Financial literacy literally means understanding money. That's a big category, and effective financial knowledge goes beyond just making a living.
When you are financially literate, you can maximize what you have so your, and your family and community, are financially healthy.
Too many people, however, are functionally illiterate when it comes to finances. They scrape by, or do okay but don’t get ahead enough to stop worrying about money.
Helping people improve their understanding of financial concepts and how to improve them was a main reason the Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC) was created more than two decades ago.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is chair of this Congressionally-chartered panel. He will be holding a FLEC public meeting on Thursday, May 29, afternoon to discuss, in part, ways to measure the effectiveness of financial education and literacy programs.
The session also will feature a panel discussion with representatives from certain federal agencies participating on the FLEC and other stakeholders.
The best news for folks looking to get a better handle on handling their money is that the FLEC meeting will be webcast live from 1 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. Eastern Time.
FLEC history: When FLEC was established under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, it was tasked with developing a national strategy on financial education. The Secretary of the Treasury is the panel chair, with the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau serving as vice-chair.
Twenty-two other federal agencies are FLEC members, including the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, National Credit Union Administration, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Securities and Exchange Commission, and several other departments, some of which the Trump administration wants to eliminate.
Online financial literacy clearinghouse: One way FLEC strives to meet its financial literacy directive is through MyMoney.gov, its national financial education web site. There you can find financial resources such as calculators, budget worksheets, and financial checklists.
The website also offers specialized financial information, such as its current home page feature on resources for military consumers. In addition, MyMoney.gov serves as a clearinghouse for financial research material.
Public outreach, too: But FLEC goes beyond just an online presence. As noted earlier, the group holds periodic public meetings, with the next one scheduled for this Thursday and webcast so that the meeting can be more widely attended.
There’s no registration needed to watch the May 29 webcast.
However, if you require a reasonable accommodation or communication access services such as Communication Access Real-Time Translation (CART) or sign language interpretation, contact ReasonableAccommodationRequests@treasury.gov.
The full agenda has not yet been released. In the meantime, you can check out what happened at FLEC’s last public session on Nov. 14, 2024.
You also can review FLEC’s latest annual report to Congress, known as the Strategy for Assuring Financial Empowerment (SAFE) Report.
It highlights the relevant activities that the FLEC member agencies accomplished in fiscal years 2023 and 2024 to advance financial literacy and education.
Since you are here at a tax blog, I must point out that some Internal Revenue Service projects and programs can be found on page 8 of the PDF report. A search of “tax” will reveal various other tax-related issues (tax credits, scams, small business tax planning, etc.) in other agencies’ SAFE Report activities.
You also might find these items of interest:
- Are you still in the shrinking U.S. middle class?
- Create a tax strategy that utilizes different tax baskets
- Tax and financial knowledge concerns during Financial Literacy Month
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