HSFPP Update # 237—Millionaires Who Give To Other

Kentucky High School Financial Planning Home Page

HSFPP Update # 237—Millionaires Who Give To Others

Message from Bob: This is our last financial lesson for the 2009–2010 school year. However, we need your help to bring Kentucky’s award-winning High School Financial Planning Program to more teens. If you are a Family & Consumer Sciences teacher, please let teachers in other disciplines know about the weekly financial lessons you receive from our listserv. If you are on our listserv to receive our updates and video lessons, please let your Family & Consumer Sciences teacher or other teachers know about the HSFPP, which provides a teacher’s manual, as well as a free 120-page workbook for every teen in the course.

To order HSFPP materials for your classes or 4-H club, go to the following page of NEFE’s Web site and register as a user; once you’ve registered with NEFE, you can order materials free course materials from them:

http://hsfpp.nefe.org/instructors/10.cfm?pathinfo=/instructors/index2.cfm&deptid=22

I recommend that you order the materials before you go home for the summer so you will have them ready when school starts. It could take around two months for your program material to arrive.

We’ve been sending these update lessons since 2001, so we feel it’s time for a formal survey of those who use our lessons. In order to carry this program into the future, we need to know from you how you use our program, how useful you think it is, and how we can improve it to make it more useful to you. Any changes we’ve made over the years have been a result of your comments, though we would like to hear from you more often.

Our survey will go out via e-mail in June. It should take no more than two minutes. Please take the time to respond and let us know how we can serve you better!

Message from Claire: Most of the HSFPP’s lessons have focused on how to earn money and handle finances. This week we want to take a different approach; this lesson will elaborate on what to do with your finances after personal goals have been met. In particular, there will be an emphasis on how to share personal financial gains with others.

Academic Expectations:

Social Studies
Academic Expectation 2.18
Students understand economic principles and are able to make economic decisions that have consequences in daily living.
Units 2-6

Academic Expectation 2.33
Students demonstrate the skills to evaluate and use services and Expectation resources available in their community.
Units 2-7

Practical Living
Academic Expectation 1.2
Students make sense of the variety of materials they read.
Units 1-7

Web Site Pick of the Week:

“Find a Charity You Can Trust”

http://www.charitynavigator.org/

This site provides information on over 5,500 American charities. It also includes advice on how to donate and what specific areas especially need charitable giving. Furthermore, recent news articles are provided to illustrate noteworthy contributions to charities and particular areas that need further support.

In the New$...Congratulations, You’re Rich! Now What?

by Claire Kimberly, family studies graduate student, University of Kentucky

People face financial challenges every day. For example, when someone shops at a grocery store, they might face a personal dilemma about how much of their paycheck they should spend that day. Vacations and holidays can also form tension among family members because of the strain these events might have on finances. Still, some earners are able to surpass these challenges and earn a large amount of money; enough, at least, that they can live comfortably. When you’ve surpassed your financial goals, though, one question will probably come up: what do you do with all this money you now have? Here’s one example.

A woman passed away her to accumulate a large sum of money over the years: $7 million. She donated the entire amount to her alma mater, Lake Forest College. Another multimillionaire sold all his assets to set up funds for the needy in Central and South America. The founder of Habitat for Humanity—a popular organization that builds homes for the homeless—was a millionaire by Age 30 and donated a vast amount of his earnings to help provide housing for those who needed it (msnmoney.com).

The sad reality is that most of us will not become multimillionaires. However, those who do choose to help others vary greatly in their financial status. You don’t have to be rich to help someone else. In fact, if only the wealthy helped others, we would be in far worse shape as a society. Over the years, Americans of all walks of life have shown themselves to be highly generous. If you find yourself feeling generous, however, the process of choosing a charity can be overwhelming. Here are a few tips to begin your search:

What areas are you passionate about supporting? For example, if you feel that the autistic community deserves additional help, you might begin by researching the various organizations that support this particular cause.

After selecting a few charities you are interested in, look to see if the charity suggests a particular amount of money to donate. For example, a charity for feeding children in another country might state that $5 could feed a child for a week. This could assist you in deciding your final amount to donate.

Be sure to consider how your donation is obtained and spent. Unfortunately, there are charities that will falsify information and spend your money on something you did not intend them to spend it on. Make sure to research the authenticity of the organization and the individuals you are dealing with.

Find out whether your company or organization provides matching funds for charitable contributions. You might find that your employer will double the amount you give, which will help you give even more.

Finally, before donating the initial amount of money, consider how often or for how long you would look to support this particular organization. This information could be used to assist you in getting a better tax benefit at the end of the year.

Sources:

Struyk, Tara. (2010, March 16). Millionaires Who Gave It Away. Investopedia. Retrieved May 25, 2010, from MSN Money: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/RetirementandWills/EscapeTheRatRace/millionaires-who-gave-it-away.aspx?GT1=33013.

Discussion Questions:

What charities do you know about? Are there particular charities that draw your interest?

What benefits come from donating to a charity? Are the benefits only financial, or are there others, as well?

If you wanted to donate money to a charity, where could you go to do it?

Take-Home Activity:

Select a charity from the listings on the following Web site: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.alpha. Be sure to research the general charity, not just one in a particular geographic area (e.g., Habitat for Humanity, rather than Kentucky Habitat for Humanity). After selecting a charity, answer the following questions:

What is the problem the charity is focusing on?

What population does the charity seem to focus on (e.g., adults, children, etc.)?

If you donate to the charity, how will your money be used? How much of it will be spent on administrative and fundraising costs, and how much on helping others?

Check to see if your charity is on the BBB Wise Giving Alliance (www.bbb.org/charity). This Web site lists charities that meet strict standards and should, therefore, spend your donation wisely.

Be ready to discuss your findings next time.

Kentucky High School Financial Planning Program

http://www.ca.uky.edu/hes/fcs/hsfp

The purpose of the HSFPP financial updates, video lessons, and Web site is to assist county Extension agents, credit union educators, high school teachers, and parents who home school their teenagers so that they may improve the economic well-being of our teenagers; and also to show educators how the HSFPP, updates, and video lessons meet Kentucky core concepts. The Web site, updates, and video lessons are provided by the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, and are free to all educators. The list of core concepts and order form for free program materials including the student guide and instructors manual can be found on the Kentucky HSFPP home page.

If you are not already on our listserv:

The video lessons are available only to members of our listserv and will not be posted to the HSFPP Web site because of the timeliness of the information. If you would like to receive our video lessons, which are sent to our listserv biweekly, on alternate weeks from these updates, please sign up at the following page of our Web site: http://www.ca.uky.edu/HES/fcs/HSFP/response.htm.

Please note, this page is no longer being updated. Please go to our New Blog for current information.