Each Friday in April we'll share tips for tackling personal finance stories on any beat.
April is National Financial Literacy Month, and venues ranging from Congress to the local credit union will be featuring a variety of educational events aimed at improving consumers? money savvy.
In honor of the month, we?ll be dedicating this blog to ?Finance Fridays? throughout April, offering helpful hints and story ideas for reporters who want to tackle the myriad personal finance angles on any beat.? To kick off the first Friday of the theme, here?s a roundup of resources ? from non-profits?to statistical repositories to online primers ? that you might want to bookmark.
Locating experts.?I like the? non-profit?Jumpstart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy; it offers a national and state-level perspective and experts.? For women?s finance issues, check out the Women?s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER),? while the federal government?s MyMoney.gov site includes primers on a variety of consumer finance issues; scroll to the bottom for links to programs for specific demographics such as military families?and parents.
The?National Association of Individual Investors can be helpful if you are seeking basic stock market and investing information for consumers as well as individuals in the markets; also check with the North American State Securities Administrators for market experts in your area.? When it comes to finding an advisory voice for stories, I prefer the credentials issued by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, and use can use a ZIP code search function at their site to find local experts.? The national Financial Planning Association also offers education resources and its numerous local chapters are another source of voices for your stories.
Don?t overlook area social service agencies, credit unions and even churches, many have budget counselors (or personal finance ministries, in the case of churches) that can help you locate real consumers to illustrate a specific story.
By the numbers. You likely already use the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of Economic Analysis data on consumer spending, wages, income, wholesale & retail prices,?and the like.? If you?ve never called their analysts for personal assistance, bear in mind that they generally are helpful and can really help refine a story by suggesting data you?ve never heard of.?? And branch out to other agencies; the U.S. Department of Agriculture?s Economic Research Service is a trove of data on everything from current commodity prices to how much of their income people spent on food in 1928.? The U.S. Census Bureau?is another gold mine; check out for example this statistical abstract page on banking systems; you can click on tables to find out how families historically used credit cards.
Bankrate.com is probably in your bookmarks already but if not, check out its array of financial calculators, very useful for running hypothetical examples to use in your stories.
Trade groups often are a source of consumer spending information; check out this Mental Floss roundup,??By the Numbers: How Americans Spend Their? Money,???which cites statistics from a range of groups like the American Gaming Association and the Romance Writers of America.
Loose change.??Call me crazy but I love curling up with the Internal Revenue Service?s Publication 17 - it?s the annual tax filing guide for consumers and aside from roundups of tax law changes, a thorough read?can produce stories from quirky or little-known tax law.? Loss of property due to damage caused by the family pet is not deductible, for example, and nor is the progressive deterioration caused by termites and moths?? Who knew?? But loss due to theft or being victim of a Ponzi scheme may well be a write-off, as would the cost of removing trees and even restoring your landscaping after a catastrophic weather event.
NPR?s Planet Money is bursting with useful and original finance-related story ideas you can localize.? And I adore? the Journal of Consumer Research from the Association?for Consumer Research; it?s a scholarly publication with?fascinating articles about topics like ?How credit card payments increase unhealthy food purchases,? branding, celebrity endorses & consumer behavior and other interesting research; lots of good story seeds in there.
Source: http://businessjournalism.org/2013/04/05/finance-friday-personal-finance-resources/
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