Love & Money: Millennial Couples savvier than their youth would suggest

Couples who talk about money at least once a week say they are happier (78 percent), than those who discuss money less than every few months (50 percent), according to the second annual TD Bank Love & Money Survey.

Money is a hot relationship topic for millennials with 74 percent discussing it weekly (and an additional 19 percent discussing it at least once a month). In fact, these discussions begin even before the first date, with nearly half (48 percent) of millennials surveyed who have used an online dating service discussing their finances before meeting, compared with 36 percent across all generations.

"Talking about money can be uncomfortable," says Ryan Bailey, head of Consumer Deposits, Payments and Personal Lending at TD Bank. "Establishing a healthy dialogue about finances can help couples get on the same page from the start and result in happier relationships in the long run."

What's Mine is Yours? Not So Fast, Say Millennials

• While more than two-thirds (68 percent) of millennials have at least one shared bank account, they are somewhat averse to sharing credit card accounts, with 60 percent stating they keep some separate or don't share any at all (compared with 55 percent of Gen Xers and 48 percent of boomers).
• Across all generations, 76 percent of couples share at least one bank account, including 79 percent of those who said they are happy in their relationships. Moreover, 63 percent of all couples shared at least one credit card, including 68 percent of those who are happy.
• Credit card debt is a significant factor when it comes to relationships and 44 percent say they are less likely to date someone with credit card debt.

More Millennials Are Saving for a Rainy Day

• More than half of millennials budgeted for all surveyed categories: Groceries/alcohol (73 percent), eating out (67 percent), entertainment (62 percent), travel (53 percent), clothing/personal items (55 percent) and savings/unexpected expenses (68 percent).
• Only 38 percent of millennials actually stick to their budgets, and dining out monthly is the first to go (65 percent).
• When it comes to savings, however, millennials bettered their counterparts with 68 percent indicating it's budgeted for monthly compared with 61 percent of Gen Xers and 52 percent of boomers.

Keeping a Secret? It Could Ruin Your Relationship

• Although millennials are twice as likely (one-in-five) to break up with their partners if they discover a financial secret, they're also twice as likely (one-in-five) to be keeping one (versus 10 percent overall).
• The most common financial secrets across all generations are: a secret bank account (48 percent); significant credit card debt (37 percent) and a bad credit score (32 percent). Fifteen percent of those keeping a financial secret never plan to come clean.

"Secret bank accounts, or major debt not revealed, are secrets that can really impact trust and intimacy in a relationship," says April Masini, renowned relationship expert and author of the 'Ask April' advice column, who analyzed the results of the TD Bank survey. "The damage is never about the money — it's about the secret. The secret is the damaging dynamic."      

Additional highlights are available on the TD Bank Media Room.

Survey Methodology
Research company MARU/VCR&C conducted the survey among a nationally representative sample of Americans who are currently in a relationship. The online fieldwork occurred between July 20 and July 29, 2016. In total, 1902 completes were gathered in the U.S. Data has been weighted by age, gender and region to reflect the population. Margin of Error on the total sample is +/-2.9percent.

'Beauty and the Beast' opens Peoria Players season

For years Peoria Players has tried to get the rights to produce Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” but was stymied for one reason or another. Other local community theatres had done it, but Players, the oldest continuously running community theatre in Illinois, had not.

Until now.

The Peoria Players production of the classic opens Friday at 7:30 p.m. and is off to a good start as opening night is sold out. “Wow, that’s great. That is exactly what we hoped for,” said Jimmy Ulrich, who was chosen to direct the show that opens Peoria Player’s 98th season and is scheduled for eight performances and might get at least one more as it runs through Sept. 18.

“I love this show and I always have. My mother (prolific director Mary Ellen Ulrich) always wanted to direct it and tried to get it for year but she couldn’t get the royalties because it was touring all the time. That’s because it’s so popular. When we found out a year ago we could get it, I told her but she said I should do it, instead. So I submitted it,” said Ulrich, who directed “Damn Yankees” two seasons ago for Peoria Players.

That was before learning that Eastlight Theatre in East Peoria also planned to do “Beauty and the Beast” this year as community theatres wanted to get the show before a new version comes out next year. The Eastlight production was in June.

