A century of good advice
Written on October 28, 2009 – 12:53 am | by admin
It’s said we should listen to our elders, and it’s more important than ever in these difficult times to listen to the advice of people who have lived through even harder times.
In honor of the 100th anniversary of credit unions in U.S., one group in Georgia has put together a 5-minute online video featuring seniors who share financial and life advice from their experience over the generations, intermixed with children from the Boys & Girls Club who talk about the advice they receive from their elders about how to be smart with money and in life.
The video is here: http://www.georgiacreditunions.org/100/index.php.
We can all learn a thing or two from watching it, and each of these seniors has an interesting backstory as well if you are interested in finding out more about them on a Facebook page set up for the video.
Connected to the video, 1,000 Georgians were also polled on their current savings and spending habits, and financial advice. We thought these also might be good fodder for chat among your readers. Here are some of the poll highlights:
- 53% say that either their mother or father was the biggest influence in their lives about money; The breakdown of those who chose father vs. mother was almost even: 27% said father, 26% said mother.
- Regarding the best advice they received, 44% cited “Save a little each paycheck no matter how small”; 23% cited “Credit is good, but pay off cards in full each month”; while 12% cited “Never buy on credit.”
- Asked about a time in their life when they were not good savers, 68% listed their 20s; 50% listed their teens; 44% listed their 30s; and 21% listed their 40s. A stronger focus on savings started in their 50s, with only 8% saying they were not good savers in that decade of their lives and steadily dropping in following decades.
- 65% of those polled say that their personal spending habits will be changed forever because of the current recession. While 61% think it will be difficult for our economy to come back as strong as it was before the recession, 27% optimistically think that the economy will come back stronger than ever.