Free financial literacy training is now available in low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles, hosted by two nonprofits: The Hispanic Access Foundation and Thrivent Financial Services.
The classes partner with Latino churches and come with a meal and child care, to make them as accessible as possible.
Christine Tamara, director of partnership engagement for the Hispanic Access Foundation, said 95% of participants said they have never had any kind of financial education.
"The Latino community works really hard," Tamara pointed out. "We're really trying to train them to make their money work for them. We're really wanting to educate the community on the importance of financial literacy and planning, having a budget and investing."
A report from the Latino Community Foundation found Latinos in California have $92 billion in spending power. The classes are called "Prepare for a Better Future," and the next class is tomorrow night in South Los Angeles.
Tamara explained financial counselors help people use a tool on the Social Security website to predict what their benefits will be, come retirement age.
"We encourage them to put in their information and go to the government's website," Tamara noted. "So they kind of have an idea right now, if they were to retire, or at a certain age, what would be their Social Security check. And a lot of them are really shocked."
The idea is to help people list out their sources of income and what they're spending and then determine which things are a "need" and which are a "want." Students are shown estimates that find if a person invests $50 a month in stocks, assuming a 10% return, in 40 years it would add up to almost $280,000.