“We planned to do it and we decided we were going to stick to our guns. And we had no problem getting a cast,” Ulrich said. “I really don’t think it’s going to hurt us that Eastlight just did it because people really do love this show. And look, our opening night is sold out. They still want to see it.”

Jillian Risinger, who has been seen on local stages frequently the last couple of years, portrays Belle in the Peoria Players production. Usually cast in roles that call for a brassy, loud person with strong acting and singing skills, this is somewhat a departure, Ulrich said.

“And yet, while this isn’t her usual type of role because Belle is more quiet and reserved, she does play her as more of a feminist. She doesn’t take anything from anybody. In fact, it’s my opinion that Belle actually kicked off the feminist female lead movement because she is quiet but strong and she goes out and saves her father,” Ulrich said.

Tyler Smith portrays the Beast, who is a prince before being turned hideous as a curse. A student at Bradley University, Smith is the youngest to play the role in adult community theatre in the Peoria region. But Ulrich said he is more than capable.

“Tyler has done many shows in the area and plenty of adult shows. He knows what he’s doing on stage and he fits the bill here really well,” he said.

Other lead roles are portrayed by Josh Hammond (Lumiere), Jeremy Kelly (Gaston), Jake Van Hoorn (Cogsworth), Katy Hawley Ailshie (Madam De La Grande Bouche), Curt Rowden (Maurice), Andrew Schoepke (LeFou), Courtney Arnett (Babette), Maddox Stephens as Chip in his stage debut and Angie Dorough as Mrs. Potts.

“I have a great cast and great people backstage,” he said.

Rebecca Sierra is in charge of makeup and Jill Barr is in charge of costumes, two very key items in a show like this.

Diedre Kaiser was the choreographer and Julie Simmons the music director. The 10-piece orchestra is conducted by Shawn Degenhart. Kaitlin Seaman is assistant director.

“I hope audiences will fall in love with this show all over again. I also hope they see why we and other theatres pay tribute to this Disney classic,” Ulrich said.

Show times for “Beauty and the Beast” are 7:30 p.m. Sept. 9, 10, 15, 16 and 17 and at 2 p.m. on Sept. 11, 17 and 18. Ulrich said the matinee on Saturday Sept. 17 was added for younger audiences.

Tickets are $19 for adults and $12 for patrons 20 and younger. To order visit www.peoriaplayers.org or call (309) 688-4473.

College Illinois! appears headed for future bailout

 
By Vimbai Chikomo
for ILLINOIS NEWS NETWORK
 
Many families concerned with the unpredictability of future tuition rates in Illinois have turned to pre-paid tuition programs, hoping for some kind of guarantee they will be able to afford their children’s tuition when the time comes.
 
The Illinois Student Assistance Commission, or ISAC, launched College Illinois!, the state’s 529 Prepaid Tuition Program, in 1998. The oft-criticized program has been suspended in the past and now is struggling to find new contract buyers who are looking to pre-pay future students’ college expenses.
 
Now facing lagging sales of new contracts, the program is facing the possibility it could be out of money by 2026.
 
A cash infusion in excess of $108 million in 2025 would be required to sustain the program, according to an actuarial soundness valuation report provided to College Illinois! in June 2015 by Gabriel Roeder Smith & Company, an independent consulting and actuarial firm based in Chicago.
 
ISAC Executive Director Eric Zarnikow said more than 70,000 contracts have been sold and more than 30,000 students have gone to college using College Illinois! benefits since the program’s inception.
 
“The program has been challenged over the years by the Great Recession and double-digit tuition inflation,” Zarnikow said. “More recently, contract sales have been impacted by lack of trust in the state as a result of the ongoing fiscal crisis.”
 
The program halted for more than a year after a 2011 Crain’s Chicago Business investigation revealed the risky nature of the $1 billion investment fund supporting the program, which relies substantially on hedge funds and other alternative investments.
 
Four years after the program reopened, it sold 473 new contracts by the end of May, 2016 when the current sales season ended – a 27 percent drop from last year’s 646. And in 2014, the program sold only 438 new contracts, Crain’s reported.
 
