Despite a strong economy and low unemployment, the U.S. Financial Health Pulse shows more than half of Americans are struggling to pay their bills, save and remain financially stable. The problem is most acute for low-income individuals. Five years ago, the Financial Health Network launched the Financial Solutions Lab (FinLab) in partnership with JPMorgan Chase…

Ennie Lim, along with co-founders Benny Yiu and Max Zschoch, founded HoneyBee to help employees, regardless of credit history, access an extra week’s pay anytime to help manage unplanned expenses and build credit. The employee’s salary, employment tenure, and accrued paid time off (PTO) is the credit–securing loans with unused PTO is a differentiator in […]

Callum King, along with Jacky Chiu, Shawn Leavitt, and Tom Spann founded Brightside, a personalized financial health platform providing employees with one place to go for all their financial needs. King shares why he and his team became fintech founders focused on creating solutions to specifically address workplace financial health challenges. Q. What inspired you […]

By Eric Wilson, Associate, Financial Health Network Despite economic indicators showing exceptional GDP growth and record low unemployment, the 2018 U.S. Financial Health Pulse shows that a vast majority of Americans are struggling with their financial health. In April, the Financial Health Network, along with Pulse funders and partners, took the findings of this benchmarking…

I had the privilege of serving as emcee at the 2019 EMERGE Financial Health Forum . Here are some highlights from the event.

The 2019 Financial Health Leaders designation offers selected organizations additional benefits including peer-learning opportunities through Financial Health Network’s Financial Health Leaders Working Group, a group of industry influencers from Financial Health Network.

By Chandni Ohri, Director, Financial Health Network The financial services industry has been trying to regain the trust and rebuild the relationship with their customers after the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis. In their efforts to regain trust and engage with customers, financial institutions are launching new initiatives focused on financial health and wellness….

In recognition of #FinHealthMatters Day, we reflect on our efforts to advance the cause of financial health which include research and building partnerships with leading organizations and our network of Members.

Alex Mooradian and his co-founder Michael Bovee teamed up to figure out how to help people in debt better handle unexpected financial crises such as a loss of job or medical emergency. Together they built Resolve, a free platform that creates a custom debt relief plan for users. The platform connects people with an integrated […]

There is increasing awareness among community colleges and universities regarding the link between student financial health and academic success. In 2018, working closely with a cohort of innovative colleges and universities, Financial Health Network developed a new, holistic framework for not only understanding, but also assessing and measuring student financial health.

The data set contains responses from more than 5,000 individuals to 100+ questions about how people are spending, saving, borrowing, and planning.

As fellows at the Robin Hood Foundation, Paul Barnes-Hoggett and Avi Karnani spent a lot of time thinking about how to help people increase their income. The co-founders created Alice, software that helps people keep more of what they earn by automating pre-tax spending on everyday things like commuting, childcare, and healthcare. Barnes-Hoggett sat down […]

By Andrew Dunn, Senior Associate, Financial Health Network For years, financial planners described the financial lives of individuals over 50 as following a predictable life cycle. The “traditional” path typically included diligently saving in an employer-provided retirement account, paying off a mortgage, then fully retiring while reducing expenses in order to live comfortably. However, this…

Imagine going to your smart phone to view your checking balance and seeing two numbers instead of one. The first number is the traditional available balance. The second is an estimate –more often than not, a smaller number — that projects what your balance will be one, two or three days from now.

What is the origin story of your company? I grew up a high-achieving, low-income student and was the first in my family to go to college. Like myself, many people on Sixup’s team share a similar background. We believe the path to and through college is broken and that the student loan financing system must […]

One important way to avoid running out of money at the ends of the month is to set aside or “earmark” money as it comes in for bills you know you’ll need to pay.

Despite the fact that more than half of U.S. households struggle with their financial health, fintech founders and those who invest in them reflect a homogenous world. While specific numbers for diversity in fintech are difficult to nail down, we know that all-women teams of entrepreneurs received just 2 percent of all investment by venture […]

In November, we released the inaugural 2018 Baseline Report which established a baseline to track changes in financial health over time. In 2019, we plan to build upon the foundation we laid this year.

Recently, Financial Health Network and MetLife Foundation hosted five social entrepreneurs from South Korea to exchange ideas and learnings with U.S. nonprofits, social enterprises, impact investors and financial health fintech companies. There were three main themes that made an impact on the South Korean social entrepreneurs.

Pictured: Tanya Van Court, CEO and founder of Goalsetter Kids with savings accounts in their name are six times more likely to go to college and four times more likely to own stocks as young adults. Having worked as a leader in preschool and parenting digital products at Nickelodeon, Tanya van Court knew a lot […]

Frequent debit card use makes it difficult to keep a diligent check register that accounts for pending payments. Behaviorally informed personal finance apps and smart checking account features have already begun to remove some of the uncertainties posed by recurring cash management challenges, just as smart meters have taken much of the gambling out of parking.

Here are six tips discussed in our recent webinar featuring innovative companies who have been using our FinHealth Score Toolkit to measure their customers' financial health.

By Thea Garon Director, Financial Health Network Despite a surging stock market and record-low unemployment, millions of Americans are struggling financially. Nearly half of Americans (47%) say their spending equaled or exceeded their income in the last year. One in three people (30%) say they have more debt than is manageable. More than a third…

Benefits season is the most important moment of the year for Americans to take positive action for their long-term financial health — and now more than ever before because American workers are not financially prepared for their life after work.

Much about overdrafting behavior remains a mystery. Given the small amounts and short periods by which overdrafts occur, why aren’t many of them avoidable?

Could overdrafting and payday borrowing actually compound each other, leading to greater use of both products? We asked the banks to compile some key behavioral statistics before and after the discontinuation of their “deposit advance” programs.

