April Financial Literacy Month

Financial Literacy: What does it mean, and why it’s important to us all?

Understanding, managing, and improving your finances takes commitment and dedication, but the time invested can lead to a substantial payout.

What is financial literacy?

The National Financial Educators Council defines financial literacy as understanding money.  By investing time into managing your money, you can work towards achieving your personal goals, enhancing your quality of life, and establishing a foundation for long-term financial security. These efforts improve your confidence in money management and help you make better decisions.

Who should focus on financial literacy?  All – from the very young to older adults.

 As young adults working their first jobs and students planning for their future expenditures may focus on their short-term money needs –Most of us have been in this position. However, students and young professionals who focus on understanding the importance of financial literacy and the process of managing finances set themselves up for a lifetime of success.

That said, if older adults are just now investing time and energy into understanding their finances, know that you can still make a massive impact in the years ahead. Financial literacy is a lifelong journey – and no matter the mile-marker you join the trail, simply taking small steps is enough to put you on the right path.

What steps can you take to increase my financial literacy?

Online financial literacy resources are abundant. The Financial Literacy and Education Commission’s mymoney.gov site contains a wealth of information that can help you start to shape a plan for improving your financial picture. There you will find principles from earning money, investing, and protecting and how to spend money and borrow successfully.  

In addition, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) offers consumer advice on renting or owning a home, avoiding scams, appropriate borrowing, understanding your credit report and much more. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also contains consumer tools to help you protect your money.

In addition, as a financial institution, 21^st Century Bank is committed to providing resources to help consumers with this topic. The Consumer Resources page on our website offers worksheet downloads, flipbooks and documents that outline everything from financial planning to managing your financial resources and cybersecurity awareness to resources for older adults. Our customers are our neighbors – and it’s important to us that the communities we live and work in have the resources they need to achieve financial freedom.

How does your bank play a role in financial literacy?

As a local community bank in the Minneapolis-St Paul Metro Area, we’re committed to helping people understand and manage their money. In addition to protecting the dollars you deposit into our bank as part of our agreement with the Federal Insurance Deposit Corporation, our banking team members take time either directly supporting customer knowledge or providing resources to get you started on your financial journey.