What is Financial Literacy?
Financial literacy refers to an individual’s grasp of the information and skills required to make savvy financial decisions. It encapsulates several areas of knowledge that are essential for financial welleness, including:
• Earning and spending
• Budgeting and saving
• Financial products and services
• Credit and debt management
• Retirement and estate planning
• Tax planning
• Investing
• Security and scams
Improving your financial literacy means improving your future. Mastering these concepts can help you save more, spend less, invest wisely, and avoid common pitfalls like overborrowing.
How Can you Celebrate?
As long as you’re learning, there’s no wrong way to observe Financial Literacy Month. Here are some of our favorite ideas:
• Review and update your monthly budget, ensuring it aligns with your current financial picture,
needs, and goals.
• Start a family financial practice that you do together, like a communal change jar that will help fund your next family vacation, to model good money habits and give little ones a chance to practice them.
• Enroll in a free or low-cost financial workshop, webinar, seminar, or course to help you brush up on the basics or learn something new from an expert.
•Try a new financial tool, such as Suffolk CU’s Personal Financial Management tool that features budgeting, expense tracking, and debt repayment functionalities – available through Online Banking.
Before you dive in, reflect on your current money habits and identify areas that you have the most trouble with, such as making consistent savings contributions. These are the areas you should strengthen during Financial Literacy Month.
Where Do You Start?
Start right here at Suffolk CU. Our vast financial resources include informative articles, functional calculators, workshops from MoneyEdu, and more. We’ve also developed materials just for Financial Literacy Month, including four articles packed with guidance to launch your learning journey:
•Financial Literacy for Families: Find practical knowledge and advice on budgeting, saving, and making informed financial decisions for families.
•Expect the Unexpected: Learn about the significance, benefits, and uses of emergency funds and the role they play in financial resilience.
•Checking Accounts 101: Explore the ins and outs of checking accounts, including types, features, and benefits.
• 6 Strategies to Pay Down Debt While Building Savings: Discover how to strike the perfect balance between reducing debt and growing savings with these approaches.