Changing America’s saving habits
TIAA-CREF has just launched Raise the Rate – exclusively on our Facebook page – to solicit groundbreaking ideas to help increase the U.S. Personal Savings Rate from the current 4% to 10% over the next two years. As you are aware, most developed nations have a much higher savings rate than the U.S. With this knowledge, TIAA-CREF is challenging the best and brightest students and faculty on campuses across the country – and everyone on every Main Street, U.S.A. – to devise an innovative solution to put this country out front in terms of saving for the future.
Raise the Rate is meant to encourage discussions about saving and increase financial literacy among college students, is open to Facebook members who are U.S. citizens, 18 and older and not TIAA employees.
Contest Prizes & Judges
Grand Prize winner will take home $50,000, plus an all-expense paid trip to the 2011 South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas.
The college or university with the most submissions by professors, staff, students and alumni will receive an endowment of $25,000.
First 300 people to enter a submission win a Raise the Rate T-shirt. Deadline for submissions is July 20 and winners will be announced in October. Winners will be chosen by a panel of judges including TIAA-CREF CEO Roger Ferguson; Maria Bartiromo, host of CNBC’s “Closing Bell” and “Wall Street Journal Report”; author Dan Ariely, Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University; and Aaron Patzer, founder of Mint.com.
Fans of the TIAA-CREF Facebook page will see frequent updates about the competition. A promotional kit is also available to help faculty and administrators publicize Raise the Rate on campus. Visit raisetheratecontest.org (even if you’re not a member of Facebook) for more information, along with videos about the importance of saving, and a running tally of institutions with the greatest number of submissions.