Financial Literacy for Children

There is a good article this morning at bankrate.com entitled "Four Fiscal Lessons You Need to Teach Your Kids"

It covers the following:

•	Differentiate between needs and wants
•	Share the secrets of saving
•	Instill smart spending habits
•	Keep out of credit quicksand

I just happened to be speaking my one of our grandchildren this weekend and realized that he had no concept of the 'miracle of compounding'.

Here is a interesting and impressive question to get the point across.

How thick would a sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper if folded in half 50 times?

For those of you who want to try doing the folding, assume that the paper is cut on each fold and stacked, since the paper, once folded a few times, would be too thick to fold again.

And for those of you who are really compulsive, here are a few facts. The paper is:

• 8.5 x 11
• Bond
• Cotton Fiber
• Flat Finish
• 24 pound

If you think you have a handle on financial literacy, here is a follow up question.

How thick would the folded paper be if it were taxed at 33% after each fold?

The answer is on the continuation page.

Good luck

Alex Weiss, co-founder
www.wealthbuilderuniversity.com

How thick would a sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper if folded in half 50 times?

187,649,984,473.771 feet

or 35,539,769.786699 miles

YES!  Believe it or not - it says 35 MILLION MILES (give or take a half million miles or so).

And if taxed 33% after each fold it would be -

253.025 FEET - not miles.

For those of you who want the numbers after each fold from fold 1 to fold 50, simply  send an email to me at alex@prepaidretirement.com with the words "folded paper" in the subject line, and I will send you a copy of the  excel file I used to make the calculations.

Alex

PS The average distance between the Earth and the Moon is only about 240,000 miles (not even one million) and the Earth's average distance from the Sun is 93 million miles.