Podcast guest Mike Tierney discusses with host Josh DeTar the contrasts between current and former conventional U.S. American financial institution service offerings and personal finance management practices compared with those in other cultures, such as in the Netherlands.

Tierney, participating in the interview via international telecom, discusses current and future creative concepts for the development of live and digital interactive programs for educating children and adults in effective personal finance management practices.

Mike goes on to offer a vision for the future of the credit union role in helping individuals consolidate their personal financial resources on a powerful unified management platform, complete with an exciting array of helpful digital tools. For example, he considers the usefulness of providing charts displaying data extracted from the user’s various accounts, and analytics features generating status reports and other information auto-prompts triggered by variations in account balances, deviations from personal historical behavioral trends, etc.

The discussion goes on to explore inspirational concepts for helping individuals maintain a more consistent and meaningful focus on their financial position and goals, such as employing gamification, announcements of accomplishments, and symbolic digital awards for reaching set financial milestones, and others.

⚡ There are stark generational and cultural differences in the availability and utilization of financial resource types and tools for investment and consumer purposes. For example, “The differences in the ways the Dutch people view banking, compared to how we do it in the U.S. is remarkable. It’s night and day.”

⚡ There are game-changing financial benefits for people who receive personal finance management literacy training. “It’s like using heavy equipment or major tools. If they’re not used properly, they can be dangerous. If you don’t use banking products, like your checking account correctly, that can really set you back. It can bring your credit score down and that can affect you for years to come. So, if you can tie in education with the introduction to the financial institution, you’re doing both at the same time.”

⚡ Increasing ease of and inspiration with new tech tools for personal finance management help improve the potential for their personal financial success. “It’s gotta be holistic and up-to-date and, less work on the member to maintain, and maybe it would be good if it was more fun, more gamified, where your behavior, as far as savings or goal-setting that are being met, paying bills on time, or something, gets some kind of recognition, to keep you going on your quest toward achieving your goals, so that you’re more inclined to login and check and feel rewarded.”

⚡ Credit union membership should be actively promoted as a means of empowering individuals to acquire ownership in the banking and lending institution that serves them and, thereby, to be a part of a not-for-profit financial services organization in which they have an ownership stake, “a system that actually does care about their true success in life.”