Money Smarts: Build Financial Literacy

What is Financial Literacy?

College can be a time of newfound freedom for many students. With that freedom also comes the need to understand money management, including how to live within a budget, be responsible with your credit and manage debt. A solid financial foundation can lead to a lifetime of financial success. While the path to financial health can seem perilous, tools like budgets, SLOPE calculators, and loan repayment options are available to help you reach your full financial potential.

According to the JumpStart Coalition for Financial Literacy, it is “the ability to use knowledge and skills to manage one’s financial resources effectively for lifetime security.”

At CCD, we want our students to be financially literate, manage their personal finances, and understand their student financial aid, including student loan debt. Our goal is to provide you with financial information that will empower you to make sound financial decisions and improve your present and long-term financial well-being.

Various financial literacy resources are available throughout campus, including group workshops, one-on-one sessions, campus-wide fairs, online resources, and in-class presentations.

Project Success Financial Literacy

Create a FREE account with Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC) to start building your financial knowledge at your own pace.  You're invited to explore the vast library of financial topics ranging from budgeting to workplace transition and everything in between. You can take on-demand courses and build your own personalized portfolio based on your interests. Learn more and sign up today. 

Attend a Success Workshop

CCD workshops are geared toward our students' financial, academic and lifelong success.

View This Month's Schedule

To help ensure your success, we’ve teamed up with Solutions at ECMC to provide you with a single resource for all your student loan-related questions. ECMC is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping students manage educational loans and their resources are available to you free of charge.

Solutions at ECMC | 1.877.331.3262 | www.ECMSolutions.org

Contact Them with Student Loan Questions

  • One-on-One Federal Student Loan Repayment Advice
  • How to Make Payments
  • Know What You Owe
  • Forbearances & Deferments – What They Are & Why Do You Need Them?
  • Student Loan Forgiveness

NSLDS.ed.gov - This online tracking system is the U.S. Department of Education's central database for student loans and grants. You can use it for

  • identifying the types of student loans you have (subsidized and/or unsubsidized),
  • finding out how much student loan debt you have and the interest rate on your outstanding loans,
  • identifying your student loan servicers and locating their contact information for repayment, and
  • identifying Federal Pell Grant usage (lifetime limit is 600%).

StudentLoans.gov - This site is your source for information from the U.S. Department of Education about how to manage your student loans. You can use it to

  • complete entrance counseling,
  • complete a Master Promissory Note,
  • request a Direct Parent PLUS Loan, and
  • view your monthly repayment amounts.

StudentAid.ed.gov - This site is the U.S. Department of Education’s general college aid information site. You can use it to find out about student loan repayment options available to you, including:

  • Standard Repayment
  • Graduated Repayment
  • Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR)
  • Income-Sensitive Repayment (ISR)
  • Extended Repayment
  • Income-Based Repayment (IBR)
  • Finding information on deferment, forbearance, and other types of payment relief.
  • Researching loan consolidation options for federal student loans.
  • Information on student loan forgiveness.

Money Smart Week

Money Smart Week began as a coordinated effort of the Money Smart Advisory Council, a group of 40 Chicago-area organizations working together to promote personal financial literacy. The Chicago Fed convened the Council's first meeting in July 2001. The result was Money Smart Week 2002—six days of focused presentations by community groups, financial institutions, government agencies, educational organizations, and financial experts, all designed to help consumers learn to better manage their personal finances. Today, Money Smart Week is broader in scope and has expanded beyond Chicago to individual events and activities across the United States.

Money Smart Week at CCD

The Community College of Denver (CCD) began participating in Money Smart Week in 2014 and has continued to host an annual event every April. During this event, CCD stresses the importance of financial literacy, connects attendees to financial resources and provides free educational seminars and activities covering all facets of personal finance.

This public awareness campaign at CCD is organized and created by the Money Smarts Team with the goal of helping our students be financially literate regardless of their background and understanding of finances. Our goal is to provide our students with financial information that will empower them to make sound financial decisions and improve their financial well-being while at CCD and for years to come.