Growing up people are usually never taught about financial literacy. Credit Score and how to build credit is a topic that people don’t understand. I can attest to that because I was never taught any of this in school.
Sheena Allen a 29-year-old app developer who created an app called CapWay. CapWay is an online banking and financial literacy tool that helps people understand financial skills. With this app a user can link bank accounts to the app or get a pre-paid card from CapWay. It will make custom recommendations in view of a person’s ways of managing money, for example, guiding them toward a state-run program that can enable leaseholders to end up mortgage holders or disclosing to them how to maintain a strategic distance from overdraft charges.
I think this app is one of the best ideas I have ever read about. Being that the creator of this app is African-American, this will target a demographic in the black community. Black people especially need to be informed about financial literacy and how to increase wealth.
http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/29/technology/capway-sheena-allen/index.html
I was fortunate enough to go to a school where I took a personal finance course. I would say that it did help me learn about basic financial concepts like compound interest, checks, and budgeting. While the app is a great idea, I think we still need to make a push to have more school curriculums teach students about personal finance (at an early age). The article stated that it plans to roll out in Mississipi because a large number of the people who live there are unbanked and underbanked. But that had me thinking. Are these people are unbanked and underbanked because of their below average income and lack of wealth? Do they even have a device that will allow them to access the app? According to Pew Research Center, 77% of the U.S population owns a smartphone. That means there is 23% of the population that doesn’t own a smartphone and in sheer number terms — close to 70 million people. This brings me to another point, how will the app make money? The article stated, “the company will make money off paid partnerships, fees from pre-paid cards, and sponsored content and advertising.” If there aren’t enough people using the app in the first place then these different revenue streams will not be successful. Therefore, this brings me back to my original point that we need to do more to make sure that school curriculums are covering personal finance. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about whether or not people have a device that can access this app. Anyways, from the article I have attached below only 3% of Americans can pass the money quiz in the article. We better start changing curriculums fast.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/09/less-than-3-percent-of-americans-can-pass-this-6-question-money-quiz.html
This is interesting because it appears that leaders are finally coming around to the idea that people should be taught about financially literacy. A large part of the reason is likely the noise created through people like this creating popular apps about the subject.
People are graduating high school without even knowing the basics of writing a check. It is extremely important to know about the importance of financial literacy, especially since the 2008 financial crisis.
In Maryland, a bill has been proposed to teach those in Maryland about financial literacy when in school and prison. This is a solid step forward for a long-overdue issue.
https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2018/03/14/maryland-bills-call-for-financial-literacy-courses.html