Financial Literacy For Kids by Certified Financial Planner

I've mentioned in this space before that teaching kids about money seems to be something very few people do. Now there is what appears to be a trend as a Texas Financial planner, Sherry Roades launches a camp for kids and a web site to help them understand money. Brilliant idea and great way to help kids avoid one of the biggest problems most of us experience in our lives - money ptroblems. Teach your kids money skills and improve their lives. Here's the announcement:

Abysmal Scores on Financial Literacy No Surprise to Nationally Recognized Certified Financial Planner

In response to the newly released The Jump$tart Coalition® for Personal Financial Literacy nationwide biennial survey of financial literacy, Sherry Rhoades, CFP, a nationally recognized certified financial planner says our kids can overcome failing financial literacy scores.

Fort Worth, TX (PRWEB) April 6, 2006 –- Abysmal scores on financial literacy quizzes are not a surprise to Sherry Rhoades, CFP, CDFA, who has left her fee-only financially planning practice to dedicate herself towards the financial literacy of children. “You have to learn at a young age or you will likely never learn how to handle money”, she says. She started her own daughter at the age of three with two quarters at Wal-Mart each time they went. Rhoades said, “She had a choice to spend it on whatever she wanted or save it. The first time she picked to ride on the merry-go-round rather than save it to buy a toy later. It didn’t take long for her to figure out that saving money for a new toy was much more rewarding than a thirty second ride on a machine.” Her daughter is lucky; mom is a financial planner. Most kids don't have that luxury.

Unless you are in the finance business, you probably would not notice that most Americans are financially illiterate. People don't talk about credit card debt with their friends, most live a lie and everyone assumes that their friends are doing fine financially. Rhoades says, "The truth is from mechanics to doctors, Americans just don't get it. In fact, doctors are by far the worst with money of any group I have ever worked with in my 12-year financial planning career. How can anyone expect our kids to know any better about money? It's literally the blind leading the blind."

Rhoades says, “Honestly, the main reason for leaving my financial planning practice was frustration. There were few if any clients who ever “got it”. Just like going to therapy because you are forced to go, it is not going to work if you are not invested in the process. Most clients came to me already drowning in debt, fighting with their spouse or in a dead-end job and mortgage with no way out of the rat race. Most of them never got it and never will, so I decided that teaching children the key ingredients to financial success is my calling.”

Millionairekidscamp.com is the creation of Sherry Rhoades, CFP, CDFA, a nationally recognized, widely sited fee-only certified financial planner in Texas. Sherry has been quoted in Newsweek, Smart Money Magazine and many other national financial publications. She is a member of the National Association for Personal Financial Advisors, has held securities licenses 7 and 65, Insurance licenses and is a currently a Certified Financial Planner, Certified Divorce Financial Analyst and Realtor. The first thing you notice when discussing the camp with Ms. Rhoades is how excited she is to introduce such a “unique and important camp” to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. As for her goals for the camp, Ms. Rhoades hopes to help kids “sharpen their math skills, make new friends, and gain confidence in themselves and their ability to make, manage, spend, and save money.

”Millionaire Kids Camp and Millionairekidscamp.com are designed specifically to teach Basic Financial Survival Skills, including:

• What is money, why do we need it, how to use it, save it and spend it

• Buying groceries, clothes and other items on a budget

• How credit cards work and cautions and warnings about using them

• Paying a bill with tip at a restaurant

• How much you really save at sales

• What salary and lifestyle will your career choice earn

• What you have to do from 3rd grade to your senior year to plan for your future

• Balancing a checkbook

• Saving your allowance and how much that can add up to at the end of a year, 5 years, saving for a car, game, Xbox 360 or some other love?

Kids from middle school through high school will learn advanced finance and math topics like:

• Time Value of Money- the value of compounding (exponents, algebraic formulas)

• How to read stock quotes in the Wall Street Journal

• What is a P/E ratio? How is it calculated?

How and why or why not to invest in stocks

• What is a mutual fund?

• What is your real return? Calculation of your return before and after fees.

• How taxes impact your return

• How much does it take to buy a home, car or education?

Millionaire Kids Camps will be located through out the North East Tarrant County areas in the suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas including Southlake, Colleyville, Keller and North Richland Hills.

Check www.millionairekidscamp.com for dates and to sign-up for camp. 2 Day Camps cost $300 and there is a 10% sibling discount.

Contact Information:

Sherry Rhoades, CFP, CDFA Founder and Director

Millionaire Kids Camp
9284 Huntington Square, Ste. 200
North Richland Hills, TX 76180
(817) 281-8666 office
(817) 726-1235 cell
(817) 887-2112 fax