NJ launches NJ FinLit to help New Jersey residents rebuild from the pandemic, plan for the future

NEW JERSEY — As part of National Financial Literacy Month, Governor Phil Murphy announced during CNBC’s Invest in You: Ready. Set. Grow. event Wednesday that the New Jersey Department of the Treasury has launched NJ FinLit, a free financial wellness platform for all adult state residents.

“Understanding money, building credit, saving for a home or retirement – these are life-long lessons that persist well after we leave the classroom,” Murphy said. “That’s why I’m grateful that Treasurer Liz Muoio and her team are committed to providing every adult across our State with access to free financial wellness education through NJ FinLit. New Jersey was a leader in getting personal financial literacy into our K-12 curriculum, but this new platform will close the circle to ensure every resident has the tools they need to take control of their financial future.”

“The shock of the COVID-19 pandemic – both social and financial – laid bare the fact that New Jersey families most affected by the economic downturn were the ones with the fewest resources to cope with financial instability,” State Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio said. “Our goal in launching NJ FinLit is to provide New Jerseyans with tools to help them better prepare for and meet future financial challenges.  It is our hope that this free educational resource, which can be personalized by New Jerseyans at all stages of life, regardless of income, and translated into multiple languages, will both help our residents strengthen their financial resiliency and enable them to reach their long term goals.”

The launch of the new platform – powered by Enrich™ and developed by San Diego-based financial education company iGrad – coincides with the start of National Financial Literacy Month and will help raise awareness of the importance of financial wellness and education.

“We understand that navigating the increasingly complex world of personal money management can be a daunting challenge,” Muoio continued. “We want all New Jerseyans – from young adults and parents planning for college, to seniors hoping to enjoy retirement – to be able to take advantage of our website’s user-friendly interactive tools, videos, and articles and put them to use to help better understand and manage their financial resources.”

Treasurer Muoio and staff began exploring ways to make financial wellness accessible and attainable for all New Jerseyans as it became apparent that the pandemic and the ensuing K-shaped recession were having a disproportionate impact on lower and moderate income families.

Treasury’s personalized NJ FinLit financial wellness platform features dynamic tools and courses, delivering a highly personalized and interactive learning experience, including the Your Money PersonalityTM financial behavior assessment, which analyzes each user’s financial “personality.” The site is compatible with Google Translate to provide information in multiple languages. The platform also provides:

• Financial education courses with personalized action plans on topics including budgeting, mortgages, health care, college savings, student loan repayment, banking, credit, financial planning, long-term care, and more;
• Retirement and home affordability analyzers;
• A suite of student loan and higher education tools; and
• Personal finance calculators and a real-time budget tool.

According to a 2021 Capital One CreditWise survey, 73 percent of Americans rank their finances as the most significant source of stress.

To combat financial stress, NJ FinLit users are prompted to update their stress score regularly to gauge the correlation between improved financial wellness and stress levels. Recent data shows that as Enrich participants improved financial understanding, their stress levels dropped.

Additional Enrich data found positive behavior changes as a result of program participation, including:

• 27 percent increase in users with emergency savings funds covering three to six months of expenses;
• 28 percent increase in users that pay their credit cards in full every month;
• 32 percent increase in users getting on track with their financial goals; and
• 15 percent increase in users contributing to their retirement plan.

Enrich is used by more than 20,000 employers and more than 300 financial institutions nationwide, with artificial intelligence technology that engages each user with the most relevant content based on financial situation and stage of life.

“Enrich can help people of all income levels and in all stages of life,” said iGrad Vice President for Business Development Todd Woodlee. “The New Jersey Department of the Treasury is demonstrating the importance of financial wellness by offering Enrich to its citizens, who will benefit from behavior-changing financial education.”