Financial Literacy

More players have jumped into the financial literacy effort.

• Nike’s partnership aims at kids (Yahoo Finance).
• The Skimm’s new SkimmU is aimed at its largely female following (7 million subscribe to its daily news feed).

Economics

• Here is a great summary of where Janet Yellen stands on current top economic issues. (NYT)
• Last week’s first-time jobless claims dropped over 100,000 from the previous week. The number is still huge. (Yahoo Finance)
• Personal income spending rose in January. Stimulus checks may have had something to do with the rise. (NYT)
• Those looking for homes for added space or to take advantage of the low mortgage rates are finding few houses as inventory shrinks. (NYT-Upshot)
• The minimum wage will not be part of the Covid Relief Bill. (CNBC)
• But if you are still interested into the debate over the merits of an increase, here is a “pro” argument from the Washington Post suggesting it won’t cost as many jobs as the OMB forecast.
• And Costco is going to raise its minimum wage to $16. NPR explains Costco’s reasoning.
• The Fed had some technical issues this week with the system that moves money between banks. (CNBC)

Investing

• Need help discouraging students from day trading? Check out this one from Tony Isola’s “Teachable Moment.” (from today's Ritholz Reads)
• Bonds can be complicated to understand, as yields and prices move in opposite directions. They are perceived as less risky investments, but there is still risk. This Humble Dollar article does a good job of explaining it all.
• Dave Portnoy inverviews Robinhood’s Vlad Tenev . (MarketWatch)
• GameStop stock is still going nuts. (CNN)
• The markets may have done really well overall these last several years, but college endowments? Not so much. (Inside Higher Education)

Cryptocurrency

• NPR’s 1-A tackled the subject of cryptocurrency this week and did a good job of explaining it to a broad audience. Here is a link to the 30ish minute show.

ICYMI

This is a very cool animation from Visual Capitalist on global wealth and health over the last 200 years.

About the Author

Beth Tallman

Beth Tallman entered the working world armed with an MBA in finance and thoroughly enjoyed her first career working in manufacturing and telecommunications, including a stint overseas. She took advantage of an involuntary separation to try teaching high school math, something she had always dreamed of doing. When fate stepped in once again, Beth jumped on the opportunity to combine her passion for numbers, money, and education to develop curriculum and teach personal finance at Oberlin College. Beth now spends her time writing on personal finance and financial education, conducts student workshops, and develops finance curricula and educational content. She is also the Treasurer of Ohio Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy.