Making Consumers Smarter Through Financial Education

Growing up, I had my own personal consumer advocate, my grandmother, Big Mama. She taught me to be a skeptical consumer and to watch out for the tricks and traps used to separate me from my hard-earned money.

Big Mama modeled the importance of saving and being a savvy shopper. She instilled in me the critical skills that I needed, which I have, in turn, passed on to readers of the personal finance column I’ve written for The Washington Post for nearly three decades.

However, not everyone has a Big Mama, and filling that role of protector has had to come down to organizations such as the National Consumers League (NCL). With the care and compassion of a loving grandmother or parent, NCL has developed many programs and educational tools to teach people to be smart consumers.

For example, NCL’s LifeSmarts program, which is aimed at teenagers, provides unbiased information to help them navigate an increasingly complicated and often financially treacherous world. All too often, people accumulate massive credit card debt or find themselves unable to manage their monthly expenses because they were never taught how to make smart financial decisions. NCL has filled that critical void.

As a consumer rights champion, NCL has been at the forefront of identifying and fighting the avalanche of sophisticated scams stealing billions of dollars from consumers. Fraud.org is an NCL project I’ve frequently relied on to inform readers of the latest scams and provide them with tips to protect themselves.

I couldn’t do what I do—inform the public— without the tireless efforts of NCL, which has been an ally for those who have been victimized, exploited, and treated unfairly.

The amount of false, inappropriate, and reckless personal finance information online makes it more difficult for consumers to know who to trust. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will make it harder for people to know the truth. This means that strong consumer advocacy is needed more than ever.

I celebrate and congratulate NCL for 125 years of being a Big Mama to the millions of people who need a champion. The financial well-being of so many people is infinitely better because of the work of NCL.

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Michelle Singletary has been a journalist and columnist for The Washington Post since 1992. She is the author of four books on personal finance and has won numerous awards for her work, including the Trumpeter Award in 2002.