OLYMPIA – Recognizing Governor Chris Gregoire declared April as Financial Literacy Month in Washington State the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) is pleased to announce the launch of a new statewide financial education calendar.
Washington Financial Literacy Month is part of a national awareness campaign with the goal of increasing public knowledge about the need for and value of personal financial education and how to obtain it. DFI is working with organizations providing financial education in their communities to incorporate existing calendars into a single searchable, comprehensive statewide calendar of financial education classes and events. The calendar is available online at www.dfi.wa.gov
Throughout April DFI and partner organizations will increase efforts to connect people with local money management information, resources, and organizations that can help individuals achieve their individual financial goals – from learning how to budget to how to avoid investor fraud.
A 2008 survey by The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. indicates “Nearly 72% of the parents surveyed acknowledged that they are their children's primary source of personal finance education, although 44% admit to needing more guidance on how to best teach their children the skills necessary to become financially responsible and successful adults.”
DFI and participating financial education organizations encourage all Washington residents to focus on financial education throughout this month – in particular, we hope parents will take this opportunity to take advantage of these resources and talk with their children about budgeting, saving, investing and spending wisely.
According to the 2008 annual back-to-school survey from Capital One “Only 14% of teens have taken a personal finance class in school and 69% of teens say that what they know about managing money, they learned from their parents.”
If your organization offers financial education classes or events and has a calendar please let us know – we want to make sure your items are included in the statewide calendar! If you have a calendar item to add, click on the link to submit, fill out the form and hit “send.” Please be sure to indicate if registration is required or if there is a charge.