Parent Smarts: Credit Information Series for Parents

Many students come to college with an academic plan in mind. However, few come with a financial plan. One of the most important and practical discussions parents can have with their students is about how to manage money and use credit wisely.

Parent Smarts is a set of fact sheets designed to help parents start their student on the road to financial independence.

The series provides parents with educational information, financial tips, activities and additional resources on how to help their students become responsible credit consumers. Six fact sheets and a student spending plan are included in Parent Smarts: Credit Information Series for Parents.

The Parent Smarts cover sheet, fact sheets, student spending plan, and program evaluation form available below are in PDF format which requires the Adobe Reader for veiwing and printing. You can download the latest versoin of the FREE Reader directly from Adobe’s website.

Parent Smarts contains:

• Parent Smarts Cover Sheet
• Fact Sheet 1: The Road to Financial Independence
• Fact Sheet 2: Setting the Stage for Financial Success
• Fact Sheet 3: Talking with Your Student About Credit
• Fact Sheet 4: What Everyone Student Should Know About Credit Cards
• Fact Sheet 5: Beware -- It Could Happen to Your Student
• Fact Sheet 6: Helping Your Student Get out of Credit Card Debt
• Student Spending Plan
• Program Evaluaton Form
• Parent Smarts PowerPoint Presentation (437K) or PDF file (917K)

For questions or more information about the program, please contact Dr. Angela Lyons, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois.

E-mail: sweedler@uiuc.edu

Consumer and Family Economics
Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics
University of Illinois Extension
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign