In order to reach young people, you have to target them where they are - online.

For financial institutions, it’s essential to adapt to changes and technology to start important personal-finance and spending conversations with members of Generation Y.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, under the leadership of senior outreach program manager Alejo Torres, has started programs and initiatives targeting young people through interactive workshops, seminars and activities.

Torres said financial literacy is being disseminated through new technologies, partly because of the fast pace of today’s wired generation.

“Technology plays a large role for Generation Y. More and more organizations are providing resources online, via Web sites, webinars, and getting through social networking mediums like Facebook and Twitter,” he said. “All of these folks are trying to get their resources on these formats.”

Alejo identified himself as barely part of Generation X and confessed to not having a Facebook or Twitter account. But he has been a force advocating new and trendy ways start conversations  with young people about personal finance.

“Our mascot for Money Smart Week is Ben Franklin,” Torres began. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had a Ben Franklin Facebook page, that was trying to communicate to a younger audience… about financial literacy?’”

It is crucial that young people know the importance of saving vs. spending, creating budgets, and balancing their personal finances, Torres said. So far, Torres noticed a positive response to the Fed’s programs amongst young participants, excited about implementing new strategies.

Online personal-finance blogs are also filling the gap created when young adults are turned off by financial advice dispensed by Wall Street-types with substantially more in the bank and more market experience.

Web sites, such as MoneyUnder30, written by blogger David Weliver, provide graduates with practical tips on saving, spending, investments, job searching, and moving from home. They are written from sources with personal experience with emerging from credit card debt, investing in a ROTH IRA, or saving for a first home.

He launched his site when he was 25 to help twentysomethings make wise financial decisions. The blog is based on his experiences battling debt he started accumulating in college and carried after graduation.

“I graduated from college in 2003 and didn’t know much about personal finances,” Weliver, who is now in his thirties, said. “I was stupid with my money, both during college and a couple years following college. I was spending far more than I made, thinking ‘I will deal with it later.’”

His site shows how to trade in their cars with the cash-for-clunkers program, negotiate prices at retail stores, and overcome a fear of dealing with personal finances. A blog post dated July 21 tells readers that to protect themselves against credit card reform laws, they should use their cards regularly, keep balances small, and be proactive about rates and rewards.

Weliver also writes for Qvisory, a nonprofit online organization that supports the health, financial well-being, and career goals of young adults 18-34. Susan Askew, Qvisory’s business development director, said people that age are experiencing more life changes than in any other period.

“They are getting their first jobs, buying health insurance, and leaving [college] with debt,” Askew said. “A lot of things happen between 18 to 34.”

Qvisory guest writers blog about economic detoxification, mistakes young people can make in their careers, and the importance of planning for the immediate future, for example.

Information available on Qvisory and MoneyUnder30 targets a generation that is constantly updating, monitoring, and perfecting their online identities.

They want advice on using social networks to promote themselves and their brands and expand their social circles. A recent blog post on Qvisory titled “5 Ways to Fix a Tarnished Online Reputation” tells readers that to emerge successfully from a compromising situation involving their identities online, they should change how their name appears on the Internet by pushing down the relevance of negative results and giving the search engines positive new content.

For a generation that wants everything fast, easily available, and readily disseminated, it is only natural that personal finance and career information also fit the bill.

Photo credit: http://factoidz.com/images/p/technology-1.jpg

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Tags: career, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, money, MoneyUnder30, personal finance, Qvisory, technology, twentysomething

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 4:51 pm and is filed under career. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.