| 06/11/2007 |
| Penny wise, and dollar wise too |
| Amanda K. Lowe , Daily Times |
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COVENTRY - Students at Coventry High School have been exposed to
the knowledge to be financially sound in their lives - thanks to
two of their peers. The students launched their campaign June 1 at an assembly for Coventry High School students. The campaign caps off the students' participation in Rhode Island Financial High School, also called RI-Fi High, a pilot program that was launched earlier this spring by the Rhode Island JumpStart Coalition. "This unique financial education program has teens impact their peers in their own words, in their own way," said Jim Hedemark, executive director of the Rhode Island JumpStart Coalition. "Samantha and Rebecca have done a wonderful job. It's really up to students like them to turn this country around because Americans are spending way too much money they just don't have." Andrea and Berard participated in the RI-Fi High training day on May 4 at the Smithfield campus of Fidelity Investments, where they were taught about budgeting, saving, investing, insurance, credit and debt. The training session equipped them with several potential marketing methods or tactics to use in their campaign, Hedemark said. On Friday, Andrea and Berard put on a skit that featured two doors, from behind which actors portraying the consequences of good or bad personal financial choices emerged. Behind door one was the non-budgeting lifestyle with low income, limited insurance policies, lack of investments, and credit card debt. Behind door two was the budgeting lifestyle with investments, high savings, full coverage insurance, and smart money management. "We really want to help you understand financial savings and spending and understand what it is all about," Andrea said to the students. "I really hope you listened and learned something because the financial choices you make now will pay off later in life." Professor Joan Gray Anderson of the University of Rhode Island Center for Personal Financial Education and Representative Victor Moffitt also spoke to students during the assembly. "I think Albert Einstein is very smart, and he said the most powerful source in the universe is compound interest," Moffitt said. "If you put away $100 a year for the next 40 years at 10 percent yield, you will get $600,000. If you put the same amount away at 5 percent you will only get $150,000. This is important to learn at the high school age so they can take advantage of what Albert Einstein said. They really need to know about different investment options because that is where you'll make the most money." Both Moffitt and Anderson said Andrea and Berard did a good job emphasizing key issues in their presentation. The students covered issues such as investments, insurance, credit, and debt in their presentation. "It's really important that kids know they should be spending less than they earn. That is a really important piece of information that all students should know," Anderson said. "I think the girls did a great job emphasizing that in their presentation and I hope the other students learned a lot from it."
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