A new year is a time for imagining. What does the world you want to live in look like?

Commonwealth was founded almost 20 years ago to pursue a disarmingly simple idea: wealth should be possible for everyone, and when it is—when we can aim beyond “just getting by”—we will all benefit, all be better off. Our mission to strengthen the financial security and opportunity of people living on low to moderate incomes (LMI) follows directly from this vision.

In a world of accelerating change, it’s vital we orient ourselves toward long-term goals that matter. For those of us who care about the financial wellbeing of families living on LMI, there is no more important long-term measure than their wealth—the assets they own and control. Wealth is a proxy for so many things that matter…power, freedom, respect, belonging, opportunity, hope. And wealth is an essential compass to guide and measure our long-term progress to build family financial well-being.

At a time when uncertainty is pervasive, volatility growing and trust in institutions at historic lows, wealth and assets are more important than ever. Individuals and families living on lower incomes need many things—good jobs, affordable housing and healthcare, political power, access to better schools, freedom from bias and structural discrimination. And they need those things to result in measurable changes in the resources they own and control, in their wealth.

As Commonwealth enters our third decade, I’m proud and excited to share our renewed vision and goals for the coming three years. By 2023, we’ll make decisive progress toward an America where wealth is possible for everyone—especially those who face the greatest barriers to achieve it—by transforming the financial landscape for 10 million people living on LMI.

This work is both familiar and entirely new. We’ve known for some time that assets and wealth are linked to an astounding array of material, psychological, social, civic and health benefits. But the tools and opportunities to foster wealth—and the array of actors across sectors and fields with a role to play—are new, exciting, and rich with potential. Looking three years out, as January 2024 dawns:

Imagine the means to build financial security and emergency savings is the new normal for workers, enabled by employers and gig platforms, as well as the payroll, recordkeeper and other infrastructure players that partner with them.

Imagine wide recognition that too many people have nothing left to save at the end of the month, and a commitment to create opportunities to build wealth and to join with people living on LMI to find new sources of income and cost savings that enable saving and wealth creation.

Imagine we expand and update our thinking about sources of—and barriers to—wealth, to reflect the radically different economy and society that is quickly emerging, enabling us to understand where wealth can be built by ordinary people in a digital, automated, interconnected, volatile world.

Imagine we seize this moment of disruption, change and anxiety to build new coalitions committed to addressing the financial needs of people living on lower incomes, and to change the narrative about why so many of us live with chronic financial anxiety and no realistic pathway to wealth.

Opportunities like these give us profound optimism and excitement about the work ahead, and confidence in our ambitious three-year goals. Big, important visions are realized through vibrant, sometimes unorthodox partnerships. We invite you to explore our plan in greater detail, to share your ideas and feedback, and, most importantly, to imagine how we might work side by side and learn from one another.

Our Three-Year Plan to Transform the Financial Landscape

When I imagine the world I most want to live in, and want for my kids, I know I want to work and live among neighbors who have a stake in the economy, communities, nation and planet we all share. In the future we want to help build, everyone has wealth. Over the next three years Commonwealth will move 10 million people decisively closer to this vision. Join us!

Tim