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Banks offer extensive information on how newcomers to Canada can get started in their new country, including checklists, information, financial services and advice. Here is some basic information to get you started. A list of bank resources at the end of this article may also help with the financial transition to Canada.
The forced transition from in-person to online activities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on how families and communities buy groceries, acquire medical care, and utilize social services. This rapid shift has raised important questions about how to address access and equity. AFN and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Financial Security (CFS) conducted this study to better understand the transition to remote services among financial capability and asset building (FCAB) programs, which includes financial education, counseling, coaching, emergency assistance, benefits navigation, housing supports, workforce development, and other related services. The insights from this study can inform strategies for FCAB services going forward. This brief reviews recommendations for funders and organizations seeking to learn from the financial capability service delivery models employed in the COVID-19 pandemic, especially related to replication of findings that lead to more equitable delivery practices, improved accessibility of services, and greater financial improvements for clients. Six region-specific briefs complement the national findings - Indiana, Louisiana, North and South Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. This brief is generously supported by JPMorgan Chase & Co., MetLife Foundation, and Wells Fargo. If you missed the live webinar, watch the recording here.
The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) published the results of a survey assessing Canadian investors’ financial literacy. As individuals take on more responsibility for their own investing, it is essential that they have enough financial knowledge to effectively participate in Canada’s capital markets. Investors’ knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviours are all contributors to having a successful investing journey.
Are you considering investing in crypto assets, but aren’t sure whether it’s right for you, legal or just a scam? Test your crypto knowledge and learn how to spot the warning signs of fraud using OSC's quiz.
Most people know a little about investing, but they need to know more to be able to manage their investments to meet their goals. Try this quiz by the FCAC to see if your knowledge is basic or more advanced.
Before you start investing, it is important to consider your budget and financial goals, and how much risk you are comfortable taking on. Like many things in life, investing comes with its own share of risks and rewards. You can do this on your own or with the help of an advisor.
The Standard & Poor's Ratings Services Global Financial Literacy Survey is the world’s largest, most comprehensive global measurement of financial literacy. It probes knowledge of four basic financial concepts: risk diversification, inflation, numeracy, and interest compounding. The survey is based on interviews with more than 150,000 adults in over 140 countries. In 2014 McGraw Hill Financial worked with Gallup, Inc., the World Bank Development Research Group, and GFLEC on the S&P Global FinLit Survey.
For a family living in poverty, every day is about making tough choices – to pay rent or buy groceries? Having the means to attain the basic necessities, is one thing. Having the skills, confidence and access to resources to manage finances in ways that build pathways out of poverty is something far different. Thanks to the generosity of partners, supporters and donors of Empower U, families can move beyond just managing the day-to-day challenges of poverty. Participants in the program learn valuable money management skills and are given the means to build savings and assets to create financial stability. A future where they and their families can thrive.
Checking registration helps protect you from unqualified or fraudulent individuals. Always check the registration of any person or business trying to sell you an investment or give you investment advice by using the Canadian Securities Administrators’ National Registration Search. Titles like financial advisor, financial planner, investment consultant, and investment specialist aren’t legally defined terms or official registration categories. Some advisers or dealers may have designations that allow them to use specific titles, such as Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) or Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Checking registration tells you what specific products and services they are (and aren’t) qualified to offer you, regardless of title.
Innovative uses of digital technologies in the delivery of financial education can serve multiple complementary objectives and effectively support the building blocks of financial education. This Guidance was developed to assist policy makers in deciding when to adopt digital delivery, and how to effectively design and implement digital financial education initiatives, by offering non-binding actionable directions. It builds on the work undertaken by the OECD and its International Network on Financial Education, including the G20/OECD-INFE Policy Guidance Note on Digitalisation and Financial Literacy and international comparative analyses on how public authorities design, deliver and evaluate digital financial education initiatives, notably in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report on digital delivery of financial education design and practice builds on over 70 case studies from members of the OECD International Network on Financial Education, contributes to a better understanding of how public authorities worldwide are designing, delivering and evaluating digital financial education initiatives, and prepares forthcoming work on the development of high-level international guidance on the digital delivery of financial education.
