Friday, June 18, 2010

Real Estate Financial Myths Exposed

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has some very useful educational resources for kids in Elementary, Middle and High School at: http://www.stlouisfed.org/education_resources/ 

Browsing through their website, I came across a good article which, at the time, should have been heeded by everyone who got caught up in the real-estate frenzy.  This is good reading material for High School Students.  The article could open up some additional discussions in a sense that some areas in the country are showing signs of house flipping trends once more.

Please consider: Just Sign Here: Bottom-Line Personal Finance Myths

The article goes on to dispel the following 3 Myths:

Myth #1: "All that matters is your monthly payment."
Myth #2: "Rising house prices make us all richer."
Myth #3: "It's always better to buy than to rent."

Reviewing these 3 myths with your children would be a good way to start a discussion on how to improve their financial IQ.  As the table below shows, statistics indicate that US households do a rather poor job at demonstrating basic financial literacy skills.  Hopefully the ongoing discussion with your kids will make an improvement for future statistics.

FinLitStats

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