John Bryant

In "Banking On Our Future: A Program for Teaching You and Your Kids About Money," published recently by Beacon Press, John Bryant, founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE, offers concrete lessons to students and their parents on how to avoid the common pitfalls of personal finance.

He teaches students to save 10 percent of their income every month, to pay their bills in their entirety every month and demystifies the minimum payment on that Visa bill.

Bryan and Michael Levin offer a primer on financial literacy, emphasizing the importance of teaching children of all ages how to manage money.

Bryant's goal in "Banking On Our Future" is to work toward the achievement of financial justice in America by extending the benefits of the free enterprise system to formerly disenfranchised individuals.

Bryant also discusses the following:

• How to talk with your kids about money
  
  
• How to keep track of your family's money with a family financial ledger
  
  
• How to teach your 10-year-old about banks and have fun at the same time
  
  
• Why saving, even a little money, is so important
  
  
• When it's the right time for your teen to have a checking account
  
  
• How to set financial goals with your kids, whether they're six or 16
  
  
• Credit, budgeting, investing, car payments, and more

Approximately half of all American families are living from paycheck to paycheck. And, Bryant writes, no generation of young people has been in need of financial literacy skills like the current one. In "Banking On Our Future," Bryant seeks to set children and parents alike on the road to self-sufficiency and economic empowerment.