The National Disability Institute's Financial Wellness Toolkit is full of free resources for disability service providers, nonprofits, financial professionals and municipalities, including Financial Education Handouts and Quick Reference Guides. This infographic highlights income, banking and credit inequality based on disability, race and ethnicity.
Being aware of potential biases can help you become a better decision-maker. Use this tool to improve your awareness of different behavioural biases or “blind spots” that may influence your decisions.
Financial empowerment (FE) is an approach to poverty reduction that focuses on improving the financial security of people living on low income. Evidence shows that embedding FE interventions into municipal welfare, employment, housing, shelter and health services can significantly boost service outcomes and support the life stabilization framework. If you are a manager or frontline staff working in municipal services and starting your FE journey, this toolkit can help you to begin embedding FE supports into your existing programs. Prosperity Gateways: Cities for financial empowerment is an initiative at Prosper Canada which aims to reduce poverty by building financial help into municipal services used by residents with low incomes. This toolkit has been made possible by the Government of Ontario, JP Morgan Chase and the Maytree Foundation. Prosper Canada is grateful to our financial empowerment community partners and Ontario Works offices for their collaboration in this effort. We also recognize related pioneering work by US-based Prosperity Now and the CFE Fund. Worksheet resources in this toolkit are available as fillable PDFs. Please open with Adobe Acrobat Reader for full functionality.
The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau has developed resources to help multilingual communities and newcomers in a selection of languages. The translated financial terms are available in Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean and Tagalog. This website has many other multi-lingual resources, covering a range of topics from opening a bank account, money transfers, money management, debt collection and many others. Some terms are US based but most are universal.
Are you considering a new investment?
Use this tool to learn how to spot the warning signs of fraud, and to learn how to protect yourself from suspected scams.
Investing is an important part of planning for a financially secure future. It can battle the effects of inflation on your savings, grow your wealth, and provide sources of income in retirement. The sooner you invest, the longer compound interest can work to grow your savings exponentially. However, there are some important milestones to achieve and questions to consider before you start investing. Are you ready to invest? Take this quiz to find out!
Intuit is committed to helping students across the country work towards a more prosperous financial future by equipping them with the education they need to feel confident about their taxes. Through the Intuit TurboTax Simulation, we are helping students overcome the fear of Tax Day. You do not need to be an expert to teach taxes, and we recommend teaching to grade levels 9-12.
Financial planners and advisors want to better the lives of the people they work with, but may not know that conventional retirement advice often doesn’t work for low-income retirees. Getting it right when every dollar counts The advice that works well for higher- and middle-income clients can work against lower-income retirees – meaning they lose out on government benefits and must live on less, even though every dollar counts when you’re living on a low income. That’s why there’s a new CE-accredited course available at no charge for anyone who wants to learn how to help low-income retirees plan for and make the most of their retirement income. Although the course was developed for financial advisors and planners, it is open and available to all. Learn from seasoned experts Based on the work of John Stapleton of Open Policy Ontario and developed by Certified Financial Planner professional Alexandra Macqueen, the course is hosted and was accredited by Business Career College, a We Know Training brand and a leader in training for the financial services and insurance industries. The course includes: ● Accreditation for 5.5 CE credits with FP Canada, Advocis, and IIROC To take the course: 1. Go to www.businesscareercollege.com
● Working knowledge of the government benefits programs available to low-income retirees
● A look at the savings and investing options available to low-income retirees and how to optimize client situations
● Guidance about the impact of earned income and taxes on low-income retirees
● A series of case studies, plus recorded conversations with financial planners about how planning for low-income retirees works in practice
2. Either sign in (if you have an account) or Sign Up (near the top right) to create a free account. You'll then have to "Create Learner Account."
3. Once logged in, there is a yellow button near the top right of the screen called "Enrolment Key." Click here and provide the Enrolment Key retiring-on-low-income-indigo-2771 (an exact copy and paste is probably ideal)
A free online course to learn about personal income taxes in Canada, developed by the Canada Revenue Agency. Contents include: Additional resources for teachers and facilitators are available.
