Financial Literacy

Alumni Resources

Understanding your finances will allow you to make smart decisions and manage your money effectively. Below, Genesys Works has provided resources to build your understanding of fundamental financial concepts, which will help you form positive and sustainable financial habits. Specifically, we’ve provided information and tools focused on saving and investing, managing credit and debt, and reaching your financial goals.

We will continue to add to the tools offered below – and soon you’ll have opportunity to share more about what YOU would like to see!

Glad you asked! This resource offers a simple and fun video that explains the growth benefits of compound interest, and the overarching advantages of disciplined, long-term savings, often associated with your retirement accounts.

The sooner you start, the sooner your money can do the (compound interest) work for you! As you’ll see from the video, compound interest can benefit you and your retirement accounts for decades to come – if you’re able to commit and contribute early and regularly!

This article provides seven strategies to help you reach your student loan payoff goals – from making extra payments, to paying bi-weekly or enrolling in autopay, to refinancing – there are numerous things you can do that will support early pay-off!

There’s nothing quite like paying off that final student loan. And if you can manage doing so early, you save costs in interest – it’s as good as putting money back in your pocket!

Making a budget is an essential step in effectively managing your money, allowing you to create a spending plan that will ensure you have the funds necessary for the things you need and want, while helping you manage and work your way out of debt. This article shares a few different types of budgets and tools to create and implement a budget.

A budget is the first step toward financial security, serving as a guide to your financial goals. Whether getting out of debt or saving money, budgets are an important way to reach financial security.

You’ve already received numerous paychecks by this point, but the real question is, have you really taken the time to read it? This short article details the content and what all those numbers mean, while also telling you where to spend some extra time to ensure everything’s correct.

Payroll problems happen – you don’t want to miss out on the funds you’ve earned, find out a hard lesson at tax time, or run into any other of the problems that could arise. These problems are usually reversible, but the longer you wait, typically the more difficult it becomes.

What to do with that extra cash…it really depends! This article provides insights that can help you plan and make the best decisions for your personal situation.

This is another opportunity to put your money to work for you – ensuring you have a sustainable plan in place to have enough cash saved for those emergency situations while being able to tackle debt – progress is progress!

Want to accelerate paying off your debt? Who doesn’t!? Debt avalanche is a system to pay off your sources of debt utilizing a coordinated approach – this article will take you through the steps to set up the plan, if you feel it’s the right method for you!

Paying off your debt puts you in complete control of your finances – what’s better than that?

This quick video provides insights into the different types of interest rates – Savings rates, Annual Percentage Rates, and Federal Funds Rate. With these rates determining how much return you get on your savings and/or how much you’ll owe your lender at the end of the loan period, you won’t want to miss this explanation.

Interest rates can ultimately influence your spending decisions, and even the small differences, as low as even a tenth of a percent, can make a massive difference in how much you earn or pay over time.

So you’re up to speed on why credit is important and how to build it – a credit card can be part of that equation! This resource supports you in choosing the best-fit credit card based on your spending habits and goals.

There are thousands of credit cards to choose from, all with different perks, terms, and overall value. It’s important to choose the credit card that is the best fit for you.

Want some quick and easy ways to boost your credit score? We’ve got you covered with seven fast ways to clean up, pay down, and even restore your credit.

Your credit can affect where you live, your access to loans, and even some employers conduct credit checks as part of the hiring process. Ultimately, your financial security can depend on the strength of your credit score.

This short video provides a quick summary of what a credit score is and the factors that contribute to how the number is determined.

Your credit score helps prospective lenders evaluate how likely you are to pay your debts, which in turn affects your access to loans and other resources. This will impact your ability to access funds (and the associated interest rates!) to buy big ticket items, like obtaining a car or home loan.

Typically when thinking of investing, the first thing that comes to mind is stocks, but there are many options you can choose to put your money to work. Check out this article to learn more about your investment options, as well as the different levels of risk and return.

Not all investment options are created equal, and depending on your goals, the length of investment, and your risk tolerance, there’s a lot to think about!

 

This resource offers insights to help you start saving for your retirement – from the different types of accounts that you can choose from to overall do’s and don’ts of retirement savings plans.

The most important step in saving for retirement is starting. The worst thing you can do is nothing! By starting early, you’ll get to reap the dividends of compound interest (see the compound interest explanation!)

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