Higher Education and Training

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy is issuing this Investor Bulletin to educate investors about ABLE accounts. An Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) account provides a tax-advantaged method to save for disability-related expenses. Contributions are not tax deductible for federal income tax purposes, but your investments can grow tax free and remain so when withdrawn and used for disability-related expenses. Similar to 529 college-savings plans, ABLE programs are administered by the states.

This guide provides information to financial institutions on how they can enhance youth financial capability by partnering with youth employment programs. It maps out how and why financial institutions can engage with these programs and highlights best practices in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) by local communities.

This resource guide is for youth employment programs that are interested in enhancing financial capability1 and building partnerships with financial institutions. It maps out how and why such partnerships can help young people2 achieve greater financial well-being and employment success.

The CFPB FinEx connects and supports financial education practitioners through an online and in-person information exchange. FinEx provides financial education practitioners with centralized access to the CFPB’s tools, research on consumer financial behavior and effective practices, and other financial education resources.

These CFPB online resources and tools show the steps child welfare caseworkers and their agencies can take to help ensure that youth in foster care start their adult lives with healthy credit. Tip sheets explain how to detect identity theft or fraud, and how to resolve inaccuracies in credit reports. The CFPB also provides sample letters for disputing credit report errors on behalf of youth in foster care.

This report summarizes the findings from the Federal Reserve Board’s 3rd annual Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED), which aims to capture a snapshot of financial and economic well-being of U.S. consumers and identify potential risks to their financial stability. Topics covered include financial well-being, income and savings behaviors, economic preparedness, access to banking and credit, housing decisions, auto lending, education, student loans, and retirement planning.

Following a rigorous research effort to develop a consumer-driven definition of financial well-being, the CFPB developed and tested a set of questions–a “scale”–to measure financial well-being. The scale is designed to allow practitioners and researchers to accurately and consistently quantify, and therefore observe, something that is not directly observable–the extent to which someone’s financial situation and the financial capability that they have developed provide them with security and freedom of choice.

A report, Opportunities to Improve the Financial Capability and Financial Well-being of Postsecondary Students, has been prepared by the Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC) and describes the state of financial education among postsecondary students.

FLEC is providing this document as an overview of youth savings programs and key resources to encourage the development and implementation of programs that expand the financial capability of youth and build opportunities for financial inclusion for more families.