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> Posted by Ariel Schwartz, Senior Editor, Co.Exist
The following post was originally published on Fast Company’s Co.Exist.
The challenge was simple, or so it seemed: Pay my bills and complete a handful of money-related errands before my work shift began at noon. It was harder than I ever could have imagined.
In reality, I wasn’t handling my own finances; I was participating in a simulation of what it’s like to be one of the underbanked—that is, to be one of the 7.7 percent of Americans with limited access to traditional banking services. The Financial Solutions Lab, a spin-off of the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI), put on the simulation for a group of entrepreneurs, nonprofit employees, and banking executives so that they could come up with new product ideas for addressing the challenges of cash flow management.
> Posted by Juan Blanco, Associate, Financial Inclusion 2020, CFI
A few weeks ago J.P. Morgan made a $30 million commitment to create the Financial Solutions Lab, a move representative of the growing recognition among all financial stakeholders of the importance of financial capability.
The Financial Solutions Lab, a five-year initiative, will be managed by the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) and it seeks to bring together experts in behavioral economics, design, technology, and nonprofit services in order to develop innovative and scalable financial products and services that strengthen client financial capability and well-being. Ideo.org and ideas42 are to serve as strategic partners on the initiative. By bringing these stakeholders together, the Lab aims to identify new ways in which customers can improve credit behavior, increase savings, and build assets.
> Posted by Jeffrey Riecke, Communications Assistant, CFI
When you receive a paycheck, what are your next steps? Do you have set amounts that you allocate to certain bank accounts? Do you specify how much you’ll be allowed to spend across a set of expense categories? Maybe you even have analysis programs that help you track your recent financial activity and their relation to your goals? Since you’re reading a financial inclusion blog, I’m guessing you fit into one if not all three of these money management groupings. But of course this isn’t the case for everyone.
For many, receiving a paycheck isn’t followed by examining a financial analysis program’s dashboard, making adjustments to a financial plan for moving forward, and carefully dispensing funds. It’s followed by the elation that comes from knowing that you’ll be able to pay your rent this month. By the relief that you’ll be able to pay back the family and friends who lent you money. Maybe even by a slightly frivolous purchase to help wash away the sting of financial stress. Money management in one of its many forms likely comes, but it’s often that it comes much after the paycheck. And it’s reasonable to assume that this separation gets in the way of more holistic money management.
With the help of a $350,000 grant from the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI), the Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners will soon launch PayGoal, an employee payment program that’s coupled with an array of financial services. The program provides on-site, individual financial counseling to companies’ employees, facilitates their participation in formal financial services, offers them financial capability tools, and assists in their establishing financial plans and goals – all while integrating the companies’ payment system. Workers will predetermine how much of their wages will be allocated across spending and savings buckets, and instead of a traditional paystub, employees receive their pay with a report on their financial progress over the pay period (money saved, debt reduced, financial milestones reached, etc.) as well as educational messaging, such as the difference between gross and net pay.
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