Savings and Investment Basics

• Low-income individuals can become trapped in a cycle of spending their entire paychecks before the next payday, no matter how much their income increases over time. A wide range of cultural influences come into play to create and reinforce this cycle, but wise money management is the sole remedy. Financial education can teach your family how to set a portion of your income aside for emergencies and long-term savings, regardless of your income level. Learning personal finance can also teach your family the basics of investing your money to earn a profit, maximizing the value of your earned income.
  
  

Advantages of Budgeting

• Budgeting should be an integral part of a comprehensive personal finance education program. Families that operate without a budget often allow money to slip through their fingers in ways they don't even notice. Budgeting adds accountability to all family purchases, showing the family exactly where their money is going, and how they can change their spending habits to keep bank balances positive. Simply planning to use a budget may not be effective for all families; taking the time to study budgeting techniques and processes can give your household the boost it needs to stick with a budget.
  
  

Generational Progress

• Financial education is vitally important to low-income families to break generational cycles of poverty. Low-income parents often work hard to ensure that their children end up in a better financial situation than themselves. Including children in financial education can give them the tools they need to start saving and investing early, raising the family's standard of living through their hard work and achievement. As your children have kids of their own, they can pass on the knowledge you gained together to their own children, ensuring the family continues to prosper.
  
  

Shopping

• It is important for families --- especially those family members who do the shopping --- to understand how the tenants of sound financial management apply to the shopping experience. Things like learning to compare the price per volume of different sized products, learning the true value of generic brands, studying pricing strategies and understanding when price promotions offer true value and when they don't can cut back on your groceries and necessities expenses, leaving more money for savings and investment.