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Wealth Watchers in the ClassroomFederal Reserve Bank of Chicago – Marginal Thoughts Blog
Wealth Watchers in the Classroom
By Cindy Ivanac-Lillig
I had met a woman, Alice Wood, a couple of years ago here at the Bank in connection with our Money Smart Week program. She is an attorney, a small business woman, and an author. Her life story is both heart-breaking and inspiring. She has recently come out with a book, “Wealth Watchers,” that documents not only her life story but also serves as a how-to for the popular tool she has come up with to help people manage their finances more effectively. As I read the book, I thought — this could be a great classroom tool for anyone teaching personal finance!
It is a rather easy paradigm to picture, because most of us have heard of the program Weight Watchers. There is no special food, only a way to keep score. Her system works much the same way. At one point in her book she says something like — this isn’t easy, but it is simple, which made me laugh at loud. The concept is so simple; it basically requires that you journal all of your daily expenses and know what your daily limit is for disposable income.
Why is simple sometimes so hard?
Please let me know what you think — I realize that there are many tools out there and I have by no means tried them all, but this just happened to cross my desk and I thought it was worth sharing!
To share your thoughts visit: http://marginalthoughts.chicagofedblogs.org/2010/03.