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PERSPECTIVES ON DIGITAL CURRENCY

Sep 6, 2012

financial education

A Political Football

Proving that even politics can occasionally be fun, Visa teamed up this week with North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan, State Treasure Janet Cowell and Business Forward to host a demonstration of Financial Football at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.

With the help of Washington Redskin linebacker London Fletcher, local students and Convention delegates heard about the importance of promoting financial literacy and then got down to business, playing a spirited game of Financial Football.

A few kind-hearted souls asked me something to the effect of: “Why wade into the circus-like environment of a political convention to talk about financial literacy?”

The answer is straight-forward: We strongly believe that a component to a vibrant and growing economy is a well-informed, financially literate population. The government leaders gathered at the party conventions are, by virtue of the offices they hold, ideally positioned to advance the issue of financial literacy and help ensure that all teenagers leave high school with a foundational understanding of money management.

We tried to bring Financial Football to the Republican Convention last week in Tampa, but Hurricane Isaac interfered, causing us to postpone. We’re looking at rescheduling with Governor Rick Scott later this fall.

For the uninitiated, Financial Football is our educational video game that helps players learn about personal finance. Instead of using thumbs to advance your team down the field, you answer personal finance questions. Give it a try

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Posted by: Jason Alderman, Visa Corporate Relations on September 6, 2012 at 3:32 pm

Category: Financial Literacy, Practical Money Skills
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Sep 4, 2012

The Tooth Fairy’s Generosity

This is a great time to be a kid with a loose tooth.

The Tooth Fairy has rebounded from her economic dole drums and she’s returned to her free spending ways. So says the data from our most recent survey of 2,000 Americans. The Tooth Fairy’s largess plummeted in 2011, falling to an average of $2.60 left per tooth. But the cusped collector has picked herself up, dusted herself off, and in 2012 is leaving $3.00 – a 15% increase.

And with every first lost tooth comes the parental dilemma of how much money to leave under the pillow. No one wants to be an outlier and leave their child too much or too little. There is also the concern about children comparing notes on the school playground and finding out that the Fairy has been leaving different amounts.

To help answer this perennial question, we’ve developed the free Tooth Fairy Calculator which you can download as an app from iTunes or use on Facebook. The calculator recommends an appropriate amount to leave for each tooth based on what other families are leaving in comparable households.

While the topic of the Tooth Fairy is intentionally light-hearted, it looms incredibly large for a child with a wiggly tooth – especially if it’s your child. So harness the passion and fascination your child has with the Tooth Fairy and the cash she leaves behind and turn it into a conversation starter about money management.

Ask them how they plan to spend it and encourage them to save a portion. Help them understand the rudimentary concepts of budgeting and explain that’s what you do with your money. It’s a life lesson that will last longer than those baby teeth.

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Posted by: Jason Alderman, Visa Corporate Relations on September 4, 2012 at 6:39 am

Category: Financial Literacy, Mobile, Practical Money Skills
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Aug 14, 2012

Financial Literacy: Real Educators, Real Feedback

Financial literacy is a topic a great importance to those of us who work at Visa. We take great pride in the resources that we have created for educators, parents and students to address important financial questions and topics as people reach various milestones in their lives through our “Practical Money Skills for Life” program. Whether it is creating lesson plans for elementary school teachers or developing “Financial Football” to use sports to promote financial literacy, we are constantly thinking about ways to innovate around the topic.

And while Visa has strong voice to contribute to the conversation, we partner closely with educators on our advisory council to continually update our curriculum and offerings to make sure that the message we are helping to communicate resonates with students.

See what Chauncey Veatch, Advisory Council member and National Teacher of the Year from Coachella Valley (California) has to say about the importance of educating students about financial literacy:

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Posted by: Jason Alderman, Visa Corporate Relations on August 14, 2012 at 6:08 pm

Category: Financial Literacy, Practical Money Skills, Uncategorized
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May 16, 2011

Reinventing the wheel

One of the challenges facing all of us who work to promote financial literacy is helping connect those who create content, with those who deliver it. At Visa we are largely content creators and we rely on banks, credit unions, NGOs, government, parents and teachers to take our personal finance materials and deliver them to their audiences.

I frequently hear from those on the front line about how hard it can be to find the right content to use. Teachers and parents don’t have weeks to devote to scouring the web for the best content. Neither do government agencies. States in particular no longer have the luxury of reinventing the wheel to create their own programs. In many cases they don’t need to; the high-quality content already exists.

Smart state governments realize that helping their students learn the fundamentals of money management is more important than ever and are looking for innovative ways to teach it at a low or no cost.

Visa has stepped up to the plate by providing free classroom curriculum to states. Our latest partnership is with South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis, who is launching a new program to help teach personal finance to elementary school children in the Palmetto State.

Thanks to Treasurer Loftis, South Carolina will be the first state in the nation to distribute two new personal finance video games we created: Peter Pig’s Money Counter and Money Metropolis. These educational computer games teach kids the fundamentals: from identifying and counting coins, to learning about saving, budgeting and earning.

Starting this week, the Treasurer’s office is distributing free disc copies of the games to every public, private, and charter elementary school in South Carolina. The Treasurer’s impressive outreach is being complimented by a statewide tour of elementary schools to promote the new initiative. From Charleston to Greenville, the Treasurer will be teaching children how to play these new games and providing those schools with tablet computers donated by Visa so they can also play the Android version.

This kind of model partnership brings together an expert content creator and an expert at content delivery, with children and taxpayers being the big winners. No new wheels required.

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Posted by: Jason Alderman, Visa Corporate Relations on May 16, 2011 at 4:43 pm

Category: Corporate Responsibility, Financial Literacy
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Apr 4, 2011

Visa and Chicago Fed Co-host Global Financial Literacy Summit

The government’s role in improving financial literacy will be the key question addressed this morning at the 2011 Financial Literacy and Education Summit (join and watch the live Webcast beginning at 9:30am EST).

Co-hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Visa Inc., this fifth annual Summit will bring together global leaders in financial education to address the critical issue of improving financial literacy for people of all ages while exploring how government and the private sector can work together to equip consumers with the tools needed to make wise financial decisions.

Visa’s Chief Financial Officer Byron Pollitt will open the summit and two distinguished panels will follow. One panel will be moderated by CNBC Anchor Maria Bartiromo and the other by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine Editor Janet Bodnar. 

Panelists include the United States Executive Director of the World Bank Ian H. Solomon, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Charles Evans, United States Treasurer Rosie Rios, and several members of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability.

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Posted by: Jason Alderman, Visa Corporate Relations on April 4, 2011 at 6:30 am

Category: About Visa, Financial Literacy
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