Financial Literacy Now: New York

Campaign for Financial Literacy

Online Financial Resources

Banking and Credit
Bonds
Campaign Lead Partners
College Savings Plans
Common Stock: Education
Common Stock: Exchanges
Common Stock: Prices
ETFs
General Literacy and Education Sites
Identity Theft
Mortgages
Mutual Funds
Retirement

General Literacy and Education Sites

• www.federalreserveeducation.org
  Lesson Plans, publications, activities grades k thru 12 on topics such as personal finance, banking, money and economics
• www.wiseupwomen.org
  Basic Classes in Banking, Savings and Credit concepts
• www.360financialliteracy.org
  Everything you need to understand about your finances and did not know who to ask
• www.investoreducation.org
  A portal to all of the best finance and investing sites, searchable by topic of interest. Index of latest papers is visible on left hand column
• www.investopedia.com
  Dictionary of all investment and financial terms. A great place to start
• www.finrafoundation.org/sai/.
  Military Financial Education, information on a wide variety of topics
  including credit management and duty station changes.
  Project and Save and Invest 55+  reduce the incidence of investment fraud
  among investors 55+
• https://www.socialsecurity.gov/woundedwarriors/
  Information about returning to work and disability benefits.
• http://69.0.254.19/wwMS/english/main.htm
  FDIC Money Smart (English) Online financial education
• http://69.0.254.19/wwMS/spanish/main.htm
  FDIC Money Smart (Spanish) Online financial education
• http://chicagofed.org/webpages/banking/consumer_banking/index.cfm
  Contains links to a variety of agencies and tools intenden to a Consumers navigate an increasingly complicated banking landscape.
• http://www.nyc.gov/html/ofe/html/home/home.shtml
  Office of Financial Empowerment: Budgets, banking, loans and taxes! This site will show you ways to Get , Manage , Save , and Protect your money , provide important information about Debt and Credit , and help you Find a Class or Counselor .
• http://www.nysemoneysense.com
  A credible resource for basic financial education to help people better understand and manage their personal finances.
• www.MyMoney.gov
  The U.S. government's website dedicated to teaching all Americans the basics about financial education. Whether you are buying a home, balancing your checkbook, or investing in your 401(k), the resources on MyMoney.gov can help you maximize your financial decisions. Throughout the site, you will find important information from 20 Federal agencies and Bureaus designed to help you make smart financial choices.

Banking and Credit

• www.fdic.gov
  Find out how FDIC deposit insurance works and determine if your savings and investments are insured. Learn about Consumer Protection including credit and debit card issues.
• www.fdic.gov/edie/index.html
  Calculate your FDIC insurance coverage
• www.bankrate.com
  Compare interest rates for checking, savings accounts, prepaid cards, credit cards, secured credit cards and other loans.  Calculate your estimated payments.
• www.interest.com
  Compare interest rates on CD savings, auto loans, and credit cards and more. Calculate your estimated payments
• www.foxway.com
  Free budget planning worksheets
• www.creditcardguide.com
  Compare credit card offers and costs. Helps you to find the “best” credit card for you
• www.calculatorweb.com/
  Determine credit card payment schedules
• http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/moneymatters/credit-cards.shtml
  Helpful information about credit cards and debt as well as credit card scams and how to avoid them.
• http://www.usdirectexpress.com/edcfdtclient/index.html
  A Prepaid Debit Card for Social Security Recipients who do not have bank accounts.  A safe, easy way for them to access payments.
• http://www.federalreserve.gov/creditcard/
  Provides a basic guide to navigating the credit card process.
• http://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerinfo/wyntk_overdraft.htm
  New Overdraft Rules for Debit and ATM cards  March 2010
• http://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerinfo/wyntk_creditcardrules.htm
  New Credit Card Rules   March 2010
• http://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerinfo/default.htm  
  A consumers guide to credit reports and credit scores, a credit card repayment calculator and more.
• http://www.edfund.org/real/managing_credit_cards/main/faqs.htm
  Credit card basics
• http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/
  Answers and solutions for most banking and credit card issues.
• http://www.myfico.com/
  Information about how credit scores are calculated.  Includes a loan calculator
  which illustrates how credit scores impact lending rates.
• http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre06.pdf
  Information about cosigning a loan

Mortgages

• www.bankrate.com
  Quick and easy comparison of mortgage and home equity rate offerings.
  News and analysis of mortgage rate trends
• www.interest.com
  Quick and easy comparison of mortgage and home equity rate offerings.
  News and analysis of mortgage rate trends
• http://mortgages.interest.com/content/firsttimes /whichmtge.asp
  Determine which type of mortgage is right for you.
• http://knowyouroptions.com/
  If you are struggling with your mortgage payments or facing foreclosure, Fannie Mae has created KnowYourOptions.com; so you can find the information you need, and get help before it's too late.

