GOAL: To promote financial responsibility among teens by building their basic money management skills

WHY: Many of our nation’s teens advance into adulthood without learning the necessary skills that lead to financial independence and fiscal well-being.

WHO: Boys & Girls Club members ages 13-18

WHAT: Money Matters: Make It Count will help teens gain useful knowledge and skills on various aspects of financial literacy, including managing a checking account, budgeting, saving, investing, entrepreneurship and paying for college. Money Matters was developed in collaboration with Charles Schwab Foundation and will be made available to Clubs in spring 2004. The program will feature the following components:

• The Teen Personal Finance Guide will be a fun, innovative and useful tool for teens. It will include practical tips and activities to help teens learn the important skills of balancing a checkbook, creating a budget and investing for college and retirement. The guide also will provide teens with basic entrepreneurship information for those interested in starting businesses.

• The Facilitator’s Guide will contain basic financial concepts that Club staff and volunteers can use to help teens understand the benefits of effective money management. Easy-to-implement small-group activities can usually be completed in less than an hour and help to supplement and reinforce the information in the Teen Personal Finance Guide.

• The Money Matters Web site will be an interactive, engaging tool on which teens will learn to balance a checkbook, make budgeting and investment decisions, gain knowledge about starting a business, and use a saving and financial aid calculator to plan for college. The site will also feature The Stock Market Game™, a Web-based educational program providing a simulation of the real-world stock market.