Find Your Purpose with Financial Literacy for Low Income Adults and Families

Here’s how the NFEC helped Eric turn his passion into his life’s purpose.

Eric, a volunteer for nonprofit financial organizations, wanted to teach a course on financial literacy for low income adults. Problem was, he didn’t have any teaching experience and didn’t know where to start.

Creating a financial education program that aligned with national financial literacy standards seemed like a massive undertaking and he needed a structure to work from. Asking a few key people at the financial literacy organization where he volunteers lead to the National Financial Educators Council, which was exactly what he was looking for.

With his target audience in mind, Eric thought about the learning goals for his students. He wanted them to be knowledgeable about the basics of personal finance and confident in their real-world money management skills.

An 8-week course, 4 hours a week, would probably be enough time for his students to learn the skills and concepts and hopefully get into strategic thinking about their personal finances.

Delivery of Course Material in Eric’s Financial Literacy for Low Income Families Program

Teaching financial literacy for low income adults might be more challenging than just offering an online program because most of Eric’s target audience might not have access to their own computer or internet.

He decided on live classroom presentations to delivery his financial literacy training in order to better reach the students on a personal level. This would also give them the structure and incentive to push themselves. The curriculum would be based on a timeline, with some flexibility to help faster or slower students.

The next step was to think about the specific aspects of personal money management Eric wanted his students to learn in the financial literacy program. In order for them to be able to improve their financial lives, they needed to understand the basics of personal money management.

Savings, debt and budgeting should be the backbone of this first class. The allotted 32 hours would provide enough time for his students to begin thinking critically about each of these topics.

Financial Literacy for Low Income Adults Curriculum Design

A course that teaches financial literacy to low income families requires specific design features. Eric wanted his curriculum to offer lessons that are practical and offer incentives to take real-world action for students to improve their finances. He wanted the course to have learning principles that are based on evidence. He also needed it to meet professional educational standards.

Eric was not qualified to teach the course himself. He had no teaching experience providing financial education to poor and financially challenged and his hands were full building the program. He hired an NFEC Certified Educator with years of experience teaching personal finance for lower-income adults. He could relate to the students because he had been poor most of his life and had clawed his way out of the low-income trap.

Results of Eric’s Financial Literacy for Low Income Families Course

26 students registered for Eric’s class and 21 of them completed it successfully. All of that 80% showed a strong desire to continue learning about how to manage their money. The pre- and post-tests showed undeniable improvement in their financial knowledge.  It is Eric’s hope to progress students from this financial literacy program for the poor and lower income to a financial foundation course.

Eric sorted thru the data and created a report that clearly showed the dramatic success of his financial literacy for low income adults class. He planned on using it to get support for expansion and procure financial help.