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YouthUSA Economic Beneficiaries can bank $500 or more
when your Whole Village completes FDIC Money Smart CBI
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By Eric Stradford, U.S. Marine Corps,
Retired
AMWS April
19, 2017, Atlanta -- If you’ve been distracted by national demands for
transparency, you may miss one opportunity for bi-partisan engagement. Representatives
Steve Stivers (R-OH) and Joyce Beatty (D-OH), co-chair the Financial and Economic Literacy
Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. In case you missed it in national
news reports, April is National Financial Literacy Month.
YouthUSA has
called on the bank that holds its money and the agency that insures it to PAY
ATTENTION! YouthUSA is looking to a few good professionals, employed by our
bank and government agencies like FDIC, for a little help with low income
Americans hoping to be less poor.
“This week
in the news, the temporal economy of former NFL star Aaron Hernandez allegedly
ended in suicide. Hernandez played for
the New England Patriots as a tight end and in 2013 had an estimated net worth
of $8 million. Since they’re talking
about it in the news, we figured a life’s lesson in financial literacy might be
appropriate,” said Stephanie A. Stradford, CEO for Youth Achievers USA
Institute.
We’ve all
heard the axiom, TIME IS MONEY. Winners
at YouthUSA are reading between the lines to assess their own value as assets
instead of liabilities to the American economy.
As winners, they’re applying time and money realities to goals for
lifelong learning and earning. To win,
they’ll need to MAKE time and not WASTE time, USE time and not LOSE time by
DOING time.
Aaron
Michael Hernandez was born on November 6, 1989 in Bristol, Connecticut. He died
April 18, 2017. Two dates and a dash in
between pretty much sums up his temporal economy. By 2015, Attorney John Fitzpatrick was
speaking for Hernandez. According to
Fitzpatrick, Hernandez, who was convicted in April in the 2013 murder of Odin
Lloyd, “is low on money as his legal fees are piling up.” Reports say Hernandez was paid for only one
year of his terminated $40 million contract with the Patriots.
Despite the
reported prison suicide, his former teammates of the Super Bowl Champion New
England Patriots visited the White House, today. Somebody had to say something, but nobody
wanted to state the obvious. Neither Hernandez
nor President Donald Trump would be releasing their federal income tax returns
for the 2016 tax year.
Since so many
young people desire to become instant millionaires and billionaires, perhaps
it's time for us all to learn more about money instead of just spending it. Earlier
this year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) rolled out a new
and improved version of Money Smart to help make financial education more
accessible. YouthUSA and other partners
affiliated through the FDIC Money Smart Alliance are stepping up efforts to
make business as usual a practice of the past.
It’s been
more than a decade since YouthUSA CEO Stephanie A. Walker Stradford met with
FDIC’s Penny King to partner on FDIC Financial Literacy. YouthUSA’s commitment was to promote Money
Smart CBI to engage YouthUSA beneficiaries across the U.S. in financial
literacy. Mrs. Stradford traveled to
churches throughout the six state Atlanta Federal Reserve Region looking for
low income Americans in need of economic inclusion. Most of the caring adults had no clue as to
what Economic Inclusion meant on Our Streets, USA.
According to
the 2015 FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households 7.0
percent of U.S. households were unbanked, meaning that no one in the household
had a checking or savings account.
Approximately
9.0 million U.S. households, made up of 15.6 million adults and 7.6 million
children, were reportedly unbanked. The most recent survey was administered in
June 2015 in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau, collecting responses from
more than 36,000 households. The survey provides estimates of the pro-portion
of U.S. households that do not have an account at an insured institution, and
the proportion that have an account but obtained (nonbank) alternative
financial services in the past 12 months. The survey also provides insights that
may inform efforts to better meet the needs of these consumers within the
banking system.
Helping unbanked
and underbanked Americans enter the economic mainstream promotes a noble
thought, but as the history reveals, it’s not easy. First introduced in 1991,
the Assets for Independence Act (AFIA) worked its way through several sessions
of Congress, finally passing in 1998. The 105th Congress appropriated $105
million to fund IDAs over the course of 5 years. AFI was the “largest federal
funder of IDA programs” awarding grants to more than 400 non-profits and
government programs. More than 84,000 families received some sort of assistance
from AFI through the IDA and financial education programs. Over 40% of these
families have been able to “join the economic mainstream” through the purchase
of assets.
The process
of applying, and receiving grants can be improved by reducing administrative
costs, clarifying specific sponsor organization and defining the grant process
from congressional appropriation to an individual IDA.
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