Miljan Zivkovic // Shutterstock

Your credit score is one of the most important numbers in your financial life, yet it remains a mystery to many. To find out what people really know about their credit, Credit One Bank conducted a survey in November with 1,000 U.S. consumers — asking them about everything from where they learned about credit to how scores are calculated. What was discovered? A lot of confusion and costly misconceptions.

From believing common myths about closing old cards to misunderstanding how rent and minimum payments affect their scores, read on to learn about the most significant gaps in financial knowledge that could be holding people back from achieving their financial goals.

Key Findings:

• 33% of U.S. consumers have learned the most about how credit scores work from online sources.
• Less than 5% report that they learned the most about how credit scores work from school or university courses.
• 22% are not confident in their understanding of how credit scores are calculated.
• 35% regularly use an app or tool to track their credit score, and 14% of Gen Zers admit to never checking their credit score.
• 52% believe medical debt has an “equal” or “more severe” impact on credit scores than other types of debt.
• 53% of Americans do not know that closing an old credit card is likely to hurt their credit score.
• 50% believe that making only the minimum payment on a credit card each month helps or has no effect on their score.
• 39% believe paying rent on time is automatically included in credit score calculations.

Google U vs. Gen Ed: 7 Times More U.S. Consumers Learn About Credit Scores Online Than in the Classroom

Credit One Bank

When it comes to understanding credit scores, U.S. consumers are far more likely to learn about credit from the internet than from formal education.

• 33% of U.S. consumers have learned the most about how credit scores work from online sources, while only 4.7% learned through school or university courses.

This sevenfold gap highlights the absence of credit education in traditional curricula, leaving most U.S. consumers to piece together their financial literacy online. Without structured guidance, misinformation can easily spread, and small misunderstandings can have lasting financial consequences.

The Confidence Gap: Widespread Confusion Over Credit Score Calculations

Read more

Face Stock // Shutterstock

A strategy-centered approach to change management is critical to executing organizational shifts that align with business priorities and drive impact. But because many strategic plans prioritize the operational aspects of the transformation, it’s not an uncommon misstep for organizations to unintentionally leave their people in the lurch.

The result is change initiatives that appear foolproof on paper but crumble when put to the execution test, which can cast long-lasting reverberations through the organization. It’s why nearly 1 in 5 employees consider leaving their jobs in the wake of significant change.

That’s where your change champion strategy comes into play. An effective change champion network prevents businesses from leaving their people behind before, during, and after significant disruptions by helping your employees understand, process, and navigate the transformation process.

In this article, BDO discusses what change champions are, why they matter, and how you can cultivate teams that successfully champion change in the workplace.

What Is a Change Champion?

A change champion is an employee who helps their organization facilitate and move through transformation. For many employees, change can be a stressful and uncertain process, but the best change champions are those who feel invigorated by change and are willing to help their colleagues process change from beginning to end. Change champions are also known as implementation champions, change management champions, and culture ambassadors.

Why Change Champions Matter for Today’s Organizational Transformations

If you’ve ever navigated a major organizational shift — with your people, strategy, structure, or otherwise — you know executing change that drives successful business outcomes, and a lasting impact is no small feat. In fact, it’s often said that up to 70% of change initiatives fail.

The change-constant work landscape has particularly felt the brunt of ineffective business transformations, as shifting employee mindsets and behaviors have only exacerbated the reasons underlying failed change initiatives. Poor management performance and employee resistance to change are often seen as significant contributors to unsuccessful transformations in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world.

The solution, for many, is to recenter change management strategies around your business and your people. A human-first approach to change not only mitigates common roadblocks to successful transformation but can also propel your organization forward by cultivating enthusiastic worker buy-in, aligning internal and external stakeholders, and encouraging organizational shifts that last and drive impact. Your change champion efforts should, accordingly, layer into and further broadcast y

BearFotos // Shutterstock

As older generations (particularly Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation) retire or pass away, their assets are transferred to heirs, who are largely family members. According to a recent report from Cerulli, approximately $124 trillion will move from older generations to Gen Xers and Millennials by 2048.

This means the United States will experience a historic intergenerational wealth transfer over the next two decades. Nicknamed the Great Wealth Transfer, or the Silver Tsunami, this phenomenon doesn’t necessarily mean heirs will finally be able to get rid of their student debt or fund a down payment for a house.

Currently, most older people’s wealth is tied to real estate, with Baby Boomers owning the most property in the U.S. (41% in 2025), followed by Gen Xers (30%). While it is expected that $105 trillion will flow to heirs, more than 50% of the total transfer volume ($62 trillion) is expected to come from high- and ultra-high-net-worth households, which together account for only 2% of all households.

Underwood Law explains what this means for the economy in general and how this intergenerational wealth transfer impacts people’s lives.

The Silver Tsunami is Actually a Tide

Economists and headlines have long warned of a sudden crash in home prices caused by millions of Boomers dying or selling their homes simultaneously, flooding the market with inventory.

The data, however, suggests a more complex reality.

First, the intergenerational wealth transfer will occur gradually, acting more like a rising tide than a crashing wave. Over the next decade, most property and wealth owned by Boomers and older generations will move down to Gen X family members, who may not be interested in selling.

For those Boomer homes that will “flood” the market, they won’t crash prices. Given that we’re going through a period of historic inventory shortages, they might just be enough to meet the desperate pent-up demand from Millennials and Gen Zers.

Additionally, people live longer nowadays. Boomers are between 61 and 79 years old, and with the average life expectancy in the U.S. being 78.4, there’s still a long way to go before all property owned by Boomers switches hands.

Where is This Intergenerational Wealth Going?

Big numbers, like $124 trillion, are impressive, but it’s important to understand that not all of this wealth will spill into the economy or be passed down to heirs.

Here are a few common scenarios.

The Asset Doesn’t Go to Heirs

With the median cost of a private room in a nursing home exceeding $100,000 annually, many Boomers may have to liquidat

The post Vehicle Rollover on Highway 154 Causes Traffic Delays appeared first on edhat.

The post Feds Twist Logic and Language to Grease Sable’s Skids  appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.