All-girls prep schools are teaching the young women of today the skills to invest for tomorrow, a curriculum that has been missing from the education system until now, The New York Times reports. Although fund companies have not done a particularly good job of appealing to the Gen X, Gen Y crowd (see MFMN 11/4/02), they might want to reach out to the new group of investors being groomed at elite schools.
Retirement planning, refinancing, compound interest, credit card debt, mortgages, taxes and health insurance are some of the topics in the finance classes. Some schools invite local businesswomen to address the student assembly. Others hold weekend seminars or summer camps where even a personal-finance columnist from Cosmo magazine has spoken.
"We throw around the word empowerment," Sister Kathleen Fagan, headmistress of the Marymount School in New York, is quoted as saying. "Well, this is what its all about. Money is not evil. With money comes power and opportunity. We even understand that in the nunnery."
