Schwab’s new program for teens, called MoneyWise America, includes a standards-based financial literacy curriculum aimed at 13- to 18-year-olds, adding to the traditional three R’s taught in schools: reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic. The program will be offered at schools and nonprofits by about 8,100 trained employee volunteers—or a quarter of Schwab’s workforce—by 2025. The brokerage aims to make financial education free to each community and school in the U.S. by then, with a goal of preparing “every teen in America to achieve financial freedom by helping fill the financial education gap most schools struggle to address,” Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, president of the Charles Schwab Foundation, said in a release. Financial literacy is loosely defined as knowing how to manage and budget money effectively over a lifetime. But unless such skills are taught early, young adults can easily fall into “debt traps,” with negative credit behaviors including higher borrowing rates, mortgage delinquency, and home foreclosure, according to a 2018 report by the Brookings Institution. In addition to the new MoneyWise program, Schwab said it’s teaming up with the Girl Scouts organization to include new digital tools and more financial concepts in the group’s financial education program, beginning late next year. Have a question, comment, or story to share? You can reach Medora at medoralee@thebalance.com
