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Let's Talk Money: Living Within Your Means

On Television

Let's Talk Money: Living Within Your Means

Thursday, June 18
Live Broadcast: 8 – 9 pm
on WXXI-TV Channel 21, Cable 11 and 1011
 
WATCH NOW:
 
 
The economy is causing a lot of anxiety about how to "live within your means."  WXXI is convening a town hall meeting to discuss this issue from a variety of perspectives. 
 
Ask Your Questions: What would you like to ask our panelists?  Add your questions at the bottom of this page as a comment!
 
Our panel includes:
  • Robert Manning, PhD., an internationally recognized expert on consumer credit
  • John Ninfo, former US Bankruptcy Judge and founder of of the Greater Rochester Area Financial Literacy Initiative
  • Dr. Tim Engstrom, a social philosopher from Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Dr. Rich Ryan, a social psychologist from the University of Rochester 
(more detailed bios available on the event highlight)
 
The program will address topics such as:
  • What does "living within your means" really mean?
  • How much money do you need to live comfortably in Rochester?
  • What makes it hard for people to live within their means?
  • What can people do to address the financial anxiety they feel in this economic climate?
WXXI’s Julie Philipp will host the program, which includes a live studio audience and the opportunity for viewers to call or e-mail questions. Following the program, the station will host a reception outside Studio A.
 

On Radio

Let’s Talk Money: Living Within Your Means
June 22 – 26
During Morning Edition & All Things Considered
WXXI-AM 1370 & FM 91.5 HD2
 
In this five-part series, WXXI’s Carlet Cleare and Julie Philipp followed up on the town hall meeting with stories about local people who are finding out how hard it is to "live within your means" in this economy. These included a college graduate who had been job-hunting for more than a year, and a mother who lost her position at Xerox.
 
Listen to these stories now online now:
 
 

WXXI Financial Literacy Virtual Workshop

Youth Financial Literacy:
Biz Kid$

 

Adult Financial Literacy:
»

Comments

what is a "consumer" to do?

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 9:34am.

When You accept a credit card at one interest rate and all the rules change down the line so that You wind up in servitude at a 29% to 31% interest rate from people You no longer trust ....

They now say they (the credit card providers) want to work with people but how are we to trust what they say when that changes to whatever suites their needs from day to day....and all the contracts don't really mean anything because they were written under laws made not with the middle class consumer in mind.....greed seems to be the driver and the middle class seem to be taken advantage of by the rich .....the poor can't help themselves as they are just trying to survive.......

What is amazing is that

Submitted by j. ninfo (not verified) on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 10:19am.

What is amazing is that Americans who decided to use credit cards not for convenience, as just another way to spend their own money, but to go into debt with them, never took the time to read the terms, which essentially were that yhe card companies could pretty much do what they want once you owed them any money - they could demand their money in full tomorrow, increase the minimum payments to anything they wanted, raise the interest rate as high as the law would allow and more. They didn't do those things much in the past, so that they could keep consumers on the hook and in the game, but they always had the ability to do those things. Then when they started to do some of those things, consumers for some reason thought it was unfair, even though they were perfectly within their rights. So now, even with the new Credit Cardholder's Bill of Rights, people NEED to read and understand the terms if they are going to continue to use credit cards to go into debt.