Meet the Money Monsters

March 8, 2023 7:29 PM

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has an extensive set of resources for teaching financial literacy to K-12 students . For the youngest kids, they have a series of books featuring the Money Monsters, where kids can learn about various facets of financial literacy.
posted by rockindata (21 comments total)

There are also a number of printed materials available, including stickers
posted by rockindata at 7:38 PM on March 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

I feel like this is disrespectful to the real money monsters who run private equity firms, hedge funds, and brokerages
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:28 PM on March 8, 2023 [16 favorites]

If nothing else, I am delighted to be reminded of a time when the GPO used to advertise their publications on TV. "Write to PO Box blah blah, Pueblo, Colorado". I think stuff like that helped make people feel like the federal government actually did useful stuff.

I'm definitely going to have to see about getting some stickers for my niece.
posted by wierdo at 8:38 PM on March 8, 2023 [9 favorites]

Is there an online clock showing a countdown to a hypothetical date/time when DeSantis blocks this from being available in Florida?
posted by hippybear at 8:49 PM on March 8, 2023 [10 favorites]

Stickers are free. They seem to be 2" circles with things printed on them. May or may not be exciting. Maybe taking some fine scissors to them might make them better.

But they are free. Because Pueblo, CO.
posted by hippybear at 8:51 PM on March 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Is there an online clock showing a countdown to a hypothetical date/time when DeSantis blocks this from being available in Florida?

Can't. Sovereign immunity.
posted by praemunire at 8:52 PM on March 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Also, a quantity of 1 of the stickers is 5 sheets, so 5 sets of 8.

They say you can order 200 quantities of each publication.

Having like 1600 stickers is also an elevating thing.
posted by hippybear at 8:53 PM on March 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

On the one hand this is super neat and I appreciate it! On the other hand, you can't financial literacy your way out of not having enough money and the rent being too damn high. I think there are people who push the idea of financial literacy, some in good faith and some in bad faith, as a way to make collective, societal problems the responsibility of individuals to solve for themselves, much like the idea of an individual "carbon footprint" makes individuals feel responsible for the global problem of climate change. Doing what you can as an individual is great! But you can't budget your way out of simply not making enough money to survive.
posted by an octopus IRL at 6:33 AM on March 9, 2023 [7 favorites]

This is a great initiative, and we need more like it. BRB, ordering pamphlets and stickers to give to everyone I know. So cool!
posted by cupcakeninja at 6:58 AM on March 9, 2023

Eeeeh, if you can do a budget, it can't hurt. Yeah, rent may be too damn high but in the unicorns and rainbows case it comes down, you'll have a skill. And if it doesn't, at least you'll know your rent really is too damn high and it wasn't just avocado toast.
posted by kingdead at 7:06 AM on March 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

Financial literacy might not be able to keep people from being vampirized by large organizations, but if it helps keep them away from smaller organizations like MLMs, it's something.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 7:26 AM on March 9, 2023 [9 favorites]

Financial literacy is required for graduation at the high school where I work, I'll send this along to the teacher.
posted by subdee at 7:32 AM on March 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

We took a look, and my kid would like to recommend a better series: the New York Federal Reserve comic books. We got the first two books in the series during a tour of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve building, and Once Upon a Dime is my kid’s favorite of the two (aliens invent a monetary system so they can buy ice cream). He is psyched that they’ve released more in the series, and we just ordered the rest for free via the link above.
posted by Maarika at 7:42 AM on March 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

100% Nancy Lebovitz. I get (and agree with) the calls to improve the system, but in the meanwhile there are people who are dramatically changing the course of their lives for the worse because they lack basic skills and knowledge. It shouldn't be that way.
posted by cupcakeninja at 7:59 AM on March 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Maarika: I've got a kid who wrote on his introduce-yourself-to-your-5th-grade-class poster that he wanted to be an economist. I just ordered all of those comic books -- thank you for the link!
posted by shirobara at 8:15 AM on March 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

It always galls me to think how financial literacy was the single biggest hole in my pre-college education in the US, and I went to some damn good public and private schools. Inexcusable.
posted by gottabefunky at 8:54 AM on March 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

On the other hand, you can't financial literacy your way out of not having enough money and the rent being too damn high. I think there are people who push the idea of financial literacy, some in good faith and some in bad faith, as a way to make collective, societal problems the responsibility of individuals to solve for themselves,

This can be the case, but...did you miss that the CFPB is literally the government agency trying to solve through (by definition) collective, societal means some of these collective, societal problems?
posted by praemunire at 9:16 AM on March 9, 2023 [7 favorites]

"Write to PO Box blah blah, Pueblo, Colorado"

I recently had to explain to my son the reference to Pueblo, Colorado in The Dead Milkmen's song "Stuart."
posted by ZenMasterThis at 10:43 AM on March 9, 2023

Wow, thanks for both of these links. I've been looking for some additional materials for a kids program on money. I can recommend the MoneyBunnies books for your picture book audience working on those basic concepts.
posted by blnkfrnk at 11:33 AM on March 9, 2023

Further to praemunire's point, it takes some broad financial literacy to have an electorate that can diagnose our problems well enough to look for probable fixes. Without that, NFTs sound a lot more appealing than Piketty’s tax plan, etc.
posted by clew at 11:54 AM on March 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Innumeracy
posted by Artful Codger at 3:20 PM on March 9, 2023