Financial Literacy Month
Apr 1, 2022
Traditionally, April 1 is celebrated as April Fool’s Day. But don’t let the first day of the month fool you because April is when our entire nation observes Financial Literacy Month. Financially literate people understand earning, spending, saving, investing, borrowing and protecting — the critical components of financial health. Experts boil this down further to four pillars: Spend, Save, Borrow and Plan. No matter how you look at it, this requires a basic education in money management.
Financial Literacy Month Has Roots in Education
Financial Literacy Month is a national campaign to raise awareness about the need for more and better financial education. Introduced as Youth Financial Literacy Day by the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE), this original event has grown in duration and scope over the ensuing 20 years. Now organized by the Jump$tart Coalition, the event is targeted to adults as well as youth with the aim of making us all better at handling our money. This education is so important that in 2004, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution to recognize April as Financial Literacy Month.
Financial Health in America
In July, 2021, NEFE produced these startling findings:
- It’s stressful. An alarming 85% of Americans say that something is causing them stress right now regarding their personal finances.
- Disturbing top concerns. For 56% of Americans, having enough in savings was a top concern, and 44% cited paying bills. Nearly a third of Americans were concerned about freeing themselves from their debt.
- Missed expectations. Nearly a quarter of U.S. adults said that their current quality of their financial life was worse than they expected.
- Ongoing struggle. Nearly half of U.S. adults admit to living paycheck to paycheck.
- Vulnerable to crises. As of midyear 2021, 70% of U.S. adults had to make financial adjustments due to the pandemic. Nearly three in ten American adults had to cut their monthly expenses.
- Millennials in trouble. Less than a quarter of Millennials demonstrate basic financial literacy, yet only 17% of students were required to take at least one semester of personal finance in high school.
Youth Education
As of 2020, 45 states were including personal finance education in their K-12 curriculum. However, more than half of U.S. states don’t require taking a financial education course for graduation, and many states still don’t require that such a course even be offered. Few teens will voluntarily sign up for this kind of class. Yet, when financial coursework is mandated, students generally grow up to better handle their money with fewer regrets.
Honda FCU Enriches Your Education
Dedicated to the financial well-being of every member, Honda FCU offers a full platform of financial literacy educational tools. Make a point to bookmark our Financial Wellness page where you can leap into the Enrich Learning Hub. Enrich provides a customizable online learning environment that makes learning accessible, engaging and even fun:
- It’s simple to start. Dive in by answering a few quick questions about your money emotions and financial habits. Within minutes, Enrich will deliver a dashboard that’s tailored just for you.
- It fits your needs. Personalized tools include front-page content based on your personal must-knows, pinpointed exercises that help fill your knowledge gaps, how-to tutorials that expand your expertise, videos offering useful tips and tricks, entertaining games for fun, as well as dynamic progress tracking to help you accelerate toward your goals.
- You can learn at your own pace. Videos and other learning tools are available when you have time. Try the games — so much fun, you’ll be glad you stopped by.
For easy hands-on practice, take a few minutes to explore Honda FCU’s convenient online resources and calculators. Brief, easy-to-follow articles and simple forms provide fast answers for tasks like determining your debt-to-income ratio. Want to know if you should pay off debt or save? There’s a calculator for that!
Boost Your Account Balance with Ascend
Honda FCU is pleased to offer one-on-one personal financial advice through our Ascend program. Fill out the confidential consultation questionnaire available on the Financial Wellness page to discuss your situation and learn from an expert.
This April and beyond, Honda FCU is committed to helping you learn and grow your financial literacy … as well as your balance!
LINKS
https://www.jumpstart.org/what-we-do/promote-financial-literacy/financial-literacy-month/
