Increasing Financial Education Effectiveness

The challenge of financial education

Financial education is critical and there are many programs intended to address it.

The unfortunate truth, however, is that they have not proven effective overall. This has worked to compound the problems of economic inequality, generational poverty, and high levels of financial stress throughout our society and, in particular, disadvantaged communities.

The need for effective financial education is indisputable. Attacking the reasons for its poor outcomes is why we formed Aegis and developed its product Stancesm.

Stancesm is a concept, framework and application designed from inception to give people across the socio-economic, educational and ethnic spectrum the means to better understand and navigate more effectively through their financial lives and economic landscape in a way that is engaging, practical and measurable.

Stancesm also provides responsible and ethical organizations with the tools, strategic capabilities and data to better serve and operate more effectively.

 

Advancing Financial Literacy & Outcomes through Stancesm

The poor mid and long-term performance of financial literacy programs can be attributed to several factors:

  • They are abstract, hard to apply day-to-day, and lack the means of reinforcement.
  • Financial topics are treated in isolation and not as the whole that they really are.
  • They are generalized and don’t adapt to or reflect the reality of the individual student.
  • They are challenging for individuals who aren’t comfortable with “numbers” and charts.
  • They lack a measure of success and outcomes.

These are further compounded by the:

  • Complexity of modern financial life
  • The loneliness of financial stress
  • A lack of awareness of the short and long-term consequences: the opportunity costs
  • The influence of others
  • Lack of reinforcement and access to resources
  • Supporting organizations lack the tools and data to more effectively meet and serve the needs of individuals, households and communities.

Stancesm directly addresses these weaknesses. It recognizes that learning has to be results-oriented, practical, measurable, and self-reinforcing. It also recognizes that learning is personal. It has to be relevant and significant to the individual and household. Equally importantly, it recognizes that serving organizations need the tools, information and capabilities to effectively engage them. Learning and getting ahead with a helping hand is powerful and rewarding. It builds trust and community.

We recognize that many organizations have invested heavily in existing financial literacy and counseling programs. Stancesm is designed to complement them but also establish a foundation when they aren’t in place. Stancesm can be used in conjunction with or independently of established financial literacy programs. It also provides effective case management tools and program support for instructors, counselors and program managers.

Stancesm boils finances down to the essentials and simplifies complex financial topics to give people from all walks of life a pragmatic framework and tool to promote understanding, reinforce learning and make better economic decisions.

Stance Balance - Stacked(sm)

We don't displace, we enable

Financial education takes a community

Many organizations have invested heavily in financial education, have solid financial curriculum, capable instructors, and motivated students. 

Our goal is to build on that foundation with new tools and capabilities that extend and reinforce learning for the students and provide instructors, counselors, and program managers with the case and program management capabilities to more quickly diagnose, tailor and achieve more impactful, sustainable and measurable outcomes. 

Stancesm gives institutions and counselor’s an objective and practical measure of outcomes.

By measuring financial health and those things that contribute to or undermine it, Stancesm gives instructors, program managers and executives the means to gain deeper insight into those they’re serving, measure outcomes before during and after a course, and stay meaningfully engaged with their graduates over time.   By doing so, institutions have the means to demonstrate benefit to individuals and communities, continuously improve programs and advance their missions.

We look forward to the opportunity to discuss Stancesm’s application to further your organization’s mission.