MoneyFit Challenge Year One Results: Improving Canadian's Financial Skills and Knowledge
TORONTO, Nov. 29, 2018 /CNW/ - Last year, during Financial Literacy Month, BestLifeRewarded and the Economic Club of Canada, in collaboration with the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada launched a novel rewards-based financial literacy tool, the MoneyFit Challenge. To celebrate a successful year one, BestLifeRewarded is thrilled to report on some of the initial results.
Over 40 organizations have joined the Challenge, including government, school boards and insurance companies. The program offers robust financial literacy content from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada and had $30,000 in rewards for the first year.
Exciting improvements have been reported across the board related to participants' general financial knowledge, understanding debt and confidence in dealing with challenges. In fact, there was an increase of 33% of participants (from baseline when they joined the MoneyFit Challenge) that said they now established at least one financial goal, and an increase of almost 50% of participants said they have improved confidence related to achieving their financial goal.
"There is a strong connection between financial well-being and overall health. The MoneyFit Challenge is an innovative financial literacy initiative that is available free of charge for employers to offer financial literacy tools and resources to employees and it also supports individual Canadians to learn more about money matters and take important small steps to improve their own personal financial well-being," said Susanne Cookson, Co-Founder BestLifeRewarded, creator of the MoneyFit Challenge.
Developed by BestLifeRewarded, in collaboration with the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, the MoneyFit Challenge was a Canadian first, combining robust financial literacy content and tools with a unique rewards system to drive engagement. The next phase of the program will be to make enhancements based on some of the findings in the initial evaluation, expand the program partners and re-evaluate the sustainable impact of the program over time.
We encourage all Canadians and Canadian companies to join www.moneyfitchallenge.com today!
More Support Information
Financial Literacy Facts
- Studies show a direct link between financial wellness and employee health. Those that report greater financial stress also report poorer health.1
- Three of the top four drivers of uncomfortable levels of stress for Canadians are related to financial challenges:2
- 45% of employees worry about personal/household finances
- 32% worry about trying to maintain a budget
- 31% worry about unexpected expens
(Note: the fourth top issue was personal health) - Financial stress can lead to distress, sleep deprivation, absenteeism, reduced productivity, employee turnover, mental illness, etc.3
- Financial stress causes more than 11 lost days of productivity per year4 (per employee)
- 20 to 30 percent of those with high levels of stress from debt live with anxiety or depression.5
Additional Tools Coming Soon:
Excellence Canada has developed a Financial Wellness Standard for workplace that will officially launch in early 2019. Visit www.Excellence.ca for more information on how their Standards can help you in your workplace.
In addition, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada is developing new web content about offering financial wellness programs in the workplace, based on industry best practices. The content will be available in early 2019. Visit www.Canada.ca/financial-literacy and click on Workplace financial literacy for more information.
Stay connected to learn more about these and other resources at www.BestLifeRewardedInnovations.com
About BestLifeRewarded® Innovations
BestLifeRewarded is a health behaviour change system. People are your business and we make your people better. We do what works. BestLifeRewarded supports over 12,000 Canadian companies, and reaches over 3.2 million Canadians and growing. The platform has been recognized globally for its evidence-informed innovation in health behaviour change.
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1 Bagwell, D.C. & Kim, Financial Stress, health status and absenteeism…Journal of Consumer Education, 21, 50-58
2 Sun Life Financial, 2016 Sun Life Canadian Health Index
3 Aversa, J. Associated Press (2008) Stressed over debt taking a toll on health
4 The Conference Board of Canada, Money on the Mind Presentation, February 21, 2018
5 The 2016 Financial Stress Research (Financial Finesses)
SOURCE BestLifeRewarded Innovations Inc.
Susanne Cookson (905) 599- 6045
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