Did You Know?

K4M wants to reveal some disturbing statistics that will affect our youth's financial stability.

• In 1968, consumers’ total credit card debt was $8 billion (in current dollars). In 2006 it was $879 billion and in 2007 it is $904 billion.

• The average interest rate for standard bank credit cards topped 19% in March 2007, compared to 16.5% in 2003.

• A growing 66% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck

• Today, 18-24 year olds represent the fastest growing age group filing for bankruptcy.

• Bankruptcy filings reached all time highs in 2005 exceeding more than 2,000,000 individuals. This represented an increase of more than 28% from the previous year.
• The personal savings rate in the U.S. has declined sharply from 7.6% in the mid-80s to less than 1% in 2006.

• U.S. consumers racked up an estimated $51 billion worth of fast food on their personal credit and debit cards in 2006, compared to $33.2 billion one-year ago.

• 40% of Americans spend more than they make

The idea of the North American Union is a collective effort of Canada, Mexico, and the United States that merges the three countries under one economic roof.

• The NAU will work out very well for American companies who will finally have an open field to employ cheap labor from other countries, but the NAU will hurt the job market for American citizens during this transition and there will be some residual.

• The US government will have to find money to re-educate those US citizens affected by technological advances in a global job market.

• Globalization will create a world competition for US employment among professionals and nonprofessionals.

• Globalization has depleted the blue collar employment to a modest estimate of 2 to 5% so far. Unfortunately, these numbers are usually in areas where the depleting industry controls much of the local economy.

• The cost of rapidly changing technology will accelerate as globalization creates greater competion in the industry. Our youth are already use to keeping up with the latest in technology. This will be an added cost to their living expenses as Americans develop a greater dependency to keep up.

• Globalization will demand an open mind to adjust to changing times, a lesson seldom taught in our public schools.

As the public school system grows further beneath the complexity of the Federal government, many are uncertain of the benefit our youth will receive.

• Unfortunately, standardized testing is designed to meet quotas, not offer quality education. This puts a damper on allowing creativity, critical thinking and the real world of economics. Great teachers often have their hands tied in the process of education.

• Pages of colorful appeal has too often replaces pages of explanation in more recently released text books.
  

We would like to hear your concerns for our youth's future in finances.