Whether a pro at managing your money or are just beginning to understand personal finance, financial literacy is necessary for all age groups. Financial Literacy Month in April was created to emphasize the importance of establishing and managing personal finance.  New financial technologies are changing the way we bank making it important for adults and children of all ages to be better informed with how they work.

Becoming more financially conscious better prepares the next generation for making better financial decisions, increasing the ability to save, and avoiding the negative consequences from a lack of understanding personal finance. Teaching children as early as grade school will provide them with the necessary money-management skills they will need to enter today’s economy. A study in The Journal of Children and Poverty showed that children who had savings accounts in their names were four times likely by the age of 25 to invest in stocks.

But teaching financial literacy does not start and end with children. Adults can also be better informed of the benefits and drawbacks to using online banking.

That’s why I’ve partnered with Cross River Bank and Kerry DeLiz-Lavin, a personal finance coach known as the Cash Kween, to host “Money Mondays” every Monday at the Bethune Center in Jersey City to provide adults and children with educational tools on how to save, invest, and use new financial technologies.

Financial Literacy is an essential tool everyone must learn to change the future.

Assemblywoman Angela McKnight

(D-Hudson)