Arizona State Treasurer Dean Martin Gives Financial Tips From Football

The Super Bowl and the events leading up to it are the last places you’d expect to hear any sound financial advice.

The game itself is a competition in which multimillionaires smack one another on the field for 60 minutes in front of fans who forked over the equivalent of a car down payment for tickets.

Then there are the spectators at home.

They’re subjected to several hours of high-cost commercials designed to ply the cash from their wallets.

Who needs a $150 billion tax-rebate plan to stimulate the economy? Let’s just watch Super Bowl commercials once a month.

But on this fiscally uneven playing field, there was one pregame event designed to instill a sense of frugality.

Visa – yes, the credit-card company – sponsored a Phoenix news conference and demonstration touting its “financial football” software.

The program aims to teach teens and young adults a few key moves out of the personal-finance playbook, covering topics such as credit card, banking and budgeting basics.

Visa brought in 36 students from Alhambra High School in Phoenix, divided them into two teams and let them compete by answering questions from the software.

Larry Fitzgerald, wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, recounted how he’s been saving money ever since landing his first job as a Minnesota Vikings ballboy at age 16.

“You get that first taste of money and you want to spend it,” he told the students. “But my dad was on me to put some of it away – he instilled that in me at a young age.”

Adrian Peterson, rookie running back for the Minnesota Vikings, said he, too, places a high value on prudent money management.

“I’ve heard too many stories (of pro athletes blowing their riches),” Peterson said. “After a time, these guys don’t have anything to show for it.”

The Visa football game, which is rather clever, can be played for free at www. practicalmoneyskills.com.

Contestants move the chains and ultimately score points by answering multiple-choice personal-finance questions correctly.

Sample questions include:

• What type of organizations provides information on your past use of credit?
• What does APR stand for?
• What’s the purpose of using a PIN for a bank account?

“I had learned a lot of that already in an economics class,” said Melissa Tapia, an Alhambra senior, after playing the game. “But it’s good to review because you do use that stuff.”

Arizona Treasurer Dean Martin, who also spoke at the Visa event, said he hoped the software’s entertaining format would help teens remember key money lessons.

Fitzgerald’s father, also named Larry, wasn’t a formal participant at the Visa event but instead attended as a member of the news media.

He never played professional sports and has felt the sting of a job layoff, which perhaps explains why he appreciates the importance of saving.

“My mother taught me to save a quarter out of every dollar,” the elder Fitzgerald said. “It’s hard to do, and it takes a lot of discipline, but you’ve got to put some money away so you can survive those bumps and down periods.”

That’s sound advice, especially on Super Bowl Sunday.

Russ Wiles The Arizona Republic

Information from: http://www.aztreasury.gov/media/2008/AZRepublic-02-08.html, Arizona Republic

Treasurer Dean Martin, Larry Fitzgerald and Adrian Peterson Help Alhambra High School Students Sample ‘Financial Football’ Program

More than 25 students from Alhambra High School got a money management lesson Monday outside the classroom, with Arizona Cardinals All Pro wide receiver Larry Fitzergerald and Offensive Rookie of the Year Adrian Peterson playing teacher.

The duo, along with Arizona Treasurer Dean Martin and Visa Inc., kicked off Super Bowl week with a computer learning game for the lucky group.

The game, dubbed “Financial Football,” is being distributed Monday by Salt River Project to more than 600 high schools and junior high schools. The goal ofthe nationwide initiative, now in its 13th year, is to help students tackle their financial futures.

Fitzgerald and Peterson shared their personal experiences of making it big and maintaining their financial control after watching dozens of their peers in the National Football League squander their savings.

“You really have to know how to manage your money,” said Peterson, who still is adjusting to a mortgage and multiple car payments. The Minnesota Vikings running back just concluded his rookie campaign after playing three seasons with the University of Oklahoma.

Fitzgerald, who is in contract negotiations with the Cardinals, has made community involvement a priority since arriving in the desert.

“It’s important to reach out to youth. It’s important to create a good image for them, to be a role model,” he said.

He said his father was a frugal guy who stressed financial security, even during Fitzgerald’s first job as a ball boy for the Vikings. “You never know when your last play is going to be,” he said.

In a state suffering from poor student achievement, Martin said financial literacy is needed.

“Everyone is going to need to balance a checkbook. We need to help improve our curriculum and get this into the classroom,” he said.

The game was developed in cooperation with the NFL and Players Inc., a group of active and retired NFL players, along with Visa. The game is the centerpiece of a national financial education initiative that also includes a classroom curriculum. The game also can be downloaded free on cell phones.

Chris Casacchia The Business Journal

Information from: http://www.aztreasury.gov/media/2008/BizJournal_01-08.html, The Phoenix Business Journal