In 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau launched the Financial Coaching Initiative, a pilot program that provided financial coaching services to veterans and economically vulnerable consumers. Professional coaches were embedded into 60 host sites across the country, where they provided free, one-on-one help to consumers to address their personal financial goals. A range of organizations served as host sites, such as one-stop career centers, social services organizations, and legal aid groups. Over four years, the Financial Coaching Initiative served over 23,000 consumers, demonstrating that financial coaching can be successfully implemented at scale in many different settings for a wide range of consumers. This report and summary brief describe the basic structure of the Initiative, present data about the program’s results, and summarize key lessons learned for practitioners and organizations interested in coaching.
Financial educators are particularly aware of the prevalence of these types of financial arrangements – otherwise known as family financial exchanges (FFEs). To support practitioners helping clients through these often sensitive conversations about these arrangements, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released the Friends and Family Exchanges Toolkit , a four-part guide for coaching clients in asking for financial help or changing an existing agreement due to their own financial hardship.
Resources to provide consumers up-to-date information to protect and manage their finances during the coronavirus pandemic. Resources include: And resources for specific audiences, including:
The money management courses are offered online, on demand, for free. Learn at your own pace and on your own schedule on a variety of topics, including:
This study covers the rapidly growing literature on the causal effects of financial education programs in a meta-analysis of 76 randomized experiments with a total sample size of over 160,000 individuals. The evidence shows that financial education programs have, on average, positive causal treatment effects on financial knowledge and downstream financial behaviors. Treatment effects are economically meaningful in size, similar to those realized by educational interventions in other domains and are at least three times as large as the average effect documented in earlier work. These results are robust to the method used, restricting the sample to papers published in top economics journals, including only studies with adequate power, and accounting for publication selection bias in the literature. The study concludes with a discussion of the cost-effectiveness of financial education interventions.
This video series offers concise summaries of in-depth academic and practitioner presentations, in plain English, for dissemination to a worldwide audience. For convenient viewing, most videos are between three and six minutes long.
This paper provides an in-depth examination of the financial well-being of Black and Hispanic women and the factors contributing to it, using the 2018 wave of the National Financial Capability Study. Differences between Black and Hispanic women versus White women are documented, in that the former are more likely to face economic challenges that depress financial well-being. Controlling for differences in socio-demographic characteristics, there are important differences in the factors that contribute to financial well-being for Black and Hispanic women compared to White women. This includes distinct impacts of education, family structure, employment, and financial literacy. Results imply that extant financial education programs inadequately address the needs of Black and Hispanic women.
To advance understanding of effective financial education methods, the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center (GFLEC) conducted an experiment using Mint, a financial improvement tool offered by Intuit, whose financial products include TurboTax and QuickBooks. This study measures Mint’s effectiveness at improving students’ financial knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Students at the George Washington University participated in a half-day budgeting workshop and were exposed to either Mint, which is a real-time, automated platform, or Excel, which is an offline, static tool. The authors found that participation in both workshops was associated with improved preparedness to have conversations about money matters with parents, a greater sense of financial autonomy, and an increased awareness of the importance of budgeting, but that participants in the Mint workshop were more likely to have a positive experience using the budgeting tool, to feel confident that they could achieve a financial goal, and to be engaged in budgeting one month after the workshop. Results show that even short financial education interventions can meaningfully influence students’ financial attitudes and behavior and that an interactive tool like Mint may have advantages over a more static tool like Excel.
The 2019 Financial Literacy Annual Report of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau highlights the Bureau’s Start Small, Save Up campaign, the Office of Financial Education’s foundational research, in conjunction with the Office of Older Americans, to understand the pathways to financial well-being, the Office of Servicemembers Affairs’ Misadventures in Money Management online training program, the Office of Older Americans’ Managing Someone Else’s Money guides, and the Office of Community Affairs’ Your Money, Your Goals toolkit, along with other direct to consumer tools, community outreach channels, and areas of research.
