Finances are often among the biggest stressors for American households. Gaining knowledge on how to manage money effectively leads to better outcomes for many. Local financial organizations are addressing the prominent challenge of financial literacy in communities throughout the Midlands.
GOBankingRates reports that 63% of Americans have less than $50,000 set aside and the personal finance hub found that 40% of female survey respondents and 10% of males surveyed had no savings whatsoever.
For 15 years, the Financial Hope Collaborative (FHC) at Creighton University has delivered financial education and coaching to increase savings, income, financial confidence, and promotions while decreasing financial stress, late fees, shut-off notices, and overdrafts.
“The rise of the gig economy, volatile work hours, and deregulation make it much more difficult and complicated for many people to successfully navigate America’s current financial reality,” Executive Director Julie Kalkowski stated. “Providing accessible financial education and coaching could help people experience better health outcomes, increased income, and financially stable households.”
Decreased financial stress and improved monthly cash flow management often result in better credit scores.
“Many FHC graduates are finding better employment and housing opportunities with their higher credit scores,” she added.
Finances and Health
At present, FHC is collaborating with Creighton’s Cura Project, a program helping individuals with Type 2 diabetes.
“The goal is to determine the impact reducing financial stress has on A1C levels through these interventions: financial social worker, food pharmacy, health coaching, and financial education and coaching,” Kalkowski explained.
Previously, Creighton led one of the first clinical trials in the country to measure the impact of financial education/coaching on single mothers’ health.
“The findings were surprising, with statistically significant reductions in smoking, financial stress, and avoiding health care due to cost,” she noted.
Such discussions underscore a communitywide challenge.
“Many major areas of our lives — education, health care, employment — are siloed and separated from each other,” Kalkowski said. “Failing to see the connections between chronic financial stress and health problems or lack of financial education opportunities and detrimental financial decisions prevents holistic problem solving to these all-too-common financial problems in Omaha.”
Grassroots Program
Jon Alvarado founded Teach Financial Literacy, a bilingual program designed to break barriers for students and families.
“We have a comprehensive on-demand student program with over 40 lessons available in English and Spanish,” Alvarado explained. “Our adult program is available in English and Spanish and provides content in the three needed categories: budgeting, shopping, saving; loans, lending, debt; and investing.”
He highlighted how the organization addresses the need for bilingual access to financial literacy.
“A challenge for any community or region is, how is your community or region growing and developing?” he said. “Financial literacy plays a part in the growth and development of a community by equipping individuals with financial skills that will reap a lifetime of benefits.”
At some point, financial literacy will impact every person.
“The impact is exponential for an individual, family, and community with stronger financial literacy skills,” he said.
Alvarado likes to say, “If it’s not working for you, it’s working on you.”
“When individuals go through our program, understanding the concept and principle of compound interest working for you is powerful not only in financial development but in personal development,” he said. “This quote and compound interest connection has deep meaning and changes lots of lives.”
Closing gaps, bridging barriers
Cobalt Credit Union also recognizes the need for educational resources for underserved communities and areas of economic disparity.
“Cobalt’s approach to addressing these challenges is providing accessible financial education materials and resources,” said Carol Sherrow, chief marketing officer. “Cobalt’s seminars and lunch-and-learns ran by our wealth management team are open to the public, not just our members.”
The credit union is actively tailoring outreach efforts to reach diverse audiences and address specific needs.
“Cobalt has recently obtained two important designations that will help in these areas: Juntos Avanzamos (Together We Advance) and Low-Income designations,” Sherrow said.
“With Juntos Avanzamos, we join a network of credit unions committed to serving and empowering Hispanic and immigrant consumers by helping them navigate the U.S. financial system and providing safe, affordable, and relevant financial services.”
With the latter designation, she said Cobalt provides and helps fund services in new territories/rural areas. Furthermore, its Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) lending program reportedly allows credit unions to offer financial services to individuals who may otherwise be excluded from traditional banking channels (including immigrants, foreign students, and those on dependent visas).
“By offering lending products to members with ITINs, we enable them to access credit for various purposes such as buying a home, a car, or starting a business,” she said. “This can be crucial for them to achieve financial stability.”
Cobalt is also revamping its financial education webpage for seamless access to budgeting, savings, and money management resources, and it partners with the likes of local schools to develop such skills early on.
For instance, Branch Manager Jade Brown partners with Sacred Heart, Metropolitan Community College, and the federal TRIO program on courses to support students’ “safe, confident and efficient relationship with money early on.”
Sherrow also noted how such relationships help individuals avoid pitfalls: excessive debt, predatory lending, and financial scams.
Accessibility Matters
Heather Seaman, manager of retail banking at Core Bank, indicated education on debt management, budgeting, saving, and investing is fundamental to Core Bank’s financial products and services.
“We also focus on the education and training of our teams to deliver exceptional experience for each customer and design a banking experience to help them succeed,” she said.
She spoke to free apps and resources; for instance, Core Bank’s personal finance management tool to keep all finances and accounts in one spot.
“It, among others out there, is customizable from the financial expert to the beginner that is building a strong financial future,” Seaman said.
Literacy education extends to community partnerships with, for example, Omaha Street School.
“We have discussed budgeting and saving as well as future plans as they start building their lives in our metro area,” Seaman said. “Sharing our financial knowledge in the community is an integral part of not only our customers’ success but our future customers’ success.”
Core Bank, she continued, leverages social media to get info out to protect customers and communities from fraud and, likewise, to convey favorable financial opportunities.