FOURTH-GRADERS GET EARLY LESSON IN FINANCE.

Byline: Chris Sieroty Staff Writer

SHERMAN OAKS - Some money-savvy fourth-graders learned a valuable lesson Tuesday: Start saving part of their allowance now, and in 10 years they might get what they really want, including a car or money for college.

``If you start saving now, you will have a lot of money and will find yourself in a much better place when you're 20,'' Jenny Brown, a financial analyst with Citibank in Encino, advised the students at Sherman Oaks Elementary School.

To help encourage savings, Brown gave the pupils wallets, chocolate money, pens, calendars and snow globes by Citibank.

The program was part of National Teach Children to Save Day activities in which bankers discussed money matters with students at 2,500 schools across the country.

According to the banking industry, average Americans spend $9.99 of every $10 they earn, which has plunged the nation's savings rate to one of its lowest levels since the Depression.

``While today's kids can surf the Internet or use a CD-ROM to do their homework, some don't know the fundamentals of saving,'' Donald Ogilve, executive vice president of the American Bankers Association, said in a press release.

At Sherman Oaks Elementary, many of the students' parents work in the financial industry, and some kids are already very interested in money management.

It is important for children 8 through 10 ``to talk with someone who works in a bank,'' said Lynnette Yick, a fourth-grade teacher whose class participated in the program.

``In the long run it's good to start saving young.''

A discussion with a financial planner early in life ``is planting a seed now to start saving money'' and learn ways to do it, Yick said. Brown talked with the children about budgeting and setting priorities.

Brown said kids need to be taught how to spend money and to distinguish between needs, as for food, and desires for things such as Pokemon cards now and someday a car.

``Kids need to figure out whether savings is a need,'' she said. ``Savings is absolutely a need. . . . You can't survive without savings.''

Brown urged the 27 fourth-graders to save 10 percent of their allowance or gift money before spending anything on Pokemon cards.

With access to money and growing consumer clout, young people need to develop good financial habits, she said.

According to a recent KidSense Money Survey of 1,000 students 12 to 17, 50 percent said they had never been taught the facts of money by their parents. One in two said they received no training on the facts of money in school.

The 1999 Youth and Money Survey found a majority of students 16 to 22 have never taken a class in personal finance. Conducted by the Washington-based American Savings Education Council, the survey also found that two-thirds admitted they could use more lessons on money management.