Acorns Launches Guide to Personal Finance, Partners with Udemy to Address Financial Literacy Gap

PR Newswire

NEW YORK, Jan. 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Acorns, the country's fastest-growing micro-investing app with more than 2.9 million investment accounts, has announced its publication of the Acorns Guide to Personal Finance, in partnership with Udemy, the leading online learning platform. This comprehensive course is designed to help students make well-informed decisions about budgeting, saving, investing and earning more. Free for Acorns customers, the course is an extension of Acorns mission to look after the financial best interests of the up-and-coming.

The five-step course was developed by Jennifer Barrett, Chief Education Officer for Acorns and Editor in Chief of Grow, its online money magazine. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults can't pass a basic financial literacy test, according to research by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Jennifer is using her background as a seasoned financial journalist and co-author of two personal finance books—along with her passion for financial education—to help change this statistic, and empower Americans to make conscious, informed decisions about their money.

"We've failed as a country to prepare our students to manage their money successfully as adults. The majority of Americans never get a formal financial education, so it's no surprise they feel ill-equipped," says Jennifer Barrett. "It's part of our mission at Acorns to help change that—by advocating for them and by providing the tools and resources to help them manage their money confidently and make smart financial choices."

Grow saw more than 5.6 million visits in 2017, and Acorns directly integrates relevant Grow content into the customer app experience to keep users informed.

"Financial knowledge is life-changing," says Acorns CEO, Noah Kerner. "Grow your knowledge, grow your potential, grow your wealth."

The Acorns Guide to Personal Finance addresses basic questions like how to create an effective budget and how to determine, and improve, your credit score—and provides students with worksheets to create budgets from scratch. It also covers debt repayment strategies and tackles trickier topics, like how to ask for a raise and negotiate a better job offer. Ultimately, the course aims to help students feel better-prepared and more confident about their finances and their futures.

The personal finance course is available to all Acorns customers as part of their subscription. It can be accessed at Udemy.com.

Udemy is a global marketplace for learning and teaching online where more than 17 million students learn from an extensive library of 55,000 courses in over 60 languages.

Whether learning for professional development or personal enrichment, students can master new skills through self-paced, on-demand courses, while instructors have a way to share their knowledge with the world.

About Acorns

Acorns is the leading micro investing app in the U.S. Its easy-to-use, mobile-first technology makes it simple for anyone to set aside and invest. Acorns allows customers to automatically invest in a low-cost, diversified portfolio of exchange-traded funds offered by some of the world's top asset managers (including Vanguard and BlackRock). Customers grow their wealth in one of five portfolios constructed with help from world-renowned Nobel Laureate economist Dr. Harry Markowitz. Acorns smart portfolio algorithms automatically work in the background of life, helping users build wealth naturally, pennies at a time.

From Acorns mighty oaks do grow.

You can access Acorns simply and easily via the app for iPhone, Android or desktop. Visit Acorns.com for more.

Acorns logo. (PRNewsFoto/Acorns Grow Inc.)