obscure titles must typically be purchased from the college bookstore, which obtains them through special order. With limited competition, at best, prices for new textbooks can easily climb to $100, and have tripled since the mid 1980s
Oh man, stop. We’re having flashbacks.
RIAA Tells MIT Student To Drop Out Of School To Pay Fines
By 4.6.06
Cassi Hunt has recently been accused by the RIAA of being guilty of file-sharing. We all know what happens now: the RIAA will extort her for thousands of dollars (in Cassi’s case, $3750) as a “settlement” to prevent her having to go to court. Or, as Cassie puts it in her highly entertaining and witty account: ” Let us screw you over gently now, or with chains and whips in court.”
