CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Coast Life Credit Union is helping fill a gap in financial education for young people through a program called Financial Fridays.
The program invites youth and young adults to spend a half-day at the credit union learning about personal finance topics, including budgeting, credit scores, and real-life money management scenarios.
"It's a financial literacy event. It can be considered a financial wellness event overall. It's a great event where we open up our doors at Coast Life Credit Union and invite the youth and young adults in," Eric said.
Participants are given a simulated real-life budget that may include debt and even the responsibility of children, designed to mirror the financial decisions adults face.
"We give them a reality experience with a full-fledged budget, maybe some debt. We sign them, maybe a kid or two as well too, just a real-life experience," Eric said.
Uriah, a program participant, said one of the most valuable lessons he took away was the 50/30/20 rule for managing money.
"One of the biggest things that I learned is the 50, 20/30 rule — you put 50% of what you get into your savings account, 20% you could put into your wants and 30% you could put into your needs," Uriah said.
Uriah said the lesson on saving had a lasting impact.
"Saving goes a long way, because it could go from right now, when I was a child, I had $1,000 saved and I could use it when I'm older, you know, to buy an apartment, put a down payment for my house maybe," Uriah said.
The program also teaches young people how to evaluate financial institutions and the products they offer.
"We like to educate the youth that they should shop around. There's various fees that might be associated with certain accounts that if they might not have the minimum in their bank account, they get fees on top of that," Eric said.
Eric said participants are also taught to look for added value when choosing a bank or credit union.
"Every card, that debit card that you're swiping or tapping out there should be coming along with rewards, and not every bank or credit union offers that with them," Eric said.
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