Empowering Californians: financial literacy initiative tackles Californians' urge to spend.

• Author: Rosso, Clar
• Position: Cover Story

THE STATISTICS are downright staggering:

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* 40 percent of Americans say they live beyond their means.

* One in four women retire on an income below the poverty level.

* Outstanding non-secured consumer debt rose from $805 billion in 1990 to $1.65 trillion in 2001.

* The average 50-year-old has less than $40,000 in personal wealth.

* 66 percent of Americans don't pay off their credit card bill each month.

And the list goes on.

To be part of the solution to this enormous problem, CalCPA launched a major financial literacy initiative during the summer with a simple, yet powerful mission: to improve the financial literacy of Californians.

"The information about Americans' financial practices is alarming," says CalCPA Chair Steve Wimmers, who chose to make the initiative the cornerstone of his term. "Through our initiative, CPAs are in a unique position to help improve financial practices of the public--to help protect the public."

But there is more than just one benefit of this multifaceted initiative. According to Nellie Mae, undergraduate college students carry an average of three credit cards, while the U.S. Senate reports that 45 percent of college students are in credit card debt, with an average debt of more than $3,000.

"CalCPA has the opportunity to improve the personal financial literacy of college students and to collaborate with interested faculty and students to serve larger groups such as younger students, teachers and their local communities," says CPA and San Francisco State University

professor John McWilliams.

"College students have wonderful energy and motivation for projects they believe in. Their ability to connect with the younger generation, along with their ties to their varied communities, presents unlimited possibilities for CalCPA's financial literacy initiative in which everyone benefits," he says.

WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN

After launching the initiative in July. Wimmers appointed Los Angeles-based CPA/PFS Michael Eisenberg as chair of the new statewide Financial Literacy Committee. The committee, which includes representatives from all major member segments and every chapter, held its inaugural meeting in September and met again in December.

"The scope of financial literacy education is huge," says Eisenberg. "And the audiences who could benefit from it are equally as vast. It was clear to the committee, as early as our first meeting, that CalCPA's entree into financial literacy would be multidimensional. We won't limit ourselves to working with a single audience. If a group wants us, CalCPA members will be there.

"There is tremendous energy surrounding this initiative and CPAs can participate...