Money Smart Program

Money Smart is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) financial education program to help people of all ages enhance their financial skills and create positive banking relationships. The curriculum to the program is available for free in CD form or directly online.

THE PROJECT

The program offers a number of curriculums tailored for different audiences, some of which are Money Smart for Young Adults, Money Smart for Adults, Money Smart for Older Adults. Each curriculum contains different modules and approaches to teaching the specific target audience.

 

Some topics that are covered in the Money Smart curriculum are:

  • Bank on It (Introduction to bank services)
  • Borrowing Basics (Introduction to credit)
  • Check it Out (Choose and keep a checking account)
  • Money Matters (How to keep track of your money)
  • Pay Yourself First (Why you should save)
  • Keep it Safe (Your rights as a consumer)
  • To Your Credit (Your credit history)
  • Charge it Right (How to make a credit card work for you)
  • Loan to Own (Know what you are borrowing before you buy)
  • Your Own Home (What home ownership is all about)
  • Financial Recover (How to recover financially & rebuild your credit)

 

In June 2016, Beneficial State Bank acquired Pan American Bank/Finance & Thrift, which had been facilitating the Money Smart Program since 2011. Since the acquisition, Beneficial State Bank has proactively utilized and adapted the program to teach financial education workshops in more than 30 locations – including high schools, colleges, nonprofit organizations and conferences. Rafael Rogel, our Financial Education Instructor, is dedicated to educating and building financial health in our communities and he also provides training and simple guidelines internally for staff, to empower them to teach financial education on their own to kids or adults, small groups, or even 1:1.

OUR IMPACT

Since June 2016, Beneficial State Bank has presented over 800 hours of financial education sessions and over 17,600 participants have benefited from our program. From 2011 to 2016, Pan American Bank/Finance & Thrift served over 12,700 participants.

Without a doubt, it is a very rewarding and motivating experience for our bank to receive comments from the students that they learned a lot and have benefited from the sessions.

– Rafael Rogel, Financial Education Instructor

We have received immensely positive feedback from students who attended Rafael’s session expressing how much information and resources they learned. Alyssa Mata, a junior Porterville Academy of Business and Finance student at Porterville High School, shared “I thought that it helped me understand more about how car loans work and how to better understand FAFSA [the government’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid]. I should get started earlier rather than procrastinating about getting ready for paying for college”.

Home-made thank you cards are also just as appreciated!

 

MOVING FORWARD

We recognize that a large population of our nation’s citizens lack the knowledge to handle their money effectively. Financial education serves to get people the tools and capacity to manage their money, empowering them to plan for their own future. Rafael and our team continue to develop, adapt, and modify course materials to teach financial education effectively and with mission aligned values. We remain committed to providing and expanding our financial education resources that can support our clients and community to achieve financial stability. 

*Some content taken from our feature on FDIC

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