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Paying Bills is NOT a Money Issue

Discover why paying bills isn't just about having money. This easy-to-read booklet not only provides basic information on different ways to pay bills, it provides useful information on staying organized, managing bills on a low income, and how to create a budget that lets you buy what you want. This book is short, filled with pictures and easy to read. Appropriate for teens and adults.

Do you understand all the talk about the economic crisis? Neither did I, until I listened to a very good radio show. This American Life airs an hour long show weekly about various people in America. Listen to their latest show about the banking system. They very clearly explain the economic mess this country has gotten in to.

If you want to have a plain, clear explanation of how the Banking System came into trouble, listen to this show. It's free and the information is invaluable.

Bad Bank (click on title and "Full Episode" to listen to show for free)

Aired 2/27/2009

The collapse of the banking system explained, in just 59 minutes. Our crack economics team—the guys who explained the mortgage crisis, Alex Blumberg and NPR's Adam Davidson—are back to help all of us understand the news. For instance, when we talk about an insolvent bank, what does it actually mean, and why are we giving hundreds of billions of dollars to rich bankers who screwed up their own businesses? Also, two guys go to New Jersey to look at a toxic asset.

What are we teaching??

There are two main issues that I noticed when I got into this financial education world, 1) there is already a TON of educational material out there on personal finance, and 2) most people don't read it. It's a shame really, because there is a lot of good information out there. But the truth is, if you're sitting down reading about how to "Pay More Attention to Your Financial Life" you're probably already paying attention to your financial life.

How do we reach all the people that don't want to think about their finances? Those are the people that don't save, go shopping instead of paying a bill, or use money as a way to stroke their ego. How do you get them to open a book on paying bills and budgeting?

Keep it short

Would you read a 200 page text book on how to budget and pay bills? I wouldn't either. When someone hands me a book, I've already determined in my mind if this is something that's going to take me awhile to read or if this is something I can flip through quickly. If it's going to take me awhile, I better want to read it. Most people do not want to read about how to manage their money. You have to make the book short, easy-to-read, and to the point.

Add a lot of pictures

Sounds juvenile, right? But studies have been done showing how visual learning impacts retention. And many people will agree that if someone's not going to read the text portions of a book, they'll flip through and look at the pictures. So I think you should make sure the pictures tell a great story.

Relevant topics

Now this is one significant problem with a lot of the education material out there that teaches personal finance. The topics are horrible! "How the Banking System Works", "What is Discretionary Income", "How to Calculate Your Net Worth". Many people can go their whole lives, managing their personal finances just fine without knowing the answers to these questions. Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't teach these things, but somehow we've missed teaching topics people really need to know, "The Difference Between Saying Debit and Credit", "How to Stay Organized so Bills Get Paid", "Which Credit Card Should I Pay Off First?".

Start Money Smart, Inc. has designed programs that address these exact issues and is prepared to teach them to adults as well as teens. For more topics on what we teach read our blog at StartMoneySmart.blogspot.com.