American Teens Face Stormy Financial Seas, with Many Already Drowning in Debt; NCEE Launches DVD Lifesaver -- Financing Your Future

2005 Harris Poll confirms that American teens do not understand basics of Personal Finance. NCEE introduces video series to illustrate how sound choices can help build financial security and success.

New York, NY (PRWEB) October 26, 2006 -- The National Council on Economic Education (NCEE, www.ncee.net) introduced Financing Your Future, an entertaining new DVD aimed primarily at high school students, to over 500 educators at its 2006 Annual Conference on October 12.

The video series introduces major principles of personal finance in an entertaining and accessible DVD format. Development was funded by a grant from The Citigroup Foundation as part of Citigroup's 10-year $200 million commitment to financial education.

"We continue to be dismayed by the lack of understanding of basic concepts underlying personal financial literacy. Our latest Harris Poll, 'What American Teens and Adults Know about Economics,' indicates that teens do not have the basic knowledge they will need to make effective financial decisions," said Dr. Robert Duvall, President of NCEE. "The Citigroup Foundation's support of Financing Your Future has enabled us to create a highly functional tool to convey complex information in an appealing, hip format."

Each video segment is accompanied by three lesson plans designed to teach the content covered by that video. The DVD format enables easy distribution of the videos and lessons to teachers, schools, parents, mentors, and community leaders. A companion website provides additional resources, including a guide for conducting teacher training and professional development sessions.

About the Videos

The videos cover five themes:
• Get a (Financial) Life - introduces basic vocabulary and key concepts such as wealth building, savings, and an important rule - "spend less than you earn".
• Get Smart - covers trade-offs and opportunity costs related to both big and small decisions.
• Get Banked! The Banking Advantage - illustrates the importance of having banking relationship and reveals the costs of being "unbanked".
• Get the Credit You Deserve - demystifies credit and debt, showing how smart credit decision-making leads to a more fulfilling life.
• Get a Financial Plan - details various investing instruments and risk tolerance, plus much more.

With new funding from The Citigroup Foundation, the NCEE plans to conduct 100 workshops nationwide in select cities, reaching over 3,450 teachers, benefiting over 500,000 students each year.

"At Citigroup, we have found that Financial Education is one of the most effective and motivating tools to help people improve the quality of their lives," said Daria Sheehan, Vice President and Senior Program Officer, Citigroup Foundation. "That is why Financial Education is, and will continue to be, a major focus of our philanthropic efforts, business programs and employee volunteer activities in the years ahead. Working with NCEE allows us to help thousands of young people develop lifelong money management skills."

If you are a member of the media and would like to view Financing Your Future, please contact Naheed Elyasi at nelyasi@ncee.net.

For more information on Financing Your Future, visit http://financingyourfuture.ncee.net.

To purchase a copy, visit http://store.ncee.net/financingyourfuture.html.

About the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE)

The NCEE (www.ncee.net) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to improving economic and financial literacy. Both directly and through its unique nationwide network of state Councils and more than 200 university-based Centers for Economic Education, NCEE's programs reach more than 150,000 K-12 teachers and over 15 million students in more than 70,000 schools each year.