Pequeño Economista

In Mexico, we care about economic growth and financial inclusion, but it is also true that there is a social backwardness, which implies relevant challenges as Mexicans, as derived from the economic stagnation in our country and the COVID 19 crisis the Mexican economy is to be concerned, but even more because our children and young people do not have educational elements that guide them towards making assertive financial decisions.
Therefore, this can be seen as an enormous opportunity that we have as a Pequeño Economista to position ourselves as a strategic ally with our beneficiaries, our personal finance classes go hand in hand with the habit of weekly savings, until we reach the optional opening of a bank account. The methodology that we have used for two years is based on the National Financial Inclusion Plan and the Condusef, which is replicable and sustainable in the long term.

Pequeño Economista aims to help with the existing problem of lack of Financial education and Financial Inclusion in Mexican children and youth.

According to the Escuela Bolsa Mexicana, it is stated that 50% of Mexicans have never taken a course in personal finance, and furthermore, only 8.3% of the population claims to have participated in a course on how to save.

The lack of Financial Education in our country has caused adults to be misinformed about how to use financial products, which is digital and economic backwardness for our country. In addition, the fact that a person does not know how to use their bank account or credit cards, causes stress to the person, or even when this person has expenses with the family and their income from work is not enough, it can cause health problems such as heart attacks.

Pequeño Economista hopes to provide a personalized and affordable learning plan so that young people and children can understand and develop skills in finance, for the good use of money and making assertive financial decisions.

Pequeño Economista provides a personalized learning experience, in a hybrid format, with online classes and some face-to-face workshops, incorporating valuable public and private financial resources, which will be provided to students, giving them the experience and support they need to reach their full potential. All this, through online personal finance courses, webinars, videos, educational TikToks, educational Instagram posts and a personalized application, our students will be able to access the necessary online resources to advance according to their level of knowledge.
This is a one-year program in which students will earn digital badges and work to complete a virtual tour, just like a video game.

The target population is children and young adults who have not received financial education. Pequeño Economista seeks to encourage them to take action in their first financial habits and decisions, trying to let them comprehend all the basic concepts and even begin to invest their money in non-risk options like CETES or bonds. What we do to know which is their financial knowledge level, is a simple quiz at the beginning of the course, so we can know in which part they fit, so they can continue according to what they know or what they want to develop. Also, the idea of looking like a videogame is that they can engage with us more easily, as they do with our social media publications. 

Our problem, solution, and our target population are aligned with the goals of the Challenge.  Our solution covers the financial education aspect for our target community, and we are committed to our Mexican children and youth that have not received financial education, so they can learn how to save their money and invest it in non-risk options. Pequeño Economista is a good financial and digital education option because it is free in public schools but also all the content is available to encourage our youth to reach their full potential. Later it can be adapted to all kinds of people.

I chose that option because Pequeño Economista seeks its expansion. The methodology of our finance classes that we have covered since 2019 is based on the Mexican National Financial Inclusion Plan and the Condusef, which is replicable and sustainable in the long term.
We started in 2019 with 60 beneficiaries, in 2020 there were 200 and so far in 2021 with 260 beneficiaries, achieving a total of 520 children and young people benefited from public and private schools in the state of Puebla in Mexico.
We are currently developing a branch called Digital Financial Education, which we carry out through social networks. You can look for it as @edufindigital

Pequeño Economista has an opportunity in the Mexican market as there is no other direct competitor in Puebla. Also, it has been proved in many students for over two years.

Since 2019, Pequeño Economista has served more than 500 children and adolescents

Currently serving: 300 children

Next year we expect to serve: Other 400 children

In five years: About 1500 children and adolescents

We measure the impact by having weekly quizzes for the kids, they began with lower grades but when they end the course most of them get a high score. Also, there is a survey, we do the same survey at the beginning and at the end of the course, that's how we can know if they improved their financial knowledge. On the other hand, we count all the children and adolescents involved, and in the social media accounts, we can measure the impact with the statistics on the app.

Alondra Chávez - Project Leader and Founder

Anna Renna - Project Co-leader 

Javier Rivera - Project Coordinator

Each semester, Pequeño Economista has 16 volunteers that work part-time as teachers for the finance classes and 20 volunteers that work part-time for our social media with financial content.

All the team have experienced social service projects during college, that's why they volunteer in the project. Talking about myself, I have a Diploma in Leadership and Mentoring, which has helped me coordinate the whole project but also I have a Diploma in Financial Education by Condusef, which helped me manage the whole content for the course we offer at Pequeño Economista.  I've been preparing my team for taking the Diploma in financial Education by Condusef, so they can be well prepared and as we are students, we can capture more easily the needs of our volunteers (also college students) and our children and adolescents (benefited).

Finance is not only for smart people. Finance is in everything we do, every day. We have to include everyone, special people, all cultures, all socioeconomic levels, everyone.
Money does not exclude anyone, and much less technology, currently both things are what is used most today and that is why it is important that we are all aware, informed and updated.

Applying to MIT Solve, made me realized how many children and young people Pequeño Economista had impacted in their lives. So, I really want to expand this project, in order to help more people and make them be aware of the management of their money and financial decisions. But not only that, I'd like to make some good networking with other teams all around the world that maybe have the same problem and we can cooperate with each other to mitigate the lack of Digital Financial Education and Inclusion.

As we want to expand the project, We are seeking to increase our team for a better logistic, we need technical support (Software developers) as we want to develop our own digital platform and for this platform, we will need a business model so we can have a good service and distribution of it. We are open to work as many people want to join us in this journey.

Some organizations we would like as partners are Condusef, BBVA Bank, MIT initiatives, and any other team at Solve that has the same problem to solve. 

Condusef and BBVA have reached many people as their customers, but not all the customers have taken financial education courses, which are a great potential target market, also these organizations have the structure and financial content that would complete our course. 

MIT initiatives and Solve teams can be our allies in other countries, we are open to international cooperation, courses, special invitations for events, podcasts, etc., in order to have an impact in many countries as it is possible. 

Pequeño Economista is a project that is aligned with Financial Education and Financial Inclusion, which makes it perfect for this prize. We seek that any people can join our financial course to empower them to manage their own money and take assertive daily decisions. Our main focus is children and adolescents, nonetheless, we want to impact as many people as we can, and the financial course can be adapted to the refugee community.

Women empowerment is one of the reasons we also want girls to take our financial course, we want every person to be independent, to be informed and aware of their money management, and take the best and assertive decisions. Children, adolescents, or any other people can take our finance course, as I said before, finance is for everyone because money is what moves the world and everyone has the right to know how to use it smartly, mitigating the health issues and the financial stress they might suffer if they do not get informed with the right information.