The Web site offers practical guidance, tools, tips, calculators and a life-stage-based interactive game to help adults learn how to talk to kids about money and equip them with critical knowledge of personal and consumer finance.

The site is organized by financial topic (budgeting, saving, borrowing, investing, taxes and philanthropy); and by financial milestone (managing an allowance, getting a first job, buying a car, going to college and leaving home). Based on the premise that there are teachable moments in life when young adults become more receptive to information, the site offers perspective and guidance for parents to make the most of each financial rite-of-passage in helping kids get a strong head start.

The site was developed based on Schwab research showing that parents want help educating their kids about money. Coincidentally, the 2007 Schwab Teens & Money Survey shows that teens themselves want to learn. Almost two thirds of teens (65 percent) believe that learning about money management is interesting; more than half (60 percent) say that it's one of their top priorities; and nearly nine in ten (89 percent) say they want to learn how to invest their money to make it grow.

"We're hoping this Web site paves the way for parents, grandparents and other adults to help coach the young people in their lives toward financial fitness," said Carrie Schwab Pomerantz, chief strategist of consumer education at Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. "Kids today are growing up in a much more demanding financial world than young adults had to face even a generation ago. Providing them with the right knowledge and skill-sets now should enable them to make smart financial choices throughout their lives."

From Financial Basics and Financial Milestones to Calculators and an Interactive Game

Adults are invited to explore the site's financial basics section, which includes a hierarchy of learning. With each financial basic, the learning experience can be tailored to thhe life circumstances of the child. Individual topics are linked to related information within the financial milestones section, such as establishing and managing an allowance, getting a first job and paying taxes, buying a car, saving for college and ultimately leaving home. Interactive tools, such as a savings calculator, budgeting planner and a debt payoff calculator, allow for hands-on learning and bring essential lessons about money to life.

The game Schwab MoneyWise It's Your Life provides an engaging way to illustrate the long-term effects of discrete decisions made along life's path. Through a series of questions, options and random events that pop up along the way, the player can see what the future might hold based on different financial choices made along the continuum of "life."

Visitors to the site are invited to offer suggestions and feedback within a section called "Let's Talk."

Schwab and Financial Literacy

The Schwab MoneyWise program addresses a pervasive need for people to understand the basics of personal and consumer finance in order to be financially successful throughout life. The program has its roots in research and work the company has done for many years promoting financial literacy, including a series of best-selling personal finance books by Charles R. Schwab, as well as Charles Schwab Foundation's work with teens through Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the educational program Money Matters: Make It Count, now in its fourth year. Schwab MoneyWise builds on this legacy by providing additional educational resources for the general public.