Retirement

• http://www.socialsecurity.gov
  U.S. Social Security Administration…..it is all there, how to apply, how to estimate your social security income, Medicare etc.
• http://www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator/
  allows any individual toestimate Social Secuity benefits online.
• http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/population/longevity.html
  This calculator shows the average number of additional years that a person is expected to live based only on their age and gender. Lifestyle factors, health status, and family health history are not considered.
• www.dol.gov/dol/topic/retirement/index.htm
  Explains different types of retirement plans, ie. 401ks, 403bs
• http://www.irs.gov/retirement/article/0,,id=111413,00.html   This Web site contains an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) fact sheet with frequently-asked questions about IRAs.
• www.irs.gov
  For the latest information on IRA contribution income limits and other rules see publication 590, section on IRAs.
• http://njaes.rutgers.edu/money/ira-table.asp   This online fact sheet from Rutgers Cooperative Extension shows the appropriate divisors for taxpayers over age 70½ to use to withdraw the correct RMD amount from tax-deferred retirement savings plans.
• http://beginnersinvest.about.com/cs/iras/f/tradvsrothira.htm
  Describes differences between traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs, which is best for you.
• http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/06/07/how-to-start-a-roth-ira-and-where-to-do-it/
  Describes how to start an IRA and where to start it.
• choosetosave.org/ballpark  
  The Ballpark E$timate is an easy-to-use, two-page worksheet that helps you quickly identify approximately how much you need to save to fund a comfortable retirement. The Ballpark E$timate takes complicated issues like projected Social Security benefits and earnings assumptions on savings, and turns them into language and mathematics that are easy to understand.

Retirement Planning Information and Research

• Planning For a Secure Retirement: http://www.ces.purdue.edu/retirement/ This Purdue University Cooperative Extension Web site is an entire retirement planning course that is broken down into ten modules with additional links to online resources.
• Center for Retirement Research: http://crr.bc.edu/  This Web site is a good source of information about retirement topics and research findings about retirement.
• Retirement Confidence Survey: http://www.ebri.org/surveys/rcs/  The annual Retirement Confidence Survey, sponsored by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), measures workers’ attitudes about retirement and trends in how people are planning for retirement.

Pensions

• Vesting Schedule Information: http://retireplan.about.com/od/401kplans/a/vesting.htm   This Web page describes the various types of vesting schedules where workers obtain a legal right to their employer’s contributions to a retirement savings plan.
• New York State and Local Retirement System: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/retire/members/vesting.htm   This Web site provides information about the vesting requirements for the defined benefit pension plan for New York State employees.  Benefits for members in different pension plan tiers are explained.
• Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC): http://www.pbgc.gov/    This Web site provides information about the federal government agency that guarantees certain benefits to eligible private sector workers whose employer’s defined benefit pension is not financially sound.

Bonds

• www.investinginbonds.com
  How to get started with bond investing as well as up to date bond market information, prices, news and commentary
• www.finra.org/Investors/InvestmentChoices/Bonds/
  Financial Industry Regulatory Authority everything you need to know about bonds and bond markets. Also, has current bond pricing and yield to maturity information and facilitates bond searches
• www.emma.msrb.org
  Electronic Municipal Market Access. The official sources for municipal disclosures, market data and educational material for municipal bonds
• www.treasurydirect.gov
  Treasury Direct – Learn about purchasing and holding Treasury Securities and Treasury savings bonds. An account can be set up to buy Treasuries through this site
• www.finance.yahoo.com/bonds
  Yahoo! Bonds – Bond market rates and summaries and Bonds 101.

Common Stock: Education

• www.finra.org
  The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority site offers a wealth of articles and interactive tools to build your financial knowledge, check brokers and investment advisor credentials, and look out for Fraud
• www.finrafoundation.org
  Learning materials on subjects such as: Getting your Finances Ready for Retirement, Financial Literacy Training for High School Students, Get Rich Slow, women’s retirement game
• www.finrafoundation.org/sai/
  Military Financial Education, information on a wide variety of topics including credit management and duty station changes.
  Project and Save and Invest 55+ reduce the incidence of investment fraud among investors 55 +

Common Stock: Prices

• www.finance.yahoo.com
  Yahoo! Finance Current and historical stock prices and charts.

