Friday, April 19, 2019

Econ 101

I read a letter to the editor the other day in the WSJ from Scott Wolla of the Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis. In the letter he stated many of the Federal Reserve Banks provide free professional development in personal finance and economics for teachers. Additionally, the Federal Reserve Education website offers hundreds of free classroom resources for teachers and individuals. I checked it out and there's a lot of good info there.

I used to do a little bit of "save your money" to my guys in the Weld Shop. I used the formula in the Machinery's Handbook for compound interest and showed them how their money would add up if they started an IRA account as soon as they started working. I went into the difference between a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA and made sure they all understood that $2000.00 per year into an IRA would allow them to retire as a millionaire. Granted, it might be tough putting $40.00 per week away when you are first starting out but put something in the account and pick up the pace when you move up to a better paying job. As the defined benefit pensions have either gone away or gone broke, it's even more important now to provide for your own retirement. Hard to think 50 years down the road when you're 18, though.

Check out the link and save your money - hard times are coming.

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