This booklet is targeted to young adults, and aims to spur thinking about the importance of asset building in their personal lives and about how larger policy decisions impact the choices they make. Young adults can use it as a reference on their own, or with help from an instructor, counselor, or mentor.

The information in this booklet is about "assets" you can build. Assets are the capacities and resources that people need to succeed in today’s economy. They include the following:

• Knowledge, skills, and experience that you need to get a job and move up.
  
  
• Jobs and the benefits they give you beyond that very important paycheck, and also resources that boost your income when your earnings fall short or jobs aren’t available.
  
  
• Financial resources, such as money in the bank or other kinds of savings and investments such as stocks, bonds, and real estate. These resources can get you through a personal emergency or crisis, help you become a home owner, start a business, pay your way through school, or make life in your later years that much more comfortable.

Contents
Introduction
Knowledge and Skills: Where the Path Begins
Jobs Plus: A Path to More Than a Paycheck
Savings and Investments: Advancing Along the Path
Links to Informational Web Sites
Sources of Statistical Data
About the Sponsors

For a printed copy of this booklet, contact us:

e-mail: PublicComm.Affairs-Bos@bos.frb.org

mail:
Public and Community Affairs Department
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
P. O. Box 55882
Boston, MA 02205