By: Randall P. Hallier CFP®
October 1, 2003

The third biennial survey of financial literacy finds 68.1% of high school seniors with failing scores. The national survey of over 4000 12th graders conducted by the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, found an average score of just 50.2% on a practical 31 multiple-choice financial examination. Although adolescents identified parents as their primary source of financial information, 56% of parents could name only one example of specific financial advice provided to their child. Interestingly, 81% of parents who said they do a fair to poor job of managing their own money still consider themselves effective in giving their children financial advice. Complete PDF

By: Randall P. Hallier, CFP®
January 1, 2004

With the holidays behind us, those fond memories could soon be overshadowed by credit card bills. With interest rates at near record lows, has this helped or hurt consumers?

Personal bankruptcy filings set a record pace in 2003 with the third quarter of 2003 as the highest filing quarter in history. For the period ending June 30th, 2003 The American Bankruptcy Institute noted that personal bankruptcy filings totaled 1,613,097, an all-time high for any 12-month period. Up some 10% from the 1,466,105 cases filed by June 2002. Complete PDF

By: Randall P. Hallier, CFP®
March 1, 2004

With the recent death of William Roth, sponsor of the IRA by his name, perhaps it’s time to revisit this often overlooked investment tool to see where the U.S. investing public stands on its use for retirement accumulation.

With the introduction of Roth IRA legislation in 1997 came the opportunity for millions of Americans to accumulate retirement dollars on a tax-free basis and look forward to years, possibly even decades of income-tax-free income. Given this advantage, why is it that only about 1 in 5 Americans who are eligible to use a Roth IRA are doing so? Complete PDF