millennials and money At dinner the other night, I asked my five-year-old daughter MacKenzie to tell me about her day at school. Her face lit up and she said, “Mommy, Ms. Melissa gave me the coolest lesson ever. She was showing me addition and did you know that one plus two is three?” Her beaming face, tone of voice and the true bliss she found in learning blew me away. It wasn't work. It was joyful and fun.

As credit unions forge a path to attracting and retaining the next generation of members, we have to make learning fun. According to the Millennial Disruption Index, 71% of millennials would rather go to the dentist than listen to what banks are saying. This is particularly troubling, when juxtaposed with Filene Research Institute's recent research on the millennial generation's financial capabilities titled, “Gen Y Personal Finances: A Crisis of Confidence and Capability”

The findings highlight that Gen Y is overconfident and under informed as it relates to their finances. When asked about their financial knowledge, almost 70% of millennials surveyed rated themselves as having high financial knowledge. When given a financial literacy quiz, 8% answered all five questions correctly.

How might we engage millennials to learn more about their finances in such a way that they light up like MacKenzie did about addition? It seems one way is to create entertaining education or “edutainment.”

In a recent Filene Research Institute pilot called “It's a Money Thing,” offered in collaboration with Currency Marketing, credit unions shared fun, creative, financial education content packets with their members. The monthly content packets included graphics for social media, videos, infographics, articles, handouts and presentations.

Each month, the main character in the content packets, Jen, shares a story from her life that highlights what she is learning about her finances. Topics include such important matters as Budgeting Basics, Foiling Identity Theft, Living on your Own, Leasing vs. Buying a New Car and Emergency Fund Boot Camp. There is a new topic every month and the topics are aligned with the National Financial Literacy Standards.

A key question during the pilot was: If we make high-quality financial literacy content that is clever, concise and easily accessible, will it be adopted?

Our study demonstrated that this approach can increase engagement. The following results are from credit unions that participated in the pilot:

A 9% increase in members under 35;
Satisfaction with social media engagement increased by 100%; and
The credit union website, social media and financial education presentations in schools were the most popular ways to use the content.

Your credit union can make a difference with our next generation of members. Financial literacy can be fun. Consider ways that your credit union can evolve financial education efforts to be crisp, engaging, fun and delivered through multiple channels. Imagine the impact if your credit union could create jubilant enthusiasm with millennials. MacKenzie reminded me that learning is fun. We provide a better experience than visiting the dentist and if we want to create a future for credit unions that includes Gen Y, it's time to put this knowledge into action.

5 Steps to Engaging Millennials Using Financial Literacy

Make it fun. Create or leverage content that is playful and fun. Cartoon videos work!
Try new channels. Share content in multiple social media platforms, in your branches, in schools, on your website and on your blog. Having content in different locations will ensure you reach a broader audience.
Keep it short. Keep videos under three to five minutes as attention spans are very short. Ninety second messaging is even better.
Engage your team. There is no better way to reach your members than to create evangelists with your internal team. Be sure you share all the new content with your internal Gen Y team members. Use their feedback to make your approach even stronger.
Keep it coming. Create an ongoing plan that keeps content fresh and refreshed regularly. A content calendar with a regular approach will build stronger, long-term success.

Tansley Stearns is chief impact officer for Filene Research Institute. she can be reached at 203-859-2666 or tansleys@filene.org.

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To Engage Gen Y, Awaken Your Inner Five-Year-Old

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