Why is Ginnie Mae targeting middle-school students?
Ginnie Mae’s mission is to support expanded affordable housing in America. The path to home ownership includes responsible financial planning and investment. By targeting middle-school students, we can educate our youth about saving, investing, and homeownership before they start earning their own incomes. To illustrate the importance of teaching this information to this age group, consider the following example. In 1997, a coalition of government agencies, universities and non-profit groups released the results of a nationwide survey of high-school seniors’ money-management skills. Overall, students averaged 57 percent on the 31-question multiple-choice examination, which was designed by a team of educators to test basic financial survival skills. Since there were just four multiple-choice answers to each question, random responses would have yielded a score of 25 percent. Questions were divided into four categories: income, money management, savings and investment, and spending. By f
