Rea & Associates and Accounting for Kids Day Fight Financial Illiteracy

Rea & Associates and Accounting for Kids Day Fight Financial Illiteracy

5 November, 2007

NEW PHILADELPHIA, Ohio -- Volunteers from Rea & Associates, Inc., a regional accounting and business consulting firm, will show students across Ohio how to invest in the stock market. They'll talk about budgeting, discuss finances, buy and sell stock and even earn dividends. And more importantly, they'll have fun while they're at it.

It's all part of Accounting for Kids Day, which Rea & Associates'New Philadelphia, Millersburg, Lima, Medina, Dublin, Marietta and Mentor offices will be participating in again this year.

Sponsored by the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants (OSCPA), the program exposes students to core concepts in today's business world and incorporates fundamental values such as honesty, integrity and objectivity into accounting, economics and finance-related professions.

"Accounting for Kids Day allows young people to apply the math skills they've learned in school to the real world," said Darlene Finzer, Benefit Plan Services Specialist in Rea' New Philadelphia office. "Each year we play a stock market game that helps teach financial literacy as it relates to investments by simulating the activity of the actual stock market."

This, she said, can spark an interest in a finance-related career or just teach children about investing in general. "t's a fun, interactive way to show the kids what business professionals do on a day-to-day basis," said Finzer.

Rea & Associates has participated in Accounting for Kids Day for several years across the firm. According to the OSCPA, financial education is particularly important because:

- The United States has the lowest national savings rate in the industrialized world.
- More than 80 percent of Americans consider debt from credit cards and different types of loans to be a serious problem, and 35 percent say their level of debt has increased in the past five years, according to a national survey from the Center for American Progress.
- In 2005, approximately one in every 53 households filed for bankruptcy.
- The average American family spends $1.22 for every dollar it earns.

So accountants across Ohio are making an effort to improve these statistics. "We want to help children prepare for their financial futures by sharing our knowledge and experience in the business world," Finzer said. "Accounting for Kids Day allows us to do just that."