Capital One Views Annual Back-To-School Ritual As an Occasion for Money Management Education
Capital One Partners with Jump$tart Coalition to Provide Money Tips
As summer draws to a close, parents and teens alike will be hitting the stores for back-to-school shopping. According to Capital One's second annual back-to-school supply survey, parents will spend an average of $97 on school supplies this year, down from $118 last year. Although teens plan to contribute an additional $45 to the overall budget, 44% of parents still feel pressure to spend in excess of the family's back-to-school supplies budget. With three out of four teens looking to their parents for personal financial guidance, back-to-school shopping is a pivotal financial rite of passage effecting the way teens manage their current and future financial picture."Back-to-school shopping is a wonderful opportunity for parents to engage teens in a real-life experience that allows them to put their money management skills to the test," says Diana Don, Director of Financial Education at Capital One. "With teens making budgeting and purchasing decisions alongside their parents, the act of back-to-school shopping helps build openness with money issues and strengthen the parental role of financial educator."
In an effort to help teens and parents empower themselves with the knowledge they need to develop sound financial practices, Capital One offers consumer education resources. The company provides easy-to-follow fact sheets that address issues such as budgeting and saving. All materials are available free online at http://www.capitalone.com/credit101. For additional online resources, parents and teens can visit http://www.jumpstart.org and search the "clearinghouse" for curriculum and education materials from the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, a non-profit group dedicated to raising financial literacy among young adults.
What Role Do Teens Play in Back-to-School Shopping?
To contribute to their family's back-to-school budget, 44% of teens stash money away in the summer months for their back-to-school purchases. Seventy- seven percent of teens say they just buy the basic things they need for school, and 16% of teens surveyed want to be trendsetters, having all the newest, coolest items. Top school supplies for 2002-03 include frosted 3-ring binders (67%), gel roller pens (24%), "The Osbournes" backpacks (24%), neon "Dr. Grip" pens (18%), jelly pens (16%) and sparkle pencils (14%).
What Do Parents Face When Shopping for Back-to-School?
Thirty-six percent of teens and parents consider the time they spend together back-to-school shopping as "quality time."
"Involving teens in the back-to-school budget planning process provides them with a glimpse into the reasoning behind why their parents have set certain budget parameters," added Dara Duguay, Executive Director of the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy. "Building the budget together offers an opportunity for parents to encourage their teen to contribute their own money to help fill the gap between the 'I needs' and the 'I wants'."
From Where Do Teens Learn Their Money Management Skills?
Nearly all teenagers (93%) say that they learn about money management from their family at home. Even more significant, when asked from where they wanted to learn money management skills, 76% of teens resoundingly chose their parents. Believe it or not, 2 percent of teens actually look to CNN financial advisor Lou Dobbs as their preferred source of financial information; though it seems like a small portion, it still represents about 306,000 U.S. teens.
Only a small number of teens indicated that they have ever taken a complete course in economics (21%) or money management (9%). Luckily, nearly a third (30%) of teenagers have had at least a week of class in school devoted to money management.
"The average high-school graduate lacks basic skills in personal finance management, from managing a budget to balancing a checkbook," says Duguay. "It is important for parents to encourage their teens to enroll in Personal Finance courses offered at school, as well as supplement their teen's curriculum with day-to-day lessons in saving, budgeting and spending, to ensure their financial success."
Survey Methodology
Capital One's back-to-school study was conducted by ICR/International Communications Research of Media, PA. The survey was conducted among a random nationwide sample of 509 teenagers (aged 12-17) and 536 heads of households where a teen (aged 12-17) is present. The margin of error was +/- 3 percent.
About Capital One
Headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) (http://www.capitalone.com) is a holding company whose principal subsidiaries, Capital One Bank and Capital One, F.S.B., offer consumer lending products. Capital One's subsidiaries collectively had 48.6 million customers and $53.2 billion in managed loans outstanding as of June 30, 2002. Capital One, a Fortune 500 company, is one of the largest providers of MasterCard and Visa credit cards in the world. Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "COF" and is included in the S&P 500 index.
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SOURCE Capital One Financial Corporation
CONTACT: Diana Don of Capital One, +1-703-205-1165 or
diana.don@capitalone.com; or Jennifer Butler of MS&L, +1-212-213-7061 or
jennifer.butler@mslpr.com, for Capital One Financial Corporation
URL: http://www.capitalone.com
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