The New Jersey Department of the Treasury launched NJ FinLit, a free financial wellness platform for all adult state residents, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Wednesday.
The launch of the platform, developed by a San Diego-based financial education company, iGrad, coincides with the start of National Financial Literacy Month. State officials said they hope it will help raise awareness of the importance of financial wellness and education.
“Understanding money, building credit, saving for a home or retirement — these are lifelong 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.”
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 Personality 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;
- Personal finance calculators and a real-time budget tool.
Muoio said the pandemic exposed the need for the program.
“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,” she 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 program is for more than students, Muoio said.
“We understand that navigating the increasingly complex world of personal money management can be a daunting challenge,” she said. “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.”
