Financial Literacy Month With Doughmain Financial Literacy Foundation!

#026 With all of the focus on financial literacy, roughly 45 states have adopted standards for financial literacy, there is yet to be significant progress within the curriculum in schools. Only 6 states require that you take a course on financial literacy before graduation.  Standards for financial literacy include Economic Education, Financial Education, Entrepreneurial Education, and Personal Finance Education. Particularly lacking in schools is Personal Finance Education. The passion has been noted to be highest in low to moderate-income communities.

For Full show notes and transcript go to Raising Financial Freedom

In This Episode:

·         [02:25] Meet today's guest, Robert Church.

·         [02:22] How far have we come with financial literacy?

·         [05:36] How much financial literacy should a child get from 1st grade. 

·         [07:02] What methods have you used in your home to teach financial literacy?

·         [10:20] Amongst Saving, Earning, Budgeting, or Investing, what one point would you choose?

·         [11:21] What if 50% of the country was financially fit, how would that change the landscape?

·         [15:55] What is DoughMain Financial Literacy Foundation?

·         [25:54] What is the Fit-Kit?

·         [31:42] What is the biggest challenge the organization has had to face?

·         [38:28] How important is it that we make the best decision about money?

·         [40:29] since you started on this road of financial literacy, what is the best thing that has happened?

·         [43:50] What is the best piece of advice you can give to parents out there?

·         [46:31] How to contact Robert

Links Mentioned: 

• Website: www.dmfinancialliteracy.org 
• Email: rchurch@domainfoundation.org 
• Book: Everyday money for Everyday People
• Check out our website: https://raisingfinancialfreedom.com/
• Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RaisingFinancialFreedom
•   Like us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RF_Freedom

Transcript

[00:00:00] Eric: [00:00:00] Today on episode 26 of raising financial freedom. We are still in financial literacy month, but it doesn't matter over here. Cause that's every day for us. To date. We have a big organization within financial literacy domain. Financial literacy foundation has been making strong strides and pushing the envelope when it comes to financial literacy.

[00:00:28] Now, Robert Church, the executive director of domain is here with us today and he's going to share financial literacy with us. From the organization's point of view. And from his point of view, also, 

[00:00:41] Robert: [00:00:41] we always want to build greater wealth, greater opportunities in life for our children than we had. So I think that having a financially literate or financially fit.

[00:00:54] Community, the more individuals that are financially fit, the better that our [00:01:00] families and our next generations will do. 

[00:01:04] Eric: [00:01:04] We were excited to get the interview and we were just glad that Robert was able to devote some time to the interview and we got it done. So let's get right into it in, 

[00:01:18] Host daughter: [00:01:18] come on, dad, stop playing around and play the music.

[00:01:20] Eric: [00:01:20] Sheesh, tough crowd.

[00:01:28] Introducer: [00:01:28] Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have it all financially do well off parents simply hand the children money or is there more to this welfare? Welcome to raising financial freedom. The podcast. We are here to talk about everything you never knew to teach your children when it comes to starting their financial future, the principles behind wealth and methods that are out there to teach your child about personal financial freedom.

[00:01:51] There was no real tricks to earning other than learning. We are here to discuss, teach and grow with you. Raising financial freedom, the [00:02:00] podcast with your host and concern here, Eric yard. Let us get right into today's show.

[00:02:09] Eric: [00:02:09] I would like to welcome the day executive director of the domain financial literacy foundation, 

[00:02:15] Robert: [00:02:15] Robert Church.

[00:02:23] Thank you very much, Eric. Thank you very much. It's an honor to be here with you on raising financial freedom. And I look forward to the conversation that we're about to have and certainly sharing. Uh, the background of my organization and, and, and our work with you. Good. 

[00:02:40] Eric: [00:02:40] That is good. Nice to have you. And I'm glad we was able to link up.

[00:02:45] So Rob, from what you seen the past and how things are now today with financial leaders are far, have we come? 

[00:02:54] Robert: [00:02:54] I, I think with all of the focus on financial literacy education, [00:03:00] Really since the financial crisis of 2008, 2009, the state many States have adopted standards for financial literacy and the date roughly 45 States have adopted standards for financial literacy, but we haven't made any progress with regard to what our children are learning within schools of the 45 States that have adopted standards for financial literacy education.

