Archive for the ‘Levels’ Category

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Introduction to Your Financial Identity Profile

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Hi!  Here’s a quick tour of the bits and pieces that make up your Financial Identity Profile.

The Financial Identity Profile makes learning something you actually want to do. Just as your Facebook profile connects your social life, your Financial Identity Profile connects your financial life – using data from your financial accounts and your SPEND.GROW.GIVE. behavior.

First off, you can toggle between the profile and the home screen by clicking the person or house icons found in the top-right corner of every page.

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The page starts with your current net worth (which you won’t find anywhere else on the site) and a brief summary of your accounts. “What I Owe” refers to your credit card balance, if you have a card linked.

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In the personal section on the left side of the screen, you can:

  • - personalize your page by uploading a picture
  • - see and change your financial learning level
  • - send a message about your financial life to your funder/ parent, your financial advisor, TILE, or the world –via Facebook and Twitter

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Want to level up? We give you loads of cool ways to get smarter about money. And when you do, you earn recognition for it.

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The Financial Identity box takes all of your SPEND.GROW.GIVE. activity and organizes it into a big picture of your financial life. Build it up by completing more Learn-Tos!

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Get the same important account alerts on both the home page and your profile.

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One of our favorite profile features is called “My Impact on the Market.”

It’s common now for people to get real time updates on their spending. But we’re taking this a big leap forward. If, for example, you spent money at Old Navy recently, we’ll show you that it’s part of a public company. And you can then learn about the stock.

We connect the dots between what you do every day and the market – taking away the cloud of secrecy. What’s more – you can now connect your charitable donations to the socially responsible funds that specialize in that cause. Interested in protecting the rainforest? Put your money where your heart is and consider how thoughtful investing might further your cause!

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What articles do you like to click on? What topics do you read most about? We track your SPEND.GROW.GIVE. content behavior to show you where your financial interests actually lie.

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If you want to share your profile with your parent (or funder) or your financial advisor, you can do so with just a click. But remember – it’s totally up to you. You control how much information is shared – or not – on SPEND.GROW.GIVE.

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That’s it. If you need help with something else, read the Help page or Ask TILE. We’re here to help.

Now get out there and start building your financial identity!

Accounts Receivable is…

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Accounts receivable (A/R) is an accounting term that refers to money someone owes to a store or business. If you buy something from a store, but don’t pay them right away – the amount that you owe goes into the store’s accounts receivable record.

Most large companies have an entire accounts receivable department that is solely focused on keeping track of money owed to the company.

Accounts Payable is…

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Accounts payable (A/Ps) is an accounting term that refers to money owed by a person or business to another person or business.

For example, if an office has bottled water delivered each week but doesn’t pay for it until the end of the month, the charge goes into accounts payable until the check is written. Employee paychecks also fall into the category of accounts payable until they are actually given out to employees.

Today’s Episode of “Personal Finance for Preschoolers”

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

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(photo credit: popofatticus)

Seems like the rash of recent economic disasters have woken America up to the fact that education in personal finance is practically non-existent in this country.

So financial educators are starting to pay more attention to the kids. (See, for example, SPEND.GROW.GIVE.) But there’s one little problem… For most kids, personal finance is, well, boring and irrelevant.

Sure, you can talk about it in an Elmo voice, but is that really going to make money matter to young children? And should personal finance education really start in preschool? Starting young probably can’t hurt, but you’ve also got to be smart about how you approach the topic.

What would be the best way for you to learn about personal finance?

What do you think you should know by now? Do you at least know where the money goes?

Anti-Trust Cops Anti-Nasdaq/NYSE Takeover

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

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(photo credit: banspy)

What happens when the two largest stock exchanges in the U.S. become one big mega-exchange? A monopoly, that’s what! In case you don’t remember from history or economics class (or the game Monopoly), a monopoly is when one company controls an entire market, making it hard or impossible for smaller companies to fairly compete. (The market, in this case, being the market of stock markets.)

That’s why anti-trust regulators at the Justice Department have shut down Nasdaq’s attempted hostile takeover of the New York Stock Exchange. The takeover is hostile because the NYSE already has a deal with German bank Deutsche Borse to be acquired for $10 billion, and it’s so not interested in starting a relationship with Nasdaq right now.

The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq have been competing for years, which keeps them both in customer-pleasing, price-cutting mode. Without that competition, NYSEasdaq could charge whatever it wanted and still crush what little competition would be left.

It could even become… too big to fail!

An Intermediary is…

Monday, May 16th, 2011

An intermediary is someone who connects people who want to borrow money with people who are willing to lend money. It’s sort of like being a financial matchmaker – your job is to figure out who goes together best.

Sunk Costs are…

Monday, May 16th, 2011

Sunk costs are costs that you can’t undo or get out of. So let’s say that you have a beat-up, old car and there’s no way anybody would buy it from you. The amount that you spent on that car would be a sunk cost, because you already spent it and you can’t get your money back.

Laissez-faire is…

Monday, May 16th, 2011

In French, laissez-faire means “leave alone.” In finance, laissez-faire refers to an economy or industry that is left to work on its own without the government making rules about what people can and can’t do.

Here’s Why You Need Insurance

Monday, May 16th, 2011

Insurance is one of the least interesting things we can think of. We don’t even like typing the word. But you know what? There are some really good reasons why  it’s really important.

Allow Jessica Serbin, Senior Vice President at Willis, to school you in less than two minutes:

>> TILE brings you exclusive opinions, explanations, and interviews from experts in every industry. Have a burning question or an expert you’d like to see interviewed? Just Ask TILE!

It’s the Enthusiastic Youngsters Who Will Be Fired First

Friday, May 13th, 2011

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(credit: kevindooley)

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg just announced a budget that will require 4,100 public school teachers to be laid off. That’s pretty tough news for a city with a challenging (to say the least) public school system. But what’s even tougher is the way those unlucky teachers will be chosen.

We’ve written about the last-in-first-out rule before (LIFO). In New York, the law says that teachers must be fired in reverse order of when they were hired. That means that an idealistic 24-year old with enough energy to start her career in an overcrowded, underfunded public school in the Bronx is more likely to be fired than an underperforming veteran.

What’s interesting is that many of the young teachers who are set to be laid off are actually participants in programs (like Teach for America and NYC Teaching Fellows) designed to bring new energy and drive INTO the public schools.

Well, there goes that idea. How do you think the public education system can be improved?

Is education a favorite cause of yours? Do you know what is? Visit Your Causes to start figuring it out!

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