This webinar series released by the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center (GFLEC) features speakers from the public, private, and academic sectors. Past and upcoming webinar topics include: Optimizing National Strategies for Financial Education Crafting Policies that Address Inequality in Saving, Wealth, and Economic Opportunities Investor Knowledge and Behaviors in Times of Crisis Increasing Financial Knowledge for Better Rebuilding Designing an Inclusive Recovery Millennials: Buttressing a Generation at Risk
Financial education has become an important complement to market conduct and prudential regulation and improving individual financial behaviours a long-term policy priority in many countries. The OECD and its International Network on Financial Education (INFE) conducts research and develops tools to support policy makers and public authorities to design and implement national strategies for financial education. This handbook provides an overview of the status of national strategies worldwide, an analysis of relevant practices and case studies and identifies key lessons learnt. The policy handbook also includes a checklist for action, intended as a self-assessment tool for governments and public authorities.
This document describes the types of knowledge that adults aged 18 or over could benefit from, what they should be capable of doing and the behaviours that may help them to achieve financial well-being, as well as the attitudes and confidence that will support this process. It can be used to inform the development of a national strategy on financial education, improve programme design, identify gaps in provision, and create assessment, measurement and evaluation tools.
Recent years have seen an explosion in interventions designed to improve financial outcomes of participants. Yet on-the-ground evidence suggests that not all financial education programs are equally successful at achieving this aim. This paper examines the difference between interventions that work, and those than do not. It attempts to answer the question: “How do you actually build financial capability?” In doing so, we aim to help interested parties enhance the effectiveness of their programs and policies by providing them with evidence-based recommendations to drive positive outcomes in participants.
Building on the Asset Funders Network’s the Health and Wealth Connection: Investment Opportunities Across the Life Course brief, this paper details: On September 29th, AFN hosted a webinar to release the paper with featured speakers: Dr. Annie Harper, Ph.D., Program for Recovery and Community Health, Yale School of Medicine
Joelle-Jude Fontaine, Sr. Program Officer, Human Services, The Kresge Foundation
Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Chief of Race, Wealth, and Community, National Community Reinvestment Coalition
Matched Savings programs, or Individual Development Accounts, are a financial empowerment strategy that aim to build financial stability and reduce poverty. These programs build sustainable livelihoods by working with participants to earn savings while learning about money management, build regular savings habits, self-confidence, and hope for the future. Matching This brief presents key findings from Momentum's Matched Saving programs and the impact on program graduates' saving habits, establishment of emergency savings, and contribution to registered savings.
funds act as a power boost to the participants’ own savings, allowing them to purchase productive assets to move their lives forward.
Making the transition from in-person to virtual program delivery has become a necessary step in continuing financial empowerment services during these times of physical distancing. Financial education workshops are a valuable part of any financial empowerment program, and there are many different considerations when moving these to an online format. But don’t feel daunted! There are also many different ways to approach virtual workshops. Join our speakers Millie Acuna (SEED Winnipeg, MB) and Fatima Esmail (Momentum, Calgary, AB), who will share their learnings as experienced financial educators and facilitators. You’ll learn how to approach workshop logistics and setup, ways to engage and build rapport with your workshop attendees, and instructional design tips for virtual learning. Click 'Get it' below to access the video link, and scroll down to access handouts, slides, and video timestamps for this webinar.
Handouts, slides, and time-stamps
Read the presentation slides for this webinar.
Handouts for this webinar:
Online financial tools and calculators (Prosper Canada)
Virtual tools for participant engagement (Prosper Canada)
Online delivery check-list (Momentum)
Jeopardy game template (SEED)
Time-stamps for the video recording:
3:26 – Agenda and introductions
5:10 – Audience polls
8:19 – Virtual delivery considerations (Speaker: Glenna Harris, Prosper Canada)
12:39 – Virtual workshops best practices (Speaker: Fatima Esmail, Momentum)
33:12 – Online money management training (Speaker: Millie Acuna, SEED)
49:07 – Q&A
This report provides an overview of financial health and the policy responses around the world. Based on this, and the key questions of whether financial health measure more than income and if financial inclusion supports financial health, the report offers recommendations to policy makers on strategies for measuring the financial health of their population.
