Financial Literacy/Advocacy

• Here is a snapshot of the state of financial education in the US by none other than NGPF Fellows, Courtney Poquette and Kayla Bousom, along with NGPF co-founder Tim Ranzetta. (MarketWatch)
• Arizona State Treasurer discusses the importance of financial education. (Personal Finance curriculum is part of the economics course Arizona high school students must pass to graduate.) (USA Today-AZ Central)
• Employers are now filling the financial literacy gap with twice as many offering financial wellness programs as in 2015, according to findings of the Bank of America’s 2019 Workplace Benefits Report. (BusinessWire)

Economics

• The Federal Reserve Bank lowered the target interest rate by 25 basis points this week for the second time. Read about what this means to most people. (Bankrate.com)
• Historically, the stock market has responded positively to two rate cuts of 25 basis points.

• The Business Roundtable Third Quarter Economic Outlook Index dropped over 10 points from last quarter.

Investing

• Not sure if this is surprising, given all the talk about index funds, but the amount invested in index funds just surpassed the total invested in managed funds. (WSJ)  Check out Tim's blog on this.

Paying for College/Student Loans

• This Inside Higher Education article discussing a request made by the Governor of New Mexico to the legislature to fund a scholarship to make public college education free clearly articulates the distinction between “first dollar” and “last dollar” scholarship programs. First-dollar might help low-income students, but the last-dollar (filling any remaining gap), which is what is being proposed, does not.
• Michelle Singletary of the Washington Post makes an argument for why you should prioritize paying off your student loans before worrying about saving for retirement, counter to the advice of many others. Her reasoning is that downplaying the debt often leads to it snowballing.

Careers

• Degrees are not necessarily needed or helpful for today’s careers., so why do employers still want you to have one? This theme was prevalent in the most recent “What’s New With Careers.” (Washington Post)
• Given the hot job market, the new problem employers face is new hires “ghosting” them. (CNN)

Credit

• Millennials have more credit card debt than student debt. (CNBC) So it is not surprising that Millennials are very stressed out about money. (Financial Brand) 

Retirement

• NextAvenue takes a closer look at the increasing trend of retirees working past retirement and the reasons why this is happening.

About the Author