Rethinking How We Become Financially Literate
Learning the basics of how to manage our personal finances is an area that has cried out for reinvention for sometime. We don’t learn or practice the basics well in the US. Given the level of consumer credit card debt and the recent sub-prime mortgage meltdown it is clear we are in trouble.
As much of the problem has to do with poor cognitive design – that is, financial products and services that ignore how our minds really work, I am always on the look out for innovations that seem to get it.
Take for example, EverFi, a start-up that is focused on teaching Generation Y about personal finance. There offering has two powerful innovations from a cognitive design perspective.
First they support learning by deliberate practice using a sim city like simulation game.
There are several games on the market that help teach the basics of personal finance but EverFi invokes a generation relevant mental model (sim city instead of say Monopoly). A simulator allows you to ajust the difficulty of what you attempt, making practice an experience accelerator or dynamic learning lab. Plus the sim city model has proven to engage the cognition (thinking and emotions) of millions.
The second innovation is that they provide certifications to consumers. This helps students “know what they know”, providing the metaknowledge needed to make far more effective decisions. Certifications also provide a sense of accomplishment and pride, something like a leader’ s board does for a video-game.
There is an interesting write up on the company in the Small Business section of CNN Money.
