Family Financial Management

Virginia LifeSmarts

   

LifeSmarts,...the ultimate consumer challenge," is a quiz bowl competition which tests the knowledge of high school students on important consumer information in an entertaining way, and rewards them for this knowledge.  The 2012 National Championship will be April 21-April 24, 2011 in Philadelphia. PA. 

Teens as Consumers
Regardless of age, income, or job, every person is a consumer. Understanding how to make decisions, use resources wisely, and exercise rights and responsibilities in the marketplace is important to economic survival and growth. Consumer education empowers individuals to take responsibility for themselves. Educated consumers make strong families, communities and marketplaces.

By acquiring these skills early in life, teens enter the complex marketplace more prepared and able to successfully manage their resources.

• Teens spend billions of dollars and influence family members to spend billions more, although they lack the important consumer information to make responsible consumer decisions.
• Teens face decisions about buying or leasing a car, saving money, balancing a checkbook, applying for and using a credit card, staying healthy, using computers, voting, following laws and regulations, holding a job, and other issues. They often have no experience to help them make the right decisions.
• Teens are often victims of fraud and scams. They are often uneducated about the pitfalls of many "deals" that would attract them.

The National Coalition for Consumer Education created "LifeSmarts ...the ultimate consumer challenge" in 1994 as a way to address this need.