What is financial power? For some, it’s “the ability to live comfortably,” a “lack of worry” and to “work without working more than you live.” For others, financial power builds generational wealth that can be felt across families and communities. These are a few responses that were provided by young people of color at credit building startup Altro’s recent Black History Month event in Los Angeles, providing insight to the challenges and opportunities facing Black Americans in today’s economy.
Altro, founded by Forbes 30 Under 30 2023 listers Michael Broughton and Ayush Jain, helps boost credit scores for those with little or poor credit history by tracking their payments to low-cost subscription services like Netflix. Speakers at the event spanned from veteran entrepreneur Jason Mayden, who founded design collective and consultancy Trillicon Valley, to Ethiopian influencer Ephrata, showing what financial empowerment can look like across generations and phases of life.
Michael Broughton (left) onstage.
After sifting through the responses they gathered, Altro plans to ramp up its financial literacy education through in-app resources, including mini video series featuring advice from Altro’s investors.
Unfortunately, lacking tools to navigate the U.S. banking and financial system doesn’t just prevent people from accessing wealth– it can cost them, too. A report from the National Financial Educators Council states that 38% of individuals said their lack of financial literacy cost them at least $500 in 2022, including 15% who said it set them back $10,000 or more.
“I know a lot of people focus on what are the big buckets of finance: savings, 401ks, etc., which is kind of how we did it before,” says Shamara Carey, Altro’s head of brand. Now, they’re focusing on education that attends to different life stages and goals. “What are people going through day to day? … Some people just want an apartment,” she says. “We want to make sure we’re putting the human back into financial education in a way that supports a journey.”
PHOTO BY EDUARDO MUNOZ/REUTERS/ALAMY
While still CEO of now-collapsed FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried transferred millions of dollars to his father. Some of those funds have since been used to pay for his mounting legal fees, according to two sources close to the company.
The 2021 Under 30 lister entered a not guilty plea to new federal charges Thursday, according to reporters present at the Manhattan federal court, sticking true to his style and donning an on-brand, unusually casual getup.