This report presents results from a joint research study between the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Credit Karma. The purpose of the study is to examine how consumers’ subjective financial well-being relates to objective measures of consumers’ financial health, specifically, consumers’ credit report characteristics. The study also seeks to relate consumers’ subjective financial well-being to consumers’ engagement with financial information through educational tools.
The National Financial Well-Being Survey Report is the second report in a series from the Understanding the Pathways to Financial Well-Being project. In order to measure and study the factors that support consumer financial well-being, in 2015, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (the Bureau) contracted with Abt Associates to field a large, national survey to collect information on the financial well-being of U.S. adults. The present report uses data collected from that survey to answer a series of questions on the relationship among financial well-being and four key factors: objective financial situation, financial behavior, financial skill, and financial knowledge. In this study, we aim to enhance understanding of financial well-being and the factors that may support it by exploring these relationships.
Identity thieves try to use your personal information to take money from your bank account, shop with your credit card, or even commit crimes in your name. This publication explains how to spot the warning signs of identity theft, how to protect yourself, and what you can do if it happens to you.
The Better Business Bureau Institute for Marketplace Trust (BBB Institute) is the 501(c)(3) educational foundation of the Better Business Bureau (BBB). BBB Institute works with local BBBs across North America. This report uses data submitted by consumers to BBB Scam Tracker to shed light on how scams are being perpetrated, who is being targeted, which scams have the greatest impact, and much more. The BBB Risk Index helps consumers better understand which scams pose the highest risk by looking at three factors—exposure, susceptibility, and monetary loss. The 2019 BBB Scam Tracker Risk Report is a critical part of BBB’s ongoing work to contribute new, useful data and analysis to further the efforts of all who are engaged in combating marketplace fraud. Update February 24, 2022: BBB Scam Tracker- Risk Report 2020
One in five Canadians are currently living with a disability. This infographic provides an overview of financial programs for people with disabilities in Canada based on findings in Morris et al. (2018) "A demographic, employment and income profile of Canadians with disabilities aged 15 years and over, 2017".
This guide was created to be a resource for community college educators, staff, and administrators interested in implementing financial coaching as a way to empower students to build money management skills and make healthy financial decisions. Strategies for integrating financial coaching into a variety of services that can be offered to students in a community college setting are offered. A step-by-step toolkit for implementing financial coaching services, along with recommendations, best practices, and resources is also provided.
Technology can play a key role in addressing some of the financial challenges that Canadians face on a day-to-day basis. Over the last five to ten years we have seen a growing number of companies, called fintechs, that primarily use technology to change and enhance the way we do banking or access financial advice and services. Many of these companies are building products that are specifically meant to help Canadians improve their financial health. The purpose of this report is to explore the existing financial health fintech landscape in Canada, the challenges that these companies face, and how an accelerator program that provides mentorship and resource supports over a defined time-frame can better help these financial health fintechs grow and thereby help improve the financial health of people across Canada.
This guide from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada shares guidelines and financial tips to help Canadians during COVID-19. The topics include: getting through a financial emergency, where to ask questions or voice concerns, what to do if your branch closes, and more.
Budgeting and saving are the core building blocks of financial stability and sound financial decision making. In this toolkit you'll find helpful resources and worksheets on goal setting, making a budget, and saving money. We are grateful to The Working Centre in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario for their content consultation. Last updated on December 19, 2022: Additional resources added - Spending habits calculator, Making it easier to save, 4 reasons to keep saving even when inflation is high (OSC) Updated on July 27, 2022: Additional resources added - Preparing for financial emergencies and Planning for retirement.
Worksheet resources in this toolkit are available as fillable PDFs. Please open with Adobe Acrobat Reader for full functionality.
