Chair’s Message
Ten Cents is Nothing!
By Layne Simmons, CPA
Being the father of three teenagers continually presents me with the opportunity to experience much joy and anxiety. One anxious moment I experience every month is the arrival of the family cell phone bill. This is a bill that, over the past few years, has evolved from arriving in an envelope similar to other monthly bills to a small package that can contain 96 pages—the length of last month’s bill.
This last month when I opened the bill, I discovered that once again we had shattered previous records for not only monthly airtime minutes used, but also for text messages. Like always, the heaviest user (or abuser) of this handy technology was my 17-year-old daughter, followed closely by her 13-year-old sister. Upon looking at the bill summary, I pondered for a moment to reflect on how anyone could possibly send 3,869 text messages in a month. If you divided 3,869 by 30 it comes to 129 messages a day and this of course is someone who is in school five days out of the week. A couple of months ago, in an effort to end the monthly “extra usage” charges for text messages, I had increased the allotment for both of my daughters to 3,000 text messages a month.
As I discussed the bill with my 17-year-old daughter, I reminded her that every text message over 3,000 costs 10 cents. Her reply was, “Ten cents is nothing.” Although I will admit that I bend over to pick up unclaimed coins with a value less than a dime, I decided that instead of arguing the value of 10 cents I would try a different approach. I told her that although 10 cents may be nothing, 10 cents multiplied by 869 is $86.90, which is more than we pay monthly for necessities such as water, trash collection, our home telephone service or about what was paid for the expensive designer jeans she was wearing. I further explained (although her eyes were rolling) that $86.90 a month, every month for a year, is more than $1,000 dollars. I then asked, “Is that nothing?” Her reply was, “Okay Dad, I’ll keep the text messages under 3,000.”
With one child leaving for college in a couple of months and another close behind, I often wonder how well my wife and I have prepared them for life. Although we have expended great efforts to assist them in their academic and athletic pursuits, lately I have wondered if maybe we have done less than an adequate job in other important areas such as financial literacy.
My daughter, along with my other two children and every other teenager (and adult for that matter), needs to know how to handle financial matters responsibly. The lack of basic financial literacy is a national problem that affects all of us. This is an area where we are uniquely qualified and can be a valuable resource.
The AICPA’s national financial literacy campaign, “Feed the Pig,” is targeted toward the 25- to 34-year-old age group; however, there are many other financial literacy initiatives being sponsored by other private groups and other state societies. In Virginia, the state society was successful in helping to push through a bill requiring that financial literacy be taught as part of the curriculum required to graduate from high school.
In the coming months, the Board of Directors will be discussing, and ultimately deciding on, what continued role the ASCPA will assume with regards to financial literacy. As we discuss this important issue, we would value any input you can give us. I look forward to hearing from you.
AZ CPA – June 2007
