I was invited to attend a play at Somerville High School yesterday called, "Money Matters." Produced by the Underground Railway Theater, the theater-in-residence at Central Square Theater in Cambridge, the production was written by its 16 youth members as part of a Cambridge Savings Bank-sponsored financial education initiative.

The young actors and actresses took part in CSB’s Smart Financial Education Program to help them understand some money managing basics, and then went out and interviewed at least 80 individuals of various ages, ethnicities and professions to get their thoughts on key money issues.

The students took actual quotes from the interviews and wove them together into a series of conversations that talked about everything from spending one’s paycheck every week ("I love the feeling of having made a purchase, but I hate the feeling of having no money ...") to the fiscal inequities that people sometimes face when they go to college. ("Economic diversity is something that I have to learn to live with … I’m at college and I care about community, but where does caring about community end?")

The storylines were linked together by one central character – the tooth fairy – who was prompting the conversations by engaging in a “tooth fairy stimulus package.” Each character received $100 per tooth and then the tooth fairy watched their responses and actions to having the money.

Why the tooth fairy? According to the organizers it was because across the board, people who were interviewed said that their first memory of dealing with money was when the tooth fairy paid them a visit. The tooth fairy was also apparently the cause of a lot of discussion about money and equity since many people had different opinions, and experiences, about the value of a tooth.

While the play was interesting, what really caught my attention was the Q&A period after. The kids in the audience needed a little prompting to talk about the topics brought forward, but it was interesting to hear what had made an impression on them. One student said that she had never really understood the difference between a debit and a credit card, and the impact that interest can have on one’s budget.

“The world of credit is a mysterious world to kids of this age,” said Evan Diamond, an assistant vice president and Financial Education Program Manager for Cambridge Savings Bank. “They need to understand that every time you get a credit card you are taking out a loan. Showing them how much interest you will pay if you fall into the trap of minimum payments is a real wake up call.”

Several other students said they were struck by a monologue about a student who went to Haiti and learned the meaning of money for survival’s sake as opposed to just pure spending.

“We try to connect the emotions with the action” through the community program, Diamond said.

CSB started its Smart Financial Education Program in 2010 in response to the financial crisis, Diamond said. The bank has a team of educators who visit schools as well as a variety of community centers to provide an overview on a core curriculum of four modules: Budgeting and Saving; Managing a Checking Account; Credit Smarts; Fraud Smarts. They also customize their classes to fit a particular area, for example they might discuss finance to students interested in entrepreneurship and business, or they might discuss interest rates and mathematics concepts in a math class.

The team has taught more than 300 sessions, reaching 4,6000 participants at high schools in towns including Lexington, Arlington, Belmont and Concord, as well as non-profit groups such as the Community Learning Center in Cambridge and the Somerville Homeless Coalition. This spring they’ll be reaching out to kindergartners at a variety of schools in order to encourage kids to think about saving starting at a young age. Diamond emphasized that the group does not provide promotional materials on CSB at these events since “we don’t do this to sell accounts.”

“Managing money is tricky,” Diamond said. “It’s nice to be able to give them good advice.

As a follow up to my post yesterday, I received this infographic from DoughMain.com that illustrates some of the key statistics they uncovered from a survey conducted last month to learn more about how kids are interacting with money in their daily lives.

Fidelity Investments today announced a new iPad App that allows investors to make a mobile deposit directly into their Fidelity IRA accounts. Investors can take a picture of a check with their iPad camera and immediately send it to Fidelity for deposit into a traditional or Roth IRA.

New Year's Resolutions often feel like empty promises that I make to myself. So when January rolls around, I take stock of my long list and ask, "What is actually achievable?" This year, the choice was pretty obvious: I need to go paperless. The ever-creeping piles of paper too easily start to remind me of the show, "Hoarders," and I am tiring of spending the week between Christmas and New Year digging myself out, shredding, and lugging out trash bags to the curb.

So it was with great curiosity (and amusement at the timing) that last week I saw in my inbox an email about Manilla, a new service that aims to help people manage their accounts -- and they use this term rather broadly. You can track the obvious household utility bills as well as financial accounts such as credit cards and bank statements. They also help you keep track of other types of accounts that can fall through the cracks, like subscriptions to magazines or travel and rewards programs.

Boston.com readers had a lot to add in their comments to the survey questions. Read some of them here – and share yours in the comments section of the blog.

Bank of America Corp. yesterday released a statement saying that it has decided not to move forward with its proposed $5 monthly debit card fee. As reported in the Boston Globe, customers had petitioned the bank, and mobilized to close their accounts, to avoid the fee. Bank of America’s decision followed similar moves by other large banks, including JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co.

Bank of America’s decision should come as no surprise to Boston.com readers. Among those individuals who completed the survey from my blog post yesterday, more than 82 percent said that they would consider switching banks if their institution started charging monthly debit card fees. Among those surveyed, more than 70 percent said they use debit cards regularly for making purchases.

Do you use a large, national bank or a smaller, regional one? Personally, I’ve never chosen simply because of size. Usually my decision is based on need for certain services. In recent years, my decision was driven mainly by accessibility to a relatively wide variety of online banking services. I was willing to accept a certain level of trade-off between fees and convenience.

I think like many consumers, in recent weeks I’ve been taking a second, harder look at my bank and the fees it charges. Ever since Bank of America Corp. and several other national financial providers proposed charging monthly debit card fees, I’ve been asking myself, “What am I willing to pay for, and how much?”