Location: Online/Maine based- especially if there are opportunities to save or make money in the area.
Project Team: Ashley Phaneuf, for now. Would love to incorporate financial professionals.
Budget Badger- a financial advice blog for 20-somethings. Instead of relying on the teachings and mistakes of those before us, it is time for us to learn, take control, and make our finances work for us. We are going to teach the young people of Maine how to save, pay down debt, make good financial choices, and make a future that is sustainable for ourselves and our future families.
How are you making Maine a better place for young people?
With the economy being such that college graduates are competing with experienced professionals for entry level jobs, its hard to get a leg in. How do we save, make, and live in a way that encourages economic growth for our state, and ourselves. If this becomes a bigger following, we can use the tools we have at our disposal, and begin to share the ways to live frugally and save, similar to the creative ways people saved during the great depression- and possibly offer advice to pay down massive student debt while saving for other areas of life in the process.
What challenges in your community are you addressing?
Economic challenges face each and every one of us every day. The challenges in my generation is that we are still bombarded by credit cards and still living with some idealistic notion that there will be easier times for us. We need to step up to the challenge as a generation and stop waiting for the economy to turn itself around- we need to learn to save, so we can invest, and take this into our own hands.
Who will benefit from your idea? How will people access and learn about the work you are doing?
My target is the same target as the league- but people can learn about my work through the website, viral sharing, and eventually financial workshops geared to young adults. I hope to make financial literacy more accessible to my peers, and hope to do that by educating, investing, and encouraging the sharing of ideas.
What major success would you like to see at the end or apex of your project?
I would like to see people that were in the past, intimidated by paperwork around investing, financial aid, school loans and taxes- and I want to help them decrease their debt and save – without paying money to credit are companies. I would love for people to share their stories on how they were motivated to be frugal, pay down their debt, and increase their savings.
Any thing else you’d like us to know?
Providing seminars and workshops would be a fantastic way to get people more educated financial literacy- there is so much to know, and I’m learning as I go. How do we help each other so it’s not a scary path for all of us!
