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Why most young people are living on the financial edge and what you can do about it.

Young Americans Center for Financial EducationGet Involved Leave a Comment

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What if you could give the chance at a life-time of financial self-sufficiency to a child for $40?

Girl Computer Operator in AT

A Young AmeriTowne participant enters transactions in the Bank.

Daniella is 20 and living on the financial edge in Denver. She did some right things: finished high school, works two jobs and helps her struggling family pay their rent. What she didn’t get was a financial education. She doesn’t use a bank so she has no safe place to save and uses a costly check cashing service. Now her old car needs tires and a payday loan seems like her only option.

Imagine if Daniella had gone to Young AmeriTowne in 5thgrade. She’d already have practice depositing her paycheck in the bank. She’d know about budgets, saving, and investing. She might even be working and going to school to get her dream job as an accountant, inspired by her Young AmeriTowne career-for-a-day. $40 sends a student like Daniella from a low-income family to Young AmeriTowne on a scholarship. As you plan your year-end charitable giving please remember that Daniella is not alone.

One-in-four Coloradoans has no savings. And most young people are living on the financial edge, even with a college education. About a third of young adults are considered “financially precarious” and another 36% are “at-risk” – they’ve just had a drop in pay and they, too, have no savings. In fact, without a hero (you, maybe?) only 22% will be financially stable.

You can change things. You can give a child financial literacy and financial literacy makes a difference. A big difference. Researchers now know that financial literacy alone decreases the risk of being financially fragile as a young adult–regardless of educational level.

You can help a Daniella with your year-end giving. $40 is all it takes to give a financial future of wise decision making to a child who won’t have this opportunity without you. Your $40 pays for her scholarship to Young AmeriTowne ($13) and all the supplies her shop team needs to pay back their bank loan and make a profit. Or choose a monthly gift and enjoy being a hero with a scholarship a month for a Daniella (or a Jordan) for $13.

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