Getting Good Deals

How money-savvy are your kids? I remember my father telling a story he heard from a colleague. The man's son had gone off to college with a checkbook in hand. The young student assumed that as long as there were checks left in the checkbook, there was still money in the account. You can imagine how that turned out. Teens make up an enormous chunk of the consuming public these days. Advertisers bombard teens with products and services clearly designed for their tastes and interests, and sometimes pushing them in directions they didn't even know they wanted to go. Help your teen be a conscientious consumer. The Des Plaines Public Library is once again a partner with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago for Money Smart Week 2011, April 2-9. The library is hosting three Money Smart programs in April, one of which is Getting a Good Buy: A Money Smart Week Program for Teens. Professor Helen Roberts of the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Economic Education will present a workshop of educational games and information for students in grades 7-12. Participants will take an active part in learning why the items we want to buy sometimes cost so much more at one store than they do at another, why buying things like smartphone plans and computers makes you feel like you're comparing apples and oranges. In this workshop we will work on taking the frustration and mystery out of getting the best deal.