Chuckanut
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I am reminded that many of Bernie Madoff’s investors were supposedly sophisticated people who should have known better, but were suckers due to their greed
What a great volunteering gig! I'd love to see the course material.
Do you think it helped? What kinds of questions did you get? Did the students really seem engaged?
I am reminded that many of Bernie Madoff’s investors were supposedly sophisticated people who should have known better, but were suckers due to their greed
How did they display greed, they were not promised excessive returns?
How did they display greed, they were not promised excessive returns?
Seriously - it was too good to be true. But I didn't know about this angle which explains why some folks thought they understood why it was "too good to be true" and cheerfully took advantage.Madoff was promising unrealistically good consistent returns of better than 12% year over year. He was deliberately cultivating the rumor that he achieved these unrealistic returns by illegally front running the order flow from his legit business, but that he himself was too big and important for the SEC to take enforcement action against. That's why you had to know someone to get in on his investment scheme. Greedy investors believed they were going to benefit from his illegal scheme, when in fact they were just being taken in by it.
A lot of it is fear based tactics. We send 18 yr. olds off to war because they don't have this fear.
Now, as for those kids... I would contend that they are pretty gullible too, but in a legal scam sort of way. Marketing is still alive and well and companies are legally selling all of us crap, that we dutifully eat up. The best scam is one that doesn't appear to be one at all. For example, a certain company recently admitted to slowing down your device because they were "helping" your user experience. Right.
I don't know what your technical expertise is, but I suspect you don't understand the technology and find it easier to attribute power-management algorithms to greed and malice.
Ha ha ha! I actually work in that area! "malice:" No. "greed:" uh, let's call it marketing.
I could get way in depth on this topic. I apologize for bringing it up because the Android vs. iApple war could go on. That would derail the topic. My fault, bad example. Sorry.
I mentioned that military people are also big scam targets - I would have much preferred to have been presenting to young military folks where there was a better chance of helping them long term. And I am retired Navy so have seen first-hand how the young troops are preyed upon. Alas, there were no military bases in VT.
Feel free to PM or email me if you have more questions. Notice you are from ME. I was stationed there with the Navy 1989-1992.
You're right about that. These kids (and I'm old enough that I can call them kids) are really bright, but have had a rotten education when it comes to financial matters. That AARP program doesn't really apply to them. They need a more basic "managing my money" curriculum.
As it happens, I would probably be able to set something up at some local units, if the right materials were available. I've done training at Navy and CG bases before, teaching navigation and small-boat safety. I know at least as much about pinching pennies as I do about those topics!
In another volunteer gig years ago I tried to set up a basic financial smarts course for an inner city adult audience in Baltimore. That course went nowhere but there is an excellent ( and very basic ) curriculum available from the FDIC that I was planning to use. There is a virtually identical one available from the NCUA, differing only in that it mentions credit unions in addition to banks.
The big money scams, the most popular ones, where we live re ponzi/investment scams aimed at people in their 50's and 60's. The target is their retirement funds, home equity, etc. Many are affinity frauds.