To support future obligations, the program must sell more than twice the number of new agreements it sold in 2015 – 1,500 new contracts annually, according to the commission actuaries' projections. Without a dramatic increase in the number of sold contracts, Gabriel Roeder Smith & Company’s report estimates that College Illinois! is in danger of running out of money in 10 years.
 
Robert DiMeo, co-founder and managing director of Chicago-based pension consultant DiMeo Schneider & Associates LLC, used the program for his two sons, but said he would think twice about the program now.
 
“Certainly, when I look at the financial condition of the state – and then I think it is widely known that the financial condition of this program is not optimal – yeah, I think that would cause a participant or a potential participant to pause and at least gain a better understanding of all of that,” he said.
 
Zarnikow, however, has said families have little cause for worry because prepaid tuition program funds are held separately in a trust fund at the Northern Trust Company, “and by law can only be used to pay plan benefits and operate the program.”
 
“All financial plans, however, including College Illinois!, involve risks,” he said. “With respect to College Illinois!, the state of Illinois has a moral obligation requiring the governor to request funding from the Illinois General Assembly in the event it is determined that the program does not have adequate assets to meet its contractual obligations in an upcoming fiscal year.”
 
Zarnikow added that the General Assembly has a moral obligation to bail out the program if it is determined it does not have adequate assets to meet contractual obligations – but it is not obligated to provide funding.
 
“What’s more likely is that the state has an obligation, and if the money is not available someday in the future, there will be discussions by the legislature about subsidizing the program,” said state Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington.
 
The Republican lawmaker noted that any program that “relies on a sale tomorrow to pay a debt of today is fundamentally flawed.”
 
“I firmly believe that the state needs to offer college affordability programs that allow low, middle and other-class families to plan and save responsibly for college, especially these days when we’re dealing with staggering tuition costs,” Barickman said. “But in doing (so), the state has to be financially responsible to taxpayers, too.”

Ranked: The Most (And Least) Expensive Stadiums for NFL Fans to Watch a Game

While some NFL stadiums cater to their fans with affordable tickets and food prices, others are notorious for some pretty steep charges.

GOBankingRates.com looked at the following five factors to determine how much it costs, on average, for two people to attend a home game for 31 NFL teams:

• Two tickets
• Two hot dogs
• Two beers
• Two soft drinks
• Parking

The study found that a day spent watching a Washington Redskins game at FedEx Field will cost $272.17 for two people, more than twice as much as a Cincinnati Bengals game at Paul Brown Stadium ($131.93).

To learn where your team ranks, see the full findings at: https://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/ranked-expensive-stadiums-nfl-fans-watch-football-game/ 

Stand-Out Study Insights:

• You could buy two game tickets to a Buffalo Bills game at Ralph Wilson Stadium ($72.66) for less than the cost of parking at a Dallas Cowboys game at AT&T stadium ($75).
• While hot dogs at a Seattle Seahawks home game are half the price of those at a Detroit Lions home game, expect to pay almost five times more for parking at the Seahawk's CenturyLink field.
• Beer prices are similar in Oakland and San Francisco, but a 49ers ticket will cost you more than twice as much as a Raiders ticket.

"Going to a football game on a Sunday is the equivalent of going to church for some fans," said Kristen Bonner, lead researcher on the GOBankingRates study. "The cost of these games, however, is something that fans have to think about and, in some cases, budget for in advance. Luckily, there are stadiums that make the experience more affordable so fans can return for more games throughout the season."

Methodology: GOBankingRates.com surveyed five costs of attending a football game at all 31 National Football League stadiums: (1) ticket prices, calculated by averaging the cost per game for the three cheapest season ticket prices advertised on the football team's official NFL site; (2) parking, (3) beer, (4) soft drink and (5) hot dog prices, as reported in the September 2015 Team Marketing Report. To find the cost of attending a game, GOBankingRates assumed two guests and calculated the total cost of two tickets, two hot dogs, two beers and one parking spot. Stadiums were ranked by this amount to find the least and most expensive stadiums for NFL fans attending a game.