Mary Meeker is out with her voluminous (294 slides worth!) Internet Trends analysis for 2018. I wanted to break this up into a few posts highlighting trends that tie into the financial lives of our students. Don't worry, we will turn these into Questions of the Day in time for the 2018-19 school year and we also have activities that incorporate these trends. Here are the first five...

1) 60% of payment transactions are occurring digitally (outside of a store environment):

• NGPF Lesson (updated 2018): Mobile and Online Banking
• NEW Interactive: Online Banking Simulation

2) In light of ongoing online data breaches, consumers taking steps to protect their data. 

• Project: Launch an ID Theft Awareness Campaign

3) On-demand jobs ("the gig economy") continues to grow, although a recent BLS report suggested that there are fewer workers with side hustles today then there were 10 years ago (I think it has something to do how this type of work is defined):

• Activity idea from blog post: Let's Pick A Side Hustle
• Interactive: Can you make it as an Uber driver? 

4. Lifelong learning has become a "thing" with one leading company (Coursera) touting 33 million registrants and growing at 30% per year. As the top Courses indicate below, lots of leading universities putting their content out there for FREE! Sounds like a good summer activity to stay sharp!

5. Social media not only driving product discovery but also purchases with 55% indicating that they had purchased a product online after discovering it on social media.

• Blog post: How does influence work on social media? (Infographic with discussion questions)

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.