This report responds to a call made by APEC Finance Ministers at their 23rd Ministerial Meeting in Lima in 2016 to advance “the design and implementation of financial literacy policies building on the expertise and standards developed by the OECD International Network on Financial Education”. The findings illustrate that the majority of APEC economies are well-advanced in their efforts to collect relevant data, implement appropriate financial education policies, and address the remaining issues related to financial literacy, inclusion and consumer
protection. They are applying international best practices and making good use of available tools and resources to develop and refine strategic approaches and specific initiatives. However, there is still some way to go in ensuring that everyone living in an APEC
economy has the financial literacy that they need and concerns about financial fraud or abuse, the high complexity of financial services and the low financial literacy of specific population groups are driving policy interest in improving financial education.
This publication presents key findings for financial education, drawn from the IOSCO/OECD joint report “The Application of Behavioural Insights to Financial Literacy and Investor Education Programmes and Initiatives”. It gives a short overview of the ways in which behavioural insights are relevant for financial education and then summarises five key lessons that policy makers can follow, illustrated with the experiences of OECD/INFE members.
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) co-hosted the 2018 National Research Symposium on Financial Literacy on November 26 and 27, 2018 at the University of Toronto, in partnership with Behavioural Economics in Action at Rotman (BEAR). This report presents the key ideas and takeaways from the event, while shining a light on the research shaping new solutions designed to enhance financial well-being in Canada and around the world.
The ACPM Retirement Literacy Program complements the financial literacy education efforts by the federal and provincial governments, and other organizations. The website contains a series of quizzes to help improve your knowledge of pensions and retirement savings plans as well as links to financial literacy resources.
There are many different ways to deliver financial empowerment programs. Financial literacy education, financial coaching, and matched savings programs can be successfully delivered independently, with successful outcomes for participants. They can also be blended together to accomplish several educational goals and improve participant outcomes. In this one-hour webinar we explore two examples of blended program models. The speakers are: Click 'Get it' below to access the video link, and scroll down to access handouts, slides, and video timestamps for this webinar.
Handouts, slides, and time-stamps
Read the presentation slides for this webinar.
Handouts for this webinar:
How Savings Circles Works
Information about the Strive program
Time-stamps for the video recording:
3:35 – Agenda and introductions
6:00 – Audience polls
10:58 – Financial empowerment interventions (Speaker: Glenna Harris)
14:00 – Savings Circles program at Momentum (Speaker: Anna Jordan)
33:18 – Strive program (Speaker: Monica daPonte)
55:50 – Q&A
The Investor Protection Clinic, the first clinic of its kind in Canada, provides free legal advice to people who believe their investments were mishandled and who cannot afford a lawyer. The Clinic was founded together with the Canadian Foundation for Advancement of Investor Rights (FAIR Canada), an organization that aims to enhance the rights of Canadian shareholders and individual investors. The 2019 Annual Report summarizes the work of The Clinic, including description of the work and types of cases, example case scenarios of the clients who benefited from The Clinic's services, client data and demographics, and recommendations.
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC)'s online tool helps you create a customized budget.
Prosper Canada and AFOA Canada are pleased to collaboratively tell the story of The Shared Path: First Nations Financial Wellness. This work was undertaken in the spirit of reconciliation between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous people in Canada and creating a more equitable and inclusive society by closing the gaps in social, health, and economic outcomes that exist between us. This report defines financial wellness in the context of First Nations Peoples and communities, reviews why it matters, provides a conceptual framework to help clarify the determinants of financial wellness, and identifies barriers, needs, best practices and principles for building the financial wellness of Indigenous individuals, families, and communities together.
This report provides results from the 2019 Canadian Financial Capability Survey (CFCS). It offers a first look at what Canadians are doing to take charge of their finances by budgeting, planning and saving for the future, and paying down debt. While the findings show that many Canadians are acting to improve their financial literacy and financial well-being, there are also emerging signs of financial stress for some Canadians. For example, about one third of Canadians feel they have too much debt, and a growing number are having trouble making bill, rent/mortgage and other payments on time. Over the past 5 years, about 4 in 10 Canadians found ways to increase their financial knowledge, skills and confidence. They used a wide range of methods, such as reading books or other printed material on financial issues, using online resources, and pursuing financial education through work, school or community programs. Findings from the survey support evidence that financial literacy, resources and tools are helping Canadians manage their money. For example, those who have a budget have greater financial well-being based on a number of indicators, such as managing cashflow, making bill payments and paying down debt. Further, those with a
financial plan to save are more likely to feel better prepared and more confident about their retirement.
