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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005

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AFSAEF Identified as Recipient of a $200,000 Grant
in the U.S. Department of Education Appropriations Act

According to this legislation, AFSAEF will receive the grant under the Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIE) program for MoneySKILL, an online personal finance curriculum aimed at the millions of high school students who graduate each year without an understanding of credit cards, budgeting, insurance or other money management fundamentals.

MoneySKILL, aims to make the learning process more interesting and enjoyable by providing hands-on exercises and activities. Within the course's general content areas—which include income, expenses, assets, liabilities and risk management—students learn fundamentals such as the effect of income taxes on take-home pay, using credit cards, how buying a car compares with leasing one, understanding different types of insurance and the costs and benefits of borrowing. MoneySKILL's primary audience is young adults between the ages of 16-20, with outreach to include some people connected to the military, such as first-time soldiers and children of active duty personnel. MoneySKILL also includes two real-life simulations which allow creation of a personal, financial plan from the time a student is financially independent of parents to the intended age of retirement. This feature asks students to envision what they expect to get out of life—such as what kind of jobs, what kind of neighborhoods, what type of house they want to live in, and what kind of cars they plan to buy. The program calculates after-tax income and total expenses and shows whether or not the student's plan is viable. If it is not, the student goes to the "crash and burn" module to make repairs. After the last module is completed, the student must pass a final simulation in which he/she must maintain a positive net worth from the time student loans expire until retirement.

 

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