In this guest blog post, Josh Sledge and Equifax describe characteristics of underbanked and unbanked consumers and how financial institutions can better serve them. Josh tells us, “There’s a real market opportunity for providers to help underserved consumers build savings and credit to increase their resilience to financial shocks.”

When it comes to “small dollar credit,” overdraft is the elephant in the room. The inexplicability of overdrafting — of why a small group of people seems willing to pay so much for transactions that could be easily avoided — has been the subject of policy debates within our industry for some time.

If you are considering higher education, let me share some of my advice for reducing your overall student loan debt burden.

By Lily from The Frugal Gene The Teen Years Saving your own money for college does a lot more than just paying the tuition. Spending your own money teaches you about the value of money, provides a safety net, and gives you a preview of the working world. I’ll tell you my experience of going to…

By John Hammond, StartU Today marks the 3rd annual #FinHealthMatters day; an event started by the Center for Financial Services Innovation to draw attention to the 57% of Americans — approximately 138 million adults — that are struggling financially today. This year’s theme is student health; emphasizing the financial health of college students in America today. At StartU, this…

By Roderick King, MD/MPH, CEO, Florida Institute for Health Innovation, Assistant Dean of Public Health Education, Director — MD/MPH Program at University of Miami MIller School of Medicine  and Jennifer Tescher, President & CEO, Financial Health Network Poor physical and financial health overwhelmingly go hand in hand. Financial insecurity leads to toxic stress and chronic disease while,…

Working in the consumer payments business, you learn a lot about your customers from the timing of their bill pay traffic.

By Justine, from Debt Free Millennials Forget student loan debt. When I think about my college experience, it’s filled with memories of purple everything, late night study sessions at Hale Library, $2 You-Call-Its at O’Malley’s, and being flat broke. Me and my girls. All purple. Cheap beer. K-State Wildcats. And dirt poor! I was clueless…

Financial Health Network welcomes Gina Harman and Luz Urrutia as guest bloggers. Gina currently serves on Financial Health Network’s board of directors and Luz is a past member of Financial Health Network board of directors. Guest post co-authored by: Gina Harman, CEO, U.S. Network, Accion Luz Urrutia, CEO, Opportunity Fund As mission-based small business lenders,…

This blog series aims to explore solutions in one area of household finance where innovations by business, technologists, and regulators can all make a positive difference: the cash crunch too many families face at the end of the month, when their bills come due and their bank balances approach zero.

Good financial health starts with being proactive and getting rebellious with your finances. And there is no better day than today.

By Karen Andres Vice President, Financial Health Network Anyone who has heard the words “terminal,” “no cure,” or “palliative care” in a doctor’s office will remember everything about that moment. When I heard those words a decade ago about my 57-year-old mother, I immediately felt like I had been hit over the head by a…

“We tend to spend when the checking account balance is high so I like being able to put in money when I need it, it’s more flexibility. I like the idea of having a buffer account that I can feed into my checking account. I get more control of my finances.” — Matt, Current Payroll Card User…

Recently GreenPath, one of the country’s largest nonprofit financial counseling organizations, released “Building Successful Nonprofit-Fintech Partnerships,” detailing its work to co-develop and distribute a new client service with EarnUp, a fintech company that makes it easier for people to manage and pay down debt. The report is a goldmine of insights on how to build better […]

In January 2018, we issued a call to the marketplace of entrepreneurs in America, seeking a broad range of solutions to improve the outcomes of people in America struggling with their finances. Applicants were strongly encouraged to support diversity in solutions, customer focus, and founding teams. For the fourth year in a row, the Financial […]

#FinHealthMatters Day 2018 April 25, 2018 was the third annual #FinHealthMatters Day. Each year, #FinHeathMatters Day brings attention to Americans’ financial health through a thunderclap of social media activity, news stories, blogs, podcasts and more. Over the past years we have seen 240+ blogs posted, 2,500+ influencers tweeting nearly 6,000 times, and ultimately, close to 27…

By Mindy Hauptman, Managing Director, Consulting Services, Financial Health Network Ready to tackle product innovations in order to improve your customers’ financial health? Financial Health Network Consulting Services is here to help. Request a consultation today. Innovative products result in happy customers, and customer satisfaction drives business. According to CFI Group’s Bank Satisfaction Barometer, products…

By Kaitlin Asrow, Financial Health Network Data breaches have become inevitable in our increasingly digital lives, but unlike other global events — from terrorism to the 2008 economic crisis — they have not yet become a catalyst for market-wide changes to business practices in industries that center on consumer data. But that may be changing. Recent events, from the…

It’s no secret that financial challenges play a big role in overall student success and achievement. We must work to find the holistic and streamlined solutions that address the complexity of everyday life in order for students to pursue their dreams.

This story first appeared on Medium.  It took a natural disaster 1,500 miles away from where he was living in New York for R. Jerry Nemorin to upend his Wall Street career and start anew. Five months after the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, killing hundreds of thousands and leaving 1.5 million people without a […]

Today we’re sharing an interview with Matthew Cooper, co-founder of EarnUp, a member of the 2016 Financial Solutions Lab class.    You’re an openly gay fintech founder. How do those two facts relate to each other? Being openly gay has greatly affected my career choices and how I became an entrepreneur. Both my startup journey […]

By Kate Flocken, Financial Health Network For more than 40 years, public policy has been actively promoting financial inclusion and how to enable consumers to have better access to high quality financial services, but the federal and state governments alike have struggled to keep up with the fast pace of change. Last week the Financial…

By Liz Loewy As a former elder abuse prosecutor in a large District Attorney’s Office, I witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of fraud in later life. The hundreds of elder financial exploitation cases I handled had a number of things in common. First, many of the cases involved older victims who weren’t able to testify, […]