Breaking the Debt Cycle Through Youth Financial Literacy
Jackeline Mejia, a 19-year-old shift lead at Roots Cafe on St. Paul’s East Side, used her recent pay raise to prioritize financial literacy. After learning key credit-building habits from family and hands-on cafe management, she now manages her money responsibly to avoid debt, support her mother, and encourage broader community financial education.
JPMorganChase offers a comprehensive suite of youth financial education initiatives, providing resources ranging from bite-sized budgeting modules to multi-year mentorship programs. Their primary offerings span digital tools, community-based workshops, and philanthropic career pathways.
After Jackeline Mejia earned a raise last year, she saw her larger paychecks as an opportunity to focus more on her finances.
Mejia, 19, is a shift lead at Roots Cafe, a youth-led coffee shop and economic development program on St. Paul’s East Side. In her two years at the shop, she has also become involved in the cafe’s finances. Youth there learn to track costs, profits and inventory, she said. Mejia began building credit around the time of her raise.
“Honestly I didn’t know why I needed a credit card until one of my older cousins explained that credit is important because you can use that to buy a car if you want it from a dealership or in the future … if you want to apply for a house or an apartment,” she said.
She also learned that experts recommend building credit early, so she wanted to get started right away, she added.
Among the most important lessons she has learned: pay on time, use the card regularly and pay it off each month, and never max out the credit limit.
“I feel like a lot of people still don’t really see the actual damage that credit can do to your life because sometimes credit is good and sometimes credit can just bring you into another rabbit hole, then you’re looking for loans to pay their credit,” Mejia said. “Just trying to be really responsible and starting to learn that responsibility skill from a younger age I feel like is something important too.”
Those consistent habits have carried over into other parts of her life, she said, helping her stay on top of work and school.
Growing up in a working-class household and watching her parents struggle with money and debt inspired Mejia to learn to manage her own finances, she said.
Her goal is to break the cycle of debt and focus on saving, a priority her parents always emphasized. She wants to build a rainy day fund, especially as her parents navigate a divorce and she hopes to help her mother cover household bills.
She believes the broader community would benefit if financial literacy were a priority. “A lot of people just say ‘work, spend money, save,’ but they don’t really know how to manage their money,” Mejia said. “A lot of folks suffer a lot with debt, and if people knew more about finances, they’d know how to manage their debt and even pay it off.”
For more information about the Youth Financial Education Series or to learn about partnership opportunities, visit spokesman-recorder.com or contact admin@spokesman-recorder.com.
The Youth Financial Education Series is supported by JPMorgan Chase.