Reading, Writing and Money Management: Mint.com Goes to School
Intuit and Scholastic offer free, online program to make personal finance fun for middle-school students, teachers and families
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Creating a new way to help kids develop good money management skills, Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) worked with Scholastic to develop an interactive game and free classroom materials for middle school teachers, students and families.
Intuit develops innovative software applications to help simplify personal and small business financial management. Scholastic is a leader in educational technology and related services and children's media.
"Today's economic crisis underscores the need for financial education and the importance of budgeting and planning ahead," said Aaron Patzer, general manager and vice president of Intuit Personal Finance and founder of Mint.com. "I remember Scholastic from my own school days for its engaging lessons. We're developing materials that teachers and parents can use to teach young people life-long money management skills contributing to their future financial security. And making it easy and fun."
The materials include lesson plans for teachers, family activities and worksheets for parents to continue the lessons at home and an interactive game. The program connects math to everyday life, emphasizing the importance of money management, budgeting and goals. Children will learn common words associated with personal finance, and solve sample problems that explain concepts such as compound interest in easy-to-understand terms.
Students who use the material will learn how to set goals and budgets with real life examples, such as getting a babysitting job to save for a bicycle.
"Interactive activities are a great way to engage children in learning," said Ann Amstutz-Hayes, vice president of Scholastic InSchool. "This program with Mint.com makes lessons on financial literacy interactive and fun and offers a fresh approach to educating the next generation about the importance of carefully managing money."
The program is based on responses to the Intuit Town Hall Money Matters Consumer Survey, in which 46 percent of parents responding said that schools should have the most responsibility for teaching kids about financial literacy. Patzer said the survey shows a clear need for free classroom assets and resources for teachers to augment their lessons with engaging materials that meet established standards.
The materials are expected to be available online for teachers at www.scholastic.com/mint beginning Dec. 20 and distributed in 30,000 classrooms nationwide early next year. They also will be available publicly at www.Mint.com/Blog/Education.
"Intuit is uniquely positioned to take on the challenge of financial education. Our tax, small business and personal finance offerings help tens of millions of American households and give us real insight into the economy," said Patzer. "At the same time, our expertise in delivering online tools and content helps us make it easy - and even fun - for people to learn more about managing their money."
As part of this initiative, Intuit's Personal Finance Group and the Financial Freedom Foundation are creating a comprehensive online resource repository for financial literacy lesson plans, information and educational materials. Financial education groups and partners may contribute to this online information hub by contacting education@intuit.com.
"We're committed to improving people's financial lives," said Susan Mason, director of the Intuit Financial Freedom Foundation. "That means finding new ways to fuel financial literacy and economic empowerment. This is the first step toward creating a repository of financial knowledge that educators and parents can use at school and at home to give kids, and encourage our partners to use what we've built however they see fit and to add to this universe of teaching tools."
About Mint.com
Mint.com is a leading online personal finance software service from Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), providing over 3 million users a fresh, easy and intelligent way to manage their money. And it's free. Launched in September 2007, Mint.com has quickly grown to track nearly $200 billion in transactions and $50 billion in assets and has identified more than $300 million in potential savings for its users. Mint.com's innovation is in applying advanced technology to deliver breakthrough ease-of-use. Using patent-pending technology and proprietary algorithms, Mint.com allows users to see all their financial accounts in one place, makes it easy to set and keep to budgets, and helps identify money saving ideas. Mint.com is so effective that more than 90 percent of users say they have changed their financial habits as a result of using the service. For more information on Mint.com's free online personal finance service, please visit http://www.mint.com and follow Mint.com on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mint.
About Intuit Inc.
Intuit Inc. is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services, including QuickBooks(R), Quicken(R) and TurboTax(R), simplify small business management and payroll processing, personal finance, and tax preparation and filing. ProSeries(R) and Lacerte(R) are Intuit's leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants. The company's financial institutions division, anchored by Digital Insight, provides on-demand banking services to help banks and credit unions serve businesses and consumers with innovative solutions.
Founded in 1983, Intuit had annual revenue of $3.5 billion in its fiscal year 2010. The company has approximately 7,700 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.
About The Intuit Financial Freedom Foundation
The Intuit Financial Freedom Foundation is dedicated to programs and projects that promote financial literacy and independence among disadvantaged, lower-income individuals, small businesses, and the nonprofit organizations that serve them. By donating Intuit software and online services, the Foundation helps people and organizations master their finances and bridge the digital divide.
The Foundation's signature programs are the Intuit Tax Freedom Project, the Quicken and QuickBooks Product Donation Programs and partnership with California first lLady Maria Shriver's We Connect Campaign.
Source: Intuit Inc.
Released December 20, 2010