The Common Good
August 2009

Audio Interview with Northern California Urban Development

by Elizabeth Palmberg | August 2009

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In July's issue of Sojourners, Rev. John Liotti of Northern California Urban Development shares with our readers a little about his life and his group's work forging partnerships to fight financial predators in East Palo Alto, CA and neighboring communities.

Part of NCUD's work, as Youth Program Manager Jenni Ingram told Sojourners, is financial literacy classes for local schoolchildren. She describes a typical exercise:

The stuff inventory we use to help students see how the stuff that we often spends money on tends to either break quickly – planned obsolescence – or quickly go out of style – perceived obsolescence. We also teach them, with this exercise, about how many of the things we buy end up going down in value, when we could be putting money in areas where it could go up in value, such as investments.

Check out the worksheet below, and ask your kids – or yourself – what are you spending money on?

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