Investing in Her Future is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (as of June 2016) that seeks to promote financial literacy among women and girls in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sandhya Kalavacherla, Tejasvi Desai, and Amanda Deng co-founded this organization. The majority members are girls aged 7-18 in the SFO Bay Area, and we have recently expanded our reach to students in Bronx, NY. Investing in her Future was founded in May 2015 and is based in Pleasanton, CA. Donations are now tax deductible under the ID: 81-3243479.
Motivations
In a study that examined financial literacy among the young using data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, it was found that financial literacy is low among the youth; fewer than one-third of young adults possess basic knowledge of interest rates, inflation, and risk diversification, which are all extremely important to maintain basic financial stability and success.
There is also a significant gender gap in financial literacy. Nearly half of surveyed girls aged 11 to 17 feel uncomfortable making their own financial decisions, according to 2012 research by Girl Scouts of USA. Only 12 percent of girls say they will feel “very confident” making these decisions as adults.
Girls are missing out on financial literacy, a trend that can have serious economic implications later in life, such as bankruptcy and poverty, according to research published in the Journal of Economic Literature. Some of the big financial mistakes that people make, says Priya Gopalakrishnan, an accountant at Deloitte Tax in New York, involve the misuse of credit cards, including making late payments, paying only the minimum amount due, overspending credit limits and using cash advances. “If financial literacy is low,” Gopalakrishnan said in an email interview, “girls are less likely to invest and more likely to experience difficulty with debt.”
This gap is mirrored in the American adult population. For example, U.S. women, overall, trailed male counterparts by 10 percentage points in a recent three- question exam of financial literacy conducted by the Financial Literacy Excellence Center at George Washington University.
We previously conducted research in the local Bay Area community to affirm that this same trend exists. Among 500 college freshmen at Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Davis, which are all considered some of the most elite American universities, we found that while both males and females showed dismal levels of financial literacy, female students scored 13 percentage points lower than male peers when asked questions about basic finance and their immediate financial plans, despite their high level of education.
To add, according to recent studies, although women are the primary decision makers regarding purchases in 80% of households, fewer than 2 out of 10 women feel "very prepared" to make wise financial decisions. We aim to combat this discrepancy by empowering women, from girls in elementary school to mothers who run a household, with the personal finance skills necessary to navigate the challenges in life.
Financial literacy is the key to both social and economic independence, and it is crucial for women to recognize this and take action. Our underlying belief is to focus on teens, as we believe that these students will reap the benefits of their financial literacy from a longer period of time as they are just beginning adulthood. As Annamaria Lusardi, founder and academic director of the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center at George Washington University, said in an interview with GW Today, “Financial literacy is not acquired by ‘breathing air’” and must be honed from a young age.
Motivations
In a study that examined financial literacy among the young using data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, it was found that financial literacy is low among the youth; fewer than one-third of young adults possess basic knowledge of interest rates, inflation, and risk diversification, which are all extremely important to maintain basic financial stability and success.
There is also a significant gender gap in financial literacy. Nearly half of surveyed girls aged 11 to 17 feel uncomfortable making their own financial decisions, according to 2012 research by Girl Scouts of USA. Only 12 percent of girls say they will feel “very confident” making these decisions as adults.
Girls are missing out on financial literacy, a trend that can have serious economic implications later in life, such as bankruptcy and poverty, according to research published in the Journal of Economic Literature. Some of the big financial mistakes that people make, says Priya Gopalakrishnan, an accountant at Deloitte Tax in New York, involve the misuse of credit cards, including making late payments, paying only the minimum amount due, overspending credit limits and using cash advances. “If financial literacy is low,” Gopalakrishnan said in an email interview, “girls are less likely to invest and more likely to experience difficulty with debt.”
This gap is mirrored in the American adult population. For example, U.S. women, overall, trailed male counterparts by 10 percentage points in a recent three- question exam of financial literacy conducted by the Financial Literacy Excellence Center at George Washington University.
We previously conducted research in the local Bay Area community to affirm that this same trend exists. Among 500 college freshmen at Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Davis, which are all considered some of the most elite American universities, we found that while both males and females showed dismal levels of financial literacy, female students scored 13 percentage points lower than male peers when asked questions about basic finance and their immediate financial plans, despite their high level of education.
To add, according to recent studies, although women are the primary decision makers regarding purchases in 80% of households, fewer than 2 out of 10 women feel "very prepared" to make wise financial decisions. We aim to combat this discrepancy by empowering women, from girls in elementary school to mothers who run a household, with the personal finance skills necessary to navigate the challenges in life.
Financial literacy is the key to both social and economic independence, and it is crucial for women to recognize this and take action. Our underlying belief is to focus on teens, as we believe that these students will reap the benefits of their financial literacy from a longer period of time as they are just beginning adulthood. As Annamaria Lusardi, founder and academic director of the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center at George Washington University, said in an interview with GW Today, “Financial literacy is not acquired by ‘breathing air’” and must be honed from a young age.