Common Stock: Exchanges

• www.nyse.com
  New York Stock Exchange individual investor education series, shareholder rights, option directories, exchange traded funds. News!
• www.nasdaq.com
  Nasdaq daily market news headlines, daily quotes, charts and research such as institutional holding of individual stocks.

Mutual Funds

• www.barrons.com
  Barrons Online Quarterly Mutual Fund Report details performance for the last 1 year, 3 years, 5 years and 10 years. Weekly mutual funds listing and interviews with Fund Managers
• www.site-by-site.com
  Individual reports on all Closed End Mutual Funds and ETFs, sorted by market return, NAV, premium or discount. Also, ADRs and more
• www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/inwsmf.htm
  A thorough introduction to mutual funds including a glossary of key mutual fund terms
• www.socialfunds.com
  If you are looking for socially responsible investments, this site will help guide you
• www.finance.yahoo.com
  Yahoo! Finance. Current and historical mutual fund prices and charts.

ETFs

• http://finance.yahoo.com/etf/education
  Basic information about ETFs including risks and taxes.
• http://us.ishares.com/understand_etf/index.htm
  Fundamentals of ETFs. What they are, how they are created, what are the benefits and pitfalls.
• http://www.nyse.com/pdfs/ETFs7109.pdf
  What are ETFs, how are they traded, different types etc.
• http://www.sec.gov/answers/etf.htm
  Explanation of ETFs with links to other sources.
• http://www.ici.org/etf_resources
  this page provides education and updates on important developments regarding Exchange Traded Funds.
• http://www.ici.org/etf_resources:  this page provides education and updates on important developments regarding Exchange Traded Funds.

 College: Planning and Financing

• www.collegeboard.org  everything the student needs to know from preparing for college exams, choosing the right college, and financing college. calculators
• http://www.finra.org/Investors/InvestmentChoices/CollegeSavingsPlans/  Resources, calculator and Savings Plans (529 Accounts)
• www.finaid.org    a comprehensive source of student financial aid information including calculators.
• www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm  provides wage data by job title and state and region to help students determine what a career's future earnings might be.
• www.actstudent.org  information for choosing careers, planning for college and financing college
• www.fafsa.ed.gov  (Free application for Federal Student Aid)  apply for student financial aid
• www.studentaid.ed.gov  provides information about types of financial aid, qualifications for aid and the application process
• http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/  searchable information about specific colleges and their costs and financial aid programs.
• www.consumerfinance.gov/students/repay/  student debt repayment assistance
• http:www.irs.gov/publications/p970/index.html  IRS Publication 970: Tax Benefits for Education
• www.collegesavings.org  guide to college savings plans  (529 Plans)
• www.hesc.com  NYState Higher Education Services Corp.  College planning, saving and financial aid information for NY State residents.
• www.nysaves.org  NY College Savings Plan (529)
• www.gibill.va.gov  "one stop: US Government web site about educational benefits for veterans.
• www.smartaboutmoney.org   Strategies to consider when time to save for college is limited.

Campaign Lead Partners:

• Council on Economic Education (www.councilforeconed.org)
• Literacy Partners (www.literacypartners.org)
• The McGraw-Hill Companies (www.mcgraw-hill.com)
• The New York Public Library (www.nypl.org)
• Talking Fin Lit podcasts for teachers (www.talkingfinlit.org)
• Working in Support of Education W!SE (www.wise-ny.org)

****For further Information
New York Public Library Science Industry & Business Library
www.nypl.org/research/sibl/financial/fs1.htm

A comprehensive listing of databases, books, magazines and additional web sites, sorted by topic area, (ie. Dividend reinvestment plans, industry data, new issues) are available by clinking on this link.

Identity Theft

• www.annualcreditreport.com
  Allows you to view and print your credit report.
• http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/consumer.shtm
  everything you need to know about different kinds of identity theft and how to protect yourself.
• http://www.identitytheft.info/federal.aspx
  An informational site about identity theft.
• http://www.privacyrights.org
  Identity theft quiz and other information.
• www.finra.org/Investors/ProtectYourself/InvestorAlerts/FraudsAndScams/p010734   Discusses “phishing” and other online identity theft scams, including those related to investment fraud.
• www.fraud.org/tips/internet/idtheftavoid.htm   The National Consumers League has a good summary of recommended practices to reduce the risk of becoming an identity theft victim.
• www.identitytheft.com/article/identity_theft_military and http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/military/   Online articles that discuss the unique identity theft risks that service members experience.
• www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/resources/forms/affidavit.pdf   This is the link to the official FTC form that identity theft victims can use to report an identity theft crime to creditors, financial institutions, and others.