[00:03:28] There are only 24 States. Now that require personal finance education in schools. And of those only six actually require that you take a course before you graduate high school. So when you see the community America as a whole recognizing the need for financial literacy education States adopting standard, and Oh, by the way, those standards include economic education, financial education, entrepreneurial education, and [00:04:00] personal finance education.

[00:04:02] We see schools moving to teach courses called financial literacy. Or entrepreneurship, but we haven't focused on teaching the basic skill set needed to manage personal finances. And I think that's, what's challenging in one way. And in the other way, the fact that we've seen in the past year and a half or 23, 24 States now adopt standards for personal finance education.

[00:04:29] We're coming to that realization. And I think where the passion is greatest is in low to moderate income community. That's where the passion for financial literacy and personal finance education specifically has grown much greater. So if it was up to you, 

[00:04:46] Eric: [00:04:46] Rob, how much financial literacy should young adult a child should be getting from the say.

[00:04:54] Starting 

[00:04:54] Robert: [00:04:54] from first grade, I think we should introduce basic skills and understandings [00:05:00] related to personal finance education at the youngest level. I think it should start when you're very young. Certainly as parents, we should begin to speak to our children more about finances, especially when it comes to budgeting and wants versus needs.

[00:05:16] But then I would like to see that evolve so that every student, by the time that they're graduating high school, I've taken a 60 hour course in personal finance education, as well as received other opportunities for courses in economics and entrepreneurship in financial education. 

[00:05:38] Eric: [00:05:38] Yeah, I would like to see something like that.

[00:05:40] Me personally, I feel that financial literacy should be taught like every grade different aspects of it should emphasize as the child. 

[00:05:49] Robert: [00:05:49] I agree. I think at the lower levels, it's easy to integrate teaching some of these skills and abilities, but when you get to the upper levels, the high school level, for instance, [00:06:00] I think it should be a course, a 60 hour graded tested course.

[00:06:06] In personal finance, because if you think about it, we are sending young men and women who about to make some of the largest, some of the biggest financial decisions of their lives as they graduate high school with no education. If you think about the cost of a college education today, 40 45, $60,000 a year at the end of a column, by the end of your college education, you could be almost a quarter of a million dollars in debt.

[00:06:34] That is correct. And you're making this decision without having what you're going to do in life. What you're going to spend in college, where you're going to go for college, um, trade school, a community college, and we are seeing more kids now go to community college for a year or two, just to save on the overall cost of their college education.

[00:06:57] Eric: [00:06:57] Rob, you're a parent. [00:07:00] So what methods have you used in your home? Read the word or financial literacy. 

[00:07:05] Robert: [00:07:05] So one of the things we've always done in my home is talk about it. Finances, we've created a budget in our house and we talk about our budget. When our children were younger, we would have them create their wants and needs lists for Christmas, for their birthdays.

[00:07:23] And because young kids are very impressionable, right. So they see what other kids have and they know what they don't have, but what they don't know is. The choices that are being made for some of those say luxury items and how making a different choice can affect. Their overall outcome in life. One of the things we had domain teacher course in financial literacy, or we have a course in financial literacy and one of our educators does a budgeting exercise with the students, connects with the parents and loves that, lets [00:08:00] them know, Hey, this is coming.

[00:08:01] We don't want to know your business. Like your son or daughter is going to come home and talk to you about creating the budget that is based upon the career they've chosen in life. The cost of their college education, the cost of the debt that they're going to take on receiving that education. And then what are their living expenses going to be if they're living as well or better than they are now.

[00:08:27] And it's always interesting to have young men and women sit down and talk to their parents about the budget, and then understand that the reason mom or dad didn't fly you, that. $200 pair of sneakers, five times a year that you wanted, those funds went into helping support your college programs through your college shot or to pay bills or whatever it was.

[00:08:52] And it's really interesting awakening for a lot of students. What I 

[00:08:56] Eric: [00:08:56] want to talk about is that also, [00:09:00] if you had to just, she was just talking about budget, if you had, which is one of my favorite things to talk about. If you had to. Take a point out of financial literacy. What is saving money investing?

[00:09:15] What would the