Financial decisions are influenced by our own personal feelings and attitudes around money, and by the feelings, attitudes, and actions by our family and friends. This CFPB toolkit offers financial education practitioners three tools (Money Choices, Money Styles, and Money Network), each with a brief, interactive exercise, to initiate conversations about the feelings and personal relationships that shape financial choices.
The Canadian Foundation for Economic Education (CFEE) works collaboratively with funding partners, departments of education, school boards, schools, educators, and teacher associations to develop and provide free, non-commercial programs and resources for teachers and students – developed and reviewed by educators. The online version of their curriculum Money and Youth is organized into separate modules so that users can select individual topics that align with interests. An introduction to the topic, a teachers guide containing lesson plans, and parent resources are included within each module.
As financial educators know, making day-to-day decisions on spending money is one of the biggest challenges consumers face in keeping their financial lives in order. Many people find it difficult to manage their household finances on a daily basis, let alone over the long term. This brief from the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection identifies a few ideas to explore causes of over-spending and ideas to help prevent it.
Because of the key role that financial education can play in people’s lives, the CFPB has conducted research over its first five years into what makes financial education effective for consumers. What do we mean by “effective?” It does not just mean training that helps people perform better on a test of financial facts. It means equipping consumers to understand the financial marketplace and make sound financial choices in pursuit of their life goals.
Using pooled data from the 2012 and 2015 waves of the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS), this research finds that young adults who were required to take personal finance courses in high school were significantly less likely to borrow payday loans than their peers who were not. These effects do not significantly differ by race/ethnicity or gender, suggesting that financial education may be useful regardless of demographics.
In this toolkit you'll find materials to help you learn about what's involved in tax filing, and some materials to support setting up your own community tax clinic. Updated January 9, 2023: Tax brackets have been indexed for inflation Updated February 23, 2022 The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has compiled information pertaining to tax filing for each province and territory: Alberta Updated September 27, 2021: Added resource to Community tax clinic guides - Encouraging tax filing at virtual clinics (sample "active choice" email) Updated April 13, 2021: Last-minute tax tips
British Columbia
Manitoba
New Brunswick
Newfoundland and Labrador
Nova Scotia
Ontario
Prince Edward Island
Quebec
Saskatchewan
Yukon, Nunavut and Northwest Territories
Pour souligner leurs 50 ans d’histoire, les Associations de consommateurs du Québec s’unissent pour offrir à la population québécoise un portail qui rassemble toute une gamme d’informations et d’outils développés au fil des années grâce à leur expertise en finances personnelles. Cette porte d’entrée donne accès à des services spécialisés en finances personnelles offerts par les associations, propose des outils adaptés, et à travers les différentes sections, offre une information claire, objective et critique afin de vous guider vers de meilleurs choix de consommation et une meilleure santé financière.
This is a one-hour webinar on matched savings programs and personal savings strategies that work for people living on low incomes. Our panelists share experiences from their programs in Ontario and Calgary. The presenters in this webinar are: This webinar is geared towards frontline practitioners and organizations providing financial empowerment programs.
Handouts, slides, and time-stamps
Presentation slides for this webinar
Handouts for this webinar:
Brief: Matched Savings programs – webinar handout (Momentum)
Matched Savings programs chart – webinar handout (Momentum)
Budget Tracker – webinar handout (Credit Counselling Sudbury)
Monthly Budget – webinar handout (Credit Counselling Sudbury)
Time-stamps for the video-recording:
3:26 – Agenda and introduction
6:17 – Audience polls
9:41 – Reasons to save (Speaker: Glenna Harris)
12:08 – Effectiveness of Matched Savings (Speaker: Dean Estrella from Momentum)
32:10 – Savings strategies for clients on low incomes (Speaker: John Cockburn from Credit Counselling Sudbury)
47:50 – Q&A
As student loan reform continues to dominate national discourse, a NEFE-funded study shows that financial education in states with state-mandated personal finance graduation requirements causes students to make better decisions about how to pay for college. It increases applications for aid, federal aid taken, and grants — all while decreasing credit card balances. Put simply, financial education makes better borrowers. This study examines positive effects of state-mandated financial education graduation requirements. As of 2017, 25 states have implemented mandates for personal finance education prior to graduation.
