MyMoney Resources - Life Events

Learn tips and strategies on how to make more informed financial decisions around managing money, saving and paying for higher education, and repaying student loan debt.

We explain the ins and outs of student financial aid and repaying loans to help you make smarter decisions about how to pay for school.

A 529 plan is a tax-advantaged savings plan designed to encourage saving for future education costs. 529 plans, legally known as “qualified tuition plans,” are sponsored by states, state agencies, or educational institutions and are authorized by Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code. There are two types of 529 plans: prepaid tuition plans and education savings plans. All fifty states and the District of Columbia sponsor at least one type of 529 plan. In addition, a group of private colleges and universities sponsor a prepaid tuition plan.

 

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy is issuing this Investor Bulletin to educate investors about ABLE accounts. An Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) account provides a tax-advantaged method to save for disability-related expenses. Contributions are not tax deductible for federal income tax purposes, but your investments can grow tax free and remain so when withdrawn and used for disability-related expenses. Similar to 529 college-savings plans, ABLE programs are administered by the states. Many states have established ABLE programs and you may have the option to choose your own state’s plan.

This resource guide is for youth employment programs that are interested in enhancing financial capability1 and building partnerships with financial institutions. It maps out how and why such partnerships can help young people2 achieve greater financial well-being and employment success.

This guide provides information to financial institutions on how they can enhance youth financial capability by partnering with youth employment programs. It maps out how and why financial institutions can engage with these programs and highlights best practices in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) by local communities.

The CFPB FinEx connects and supports financial education practitioners through an online and in-person information exchange. FinEx provides financial education practitioners with centralized access to the CFPB’s tools, research on consumer financial behavior and effective practices, and other financial education resources.

These CFPB online resources and tools show the steps child welfare caseworkers and their agencies can take to help ensure that youth in foster care start their adult lives with healthy credit. Tip sheets explain how to detect identity theft or fraud, and how to resolve inaccuracies in credit reports. The CFPB also provides sample letters for disputing credit report errors on behalf of youth in foster care.

This report summarizes the findings from the Federal Reserve Board’s 3rd annual Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED), which aims to capture a snapshot of financial and economic well-being of U.S. consumers and identify potential risks to their financial stability. Topics covered include financial well-being, income and savings behaviors, economic preparedness, access to banking and credit, housing decisions, auto lending, education, student loans, and retirement planning.

Following a rigorous research effort to develop a consumer-driven definition of financial well-being, the CFPB developed and tested a set of questions–a “scale”–to measure financial well-being. The scale is designed to allow practitioners and researchers to accurately and consistently quantify, and therefore observe, something that is not directly observable–the extent to which someone’s financial situation and the financial capability that they have developed provide them with security and freedom of choice. This guide describes the research behind the CFPB Financial Well-Being Scale and provides detailed steps for using it, including how to score individuals’ responses and compare their scores.