Kara McGuire: Learning from experience

Allie Marks' friends looked at her funny when she told them that she'll be spending a good chunk of her free time hanging out with AARP members. Yeah, she's a senior -- but of the high school sort. So, they wondered, what is a 17-year-old from the west-central Minnesota town of Norcross doing hanging out with a bunch of old people?

The short answer is, brainstorming ways to pay for health care and to save for retirement. She and other members of her organization -- Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) -- are working with the Minnesota AARP chapter to get the word out about the "Divided We Fail" campaign. The initiative -- a partnership with AARP, Business Roundtable and the Service Employees International Union -- is designed to inform the public about the struggle that many Americans face to find affordable health care and to save enough for a secure retirement. In addition to revamping the health care system, Divided We Fail is calling for Social Security reform, financial incentives for retirement saving and access to financial management tools for all. The campaign will also urge elected officials to make these issues top priority.

The Minnesota AARP chapter is kicking off the statewide program with a town hall forum Monday in Bloomington, followed by meetings in the other seven congressional districts. This is one of a few states that are including young people in the efforts.

When I asked AARP State President Skip Humphrey why he thought such a campaign should matter to young people, the former Minnesota attorney general's answer was very personal:

"If I want my grandchildren to enjoy their senior years long after I'm gone, they've got to begin to understand they need to start [saving and planning] now."

Granted, it's a tough sell. "Heck, I'm 65 and I'm going to live forever," Humphrey quipped. Marks, a vice president with FCCLA, agrees. But she hopes that the personal stories that she and her peers collect from Minnesotans around the state will help. "It's really important for us to take experiences of the older generation to apply them to our lives."

The idea is for FCCLA students to take what they learn from their intergenerational interviews and include it in the organization's Financial Fitness program.

Money skills are more important than ever. The average life expectancy continues to climb, and it's now 78 for a person born in 2005. Health care and other costs of living are also rising. That means we'll need more money to make it through retirement, or we'll have to get used to working into our 70s.

While retirement is decades away for teens and 20-somethings, saving for it should not be. Learning the difference between wants and needs and how to manage debt is crucial, especially as high-schoolers start thinking about college and setting out on their own. "The reality is, if you wait until age 65 and then you start [saving], it's nigh onto impossible to collect the kind of resources ... that provide you the kind of financial security [you'd like] in retirement," Humphrey said.

Marks hopes that the first-hand stories she and her friends collect will compel other teens to take a critical look at what they do with their money.

Divided We Fail and the Financial Fitness programs may not influence teen spending. But a better understanding of key issues such as affordable, quality health care and Social Security reform should at least inform their decisions come election time. Marks said she knows she'll be using her new knowledge about health care and Social Security when she turns 18 and can voice her opinion in the voting booth.

Have a column idea? Call Kara McGuire at 612-673-7293, or send e-mails to: kara@startribune.com.