Personal Finance in the Digital Age

When was the last time you balanced a checkbook? Most likely, your answer was somewhere around 2 years ago to never. According to a study done by Statistic Brain Research Institute in early 2018, only 21% of people still balance a checkbook, and 69% of people have never balanced a checkbook. The digital age has changed how we do many things, and managing our money is something that has been greatly affected by new technologies!
 
Google “online money management” and take a look at all of the options and articles written on completely online personal finance tools (most are free or very low-cost). The options we have to manage our own finances are tremendous. Do we still recommend an in-person financial advisor? Absolutely.  We believe a family’s financial picture should be holistic- with many moving parts but always working together. But, YOU are the only one that cares the most about the money coming out of YOUR wallet. No one can make the decision that it’s time to buy a house, purchase a new car, or start investing differently. Ultimately, it’s up to you.
 
At the ēCO Credit Union Foundation, making financial education more accessible to the greater Birmingham area is our goal. So, we decided to create the ēCO Educational Center; this is free access to financial education broken up in to three to five minute modules. Are you considering buying a home? There is a lesson for that. Are you ready to start a budget or curious how to set up an ESA? Guess what? There is a lesson for just about any and every personal finance topic you can imagine. And, it’s all here! Wherever you are reading this, you can access this amazing tool! Here is how it will work:

• Go to ēCOcuFoundation.org.
• Find “ēCO Educational Center” under the Education tab.
• You can either enter to explore on your own or scroll down for more specific options.
• After completing your first module, create your account; you can either register with an email address, Facebook account, or Google account.

Because you have an account, you will be able to login at any time to not only continue your learning, but you will also be able to see what goals and priorities you have set for yourself along the way. There are no restrictions to sign up! We are excited to offer this free, online resource to our community and look forward to seeing the impact spreading financial literacy will have on friends, neighbors, and colleagues. 

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Written by: Georgia Hux

Georgia is the Marketing Coordinator at ēCO Credit Union. She loves spending time with her husband Aaron, playing with her dog Tuff, and trying to make her house look like Chip & Jo stopped by to help.