Money Cove

How might we reduce college students’ anxiety towards personal finance?

The Problem

  • Many young adults have few financial knowledge tools.

  • Navigating online financial education resources is overwhelming due to the plethora of information, and much of it is inconsistent.

  • Building a financial literacy foundation early in adulthood improves general financial outcomes later in life.

Our Goal

To popularize financial education among adult youth so that they approach financial processes (investing, budgeting, saving, paying taxes, retirement, etc.) with firm confidence and knowledge

Interviewing to Understand the Problem

10 interviewees:

  • 1 high school personal finance teacher.

  • 3 seniors in high school from varying income backgrounds.

  • 5 college students from varying income backgrounds.

  • 1 prospective community college student, a high school graduate.

Who We Interviewed

Interview Methodology

Interviews were conducted virtually and in person.

Created a list of questions to guide an organic, open-ended conversation (Appendix 1). Some highlights:

  • What is your reaction when you think of personal finance?

  • What are your experiences with personal finance?

  • How would you describe your family’s saving habits?

For the teacher, we created a list of additional questions (Appendix 2). Some highlights:

  • What improvements can be made by the education system?

  • What is preventing these improvements?

Appendix 1: Question List

Opening Questions:

Hey! Just so we can get to know each other a bit better, what have you been up to recently? This can be school, jobs, hobbies, or anything else you feel is important!

  1. What do you see yourself doing in five years? What are your general life goals?

  2. When you think of managing money, what is your reaction?

Main Questions: 

Before we head into the rest of the conversation, please feel free to not answer these questions if you’d like, since financial matters can be a touchy subject and that is totally okay.

  1. What are your experiences with investing? What was it like?

  2. What kind of mentorship in money management have you had?

    • This can be informal or formal teaching. This could also be in school or from your family

  3. How did this mentorship make you feel? Would you change anything about your experience?

  4. Would you have taken a personal finance course if it was offered?

  5. If given the opportunity, how much time would you be willing to put into a class on financial literacy?

  6. How would you describe your spending and saving habits? 

  7. How would you describe your family’s spending and saving habits?

  8. Has any family member talked to you about personal finance (investing, retirement, budgeting)

  9. How would you describe the spending and saving habits of your peers?

    • Have they influenced your habits in any way?

Closing Questions:

Is there anything else we should know about your experience with money management?

Thank you so much for your time.

Appendix 2: Teacher Questions

Opening Questions

  1. What influenced you to become a teacher and teach personal finance specifically?

Main Questions

  1. What is your knowledge about personal finance education in your school or school district? Do you think it’s satisfactory?

  2. What does the personal finance class teach?

  3. Why do students usually take this class?

  4. What are the biggest challenges that students face in the personal finance class? What concepts do they struggle most with?

  5. What could the school district do better to improve the financial habits of students?

  • If there is an answer here, ask: What is preventing this improvement?

  • What efforts have been made to increase financial literacy in this school/district? 

  • How did you learn about finances? To what degree is your experience similar or different from that of current students?

  • Could also ask some questions about financial habits as students

Closing Questions

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?