An online story today from eurweb.com.

*Operation HOPE released survey data this week demonstrating that African American high school students have lower levels of financial literacy compared to their white counterparts.       

       Eighty percent of African-American high school students failed a multiple choice examination which measures the ability to make informed financial choices, compared to 54.6 percent of white students.

The report, available online at www.operationhope.org, also states that financial literacy for African American students is related to income and that African American students are better spenders then savers.       

       Statistics showed that:

• African American students from the lowest income families had a financial literacy score of 40.7 percent and African American students from the highest income families had a score of 50.5 percent.

• African American students scored 37.7 percent on Money Management, 36.6 percent on Savings but 50 percent on Spending.

       "The key is not necessarily making more money, but making better decisions with the money you make, and we are not yet demonstrating as a group of people that we understand this important distinction," said John Hope Bryant, founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE. "In a 21st century increasingly defined by an economic agenda here and around the world, we must begin to get our relationship right with money and the free enterprise system. Poverty is our new enemy, and we must build upon successes with civil rights to include what I call a new ‘silver rights’ passion, agenda and focus."

       As part of his Silver Rights Campaign for financial literacy and education, Bryant provides the following five tips for students, high school or college, to better manage their money:

1. Stay in School. Education is the ultimate poverty eradication tool next to love of family, to enrich one’s self- image, self-confidence, and self-esteem. Research has shown that college graduates earn almost twice as much as high school graduates. Your college degree is now the new high school degree in the 21st century. Not having a college degree is an economic death sentence and too many kids are dropping out of high school.

2. Get a Job. Explore summer jobs and internships in the field of your interest. Gain experience in the "real world."

3. Budget. Get your priorities straight. Don’t focus on your wants, focus on your needs.

4. Save. Practice the 10 percent rule. If you make $1,000, pretend that it is $900 and save $100 in a savings or investment account. You can become a millionaire from 17 to age 65 simply by investing $100 per month in a moderately indexed investment account.

5. Save to Buy a Home. Save to buy a house in a low-wealth neighborhood before you rent an apartment you don’t own in an upscale one. A home provides security and gains value over time.

       For more information on Operation HOPE, Banking on Our Future, the "silver rights" movement campaigns, and this downloadable Operation HOPE commissioned report on African-American youth financial literacy log onto http://www.operationhope.org.       

       The survey was commissioned by Operation HOPE with data by the Jump$tart Coalition

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