Research conducted by agencies such as AFOA, Native Women’s Association of Canada, and various other Canadian entities, has identified the need for improved financial literacy education in Indigenous communities, particularly among youth and Elders. Such research reports are often equipped with a list of recommendations for improving and addressing the gaps in education around financial literacy. In the spirit of building upon this research into financial literacy and Indigenous peoples, the Purdy Crawford Chair in Aboriginal Business Studies (PCC) proposed a project focused on Atlantic Canada’s 14-18 year old Indigenous population and their levels of financial literacy. The results reveal that the majority of respondents would like to learn more about money. As well, they affirm that face-to-face learning from family members and in classroom settings remain the preferred way to learn about financial issues. Finally, based on the literature review, the environmental scan, survey data, and feedback from the community consultation process, a web application titled Seven Generations Financial Literacy was developed and is located at www.sevengenerationsfinancial.com.
Developed in response to a call from G20 Leaders in 2013, the core competencies frameworks on financial literacy highlight a range of financial literacy outcomes that may be considered to be universally relevant or important for the financial well-being in everyday life of adults and youth. These documents describe the types of knowledge that youth aged 15 to 18, and adults aged 18 and up, could benefit from.
Financial education plays an important role in guiding individuals to achieve their financial goals and contribute to the economic well-being of society as a whole. While the examination on the effectiveness of financial education has many factors to consider, the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) has taken measures to improve evaluation studies—both for the practitioner and the researcher. These actions include the conception of two documents what will assist in guiding practitioners and researchers in planning high-quality evaluations. The first is the Financial Education Evaluation Manual that is designed to support the evaluation of financial education programs by helping educators to understand the purpose and goals of evaluation, and to provide a basic understanding of the evaluation process. This information is designed for program managers, educators, and decision-makers, in traditional school settings or community-based programs/non-profit organizations, who are implementing financial education programs
This new research study: the 2016 UK Children and Young People’s Financial Capability Survey, is the first of its kind: a nationally representative survey of the financial knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of 4- to 17-year-olds and their parents, living in the UK. A total of 4,958 children and young people aged 4–17, and their parents, were interviewed as part of this research. This report presents an initial analysis of the findings of this new survey and covers: ■ how children get money ■ how children spend and save money ■ children’s attitudes to spending, saving and debt ■ children’s confidence about managing their money ■ children’s understanding of the value of money and the need to make trade-offs ■ children’s knowledge and education about financial products, concepts, and terminology ■ parents’ beliefs and attitudes towards their own financial capability and the skills, abilities and attitudes of their children.
There is wide variation in how people in the U.S. feel about their financial well-being. This report presents findings from a survey by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on the distribution of financial well-being scores for the U.S. adult population overall and for selected subgroups defined by these additional measures. These descriptive findings provide insight into which subgroups are faring relatively well and which ones are facing greater financial challenges.
Financial Empowerment is an integrated set of interventions proven to measurably improve financial outcomes for people living in poverty. This brief from Prosper Canada recommends nine financial empowerment strategies that can help reduce poverty by being integrated into poverty reduction strategies across Canada.
To test out the impact of rules of thumb in helping consumers decrease their credit card debt, the CFPB
commissioned a rigorous study of two financial rules of thumb on consumers with revolving credit card debt. We created two new guidelines aimed at aiding consumers to decrease their revolving credit card debt: Don’t swipe the small stuff – Use cash when it’s under $20; Credit keeps charging – It adds approximately 20% to the total.
