Timed with National Financial Literacy Month and New York’s Financial Aid Awareness Month, ‘Money 101’ Encourages Building Smart Financial Habits
Click here to apply for FAFSA
CUNY is launching a four‑part video series designed to help students develop smart money habits and confidence in managing their personal finances. The “Money 101” series, released during April’s National Financial Literacy Month and New York State Financial Aid Awareness Month, aligns with broader nationwide and statewide efforts to boost financial literacy. Featuring CUNY students and faculty, it focuses on early, manageable steps that young adults can take to create lasting financial stability.
Financial literacy remains a significant challenge nationwide. According to the latest Personal Finance Index, U.S. adults answered just 49% of financial literacy questions correctly. The gaps are even wider among Gen Z, who scored only 38%, the lowest of any generation studied. WalletHub also ranked Gen Z as the least financially confident generation, with more than one in four Gen Z adults reporting they are “not confident in their financial knowledge and skills.”
“A student’s financial decisions can be as consequential as their academic ones, and choosing a CUNY school is already a smart first step,” said CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “Taking additional actions — like applying for the maximum amount of financial aid or starting even a modest savings plan — can have a profound impact on a student’s future. Our new Money 101 videos are fun and engaging, but the message is serious: Students who take control of their finances early are setting themselves up for long-term success.”
The Power of Financial Aid
Financial aid plays a major role in student success, especially at CUNY, where more than seven in 10 students pay no tuition, and nearly eight in 10 graduates leave without debt. According to EdTrust New York, 90% of high school seniors who complete the FAFSA enroll in college immediately after graduation, compared to just 55% of those who do not.
To encourage students to explore the full range of financial aid opportunities, Governor Hochul launched April’s New York State Financial Aid Awareness Month in 2024. Students are invited to attend information sessions, urged to fill out the FAFSA early and apply for programs like TAP, which research shows can significantly boost graduation rates. The deadline to file the 2026-2027 FAFSA is June 30, 2026; visit CUNY’s FAFSA page for more information and to apply.
Planning for Future You
CUNY’s new video series focuses on four core areas of finance — budgeting, saving, investing and understanding credit scores — breaking down essential topics into clear, practical steps, giving students tools they can use right away.
“If you save $10 every Friday, you’ll have more than $500 in a year. That’s a plane ticket home or a new laptop when yours dies mid-finals,” says Baruch College Professor Casey Halliley in the video on saving.
Another installment highlights the power of investing early and explains how compound interest works. “If you invest just $25 a month between the ages of 20 and 30 and never touch it again, you could have more money at 60 than someone who starts investing $100 per month at age 30,” says Baruch College Senior Dominque Desplas.
The City University of New York is the nation’s largest urban public university, a transformative engine of social mobility that is a critical component of the lifeblood of New York City. Founded in 1847 as the nation’s first free public institution of higher education, CUNY today has seven community colleges, 11 senior colleges and eight honors, graduate and professional institutions spread across New York City’s five boroughs, serving 247,000 undergraduate and graduate students and awarding 50,000 degrees each year. CUNY’s mix of quality and affordability propels almost six times as many low-income students into the middle class and beyond as all the Ivy League colleges combined. More than 80 percent of the University’s graduates stay in New York, contributing to all aspects of the city’s economic, civic and cultural life and diversifying the city’s workforce in every sector. CUNY’s graduates and faculty have received many prestigious honors, including 13 Nobel Prizes and 26 MacArthur “genius” grants. The University’s historic mission continues to this day: provide a first-rate public education to all students, regardless of means or background. To learn more about CUNY, visit https://www.cuny.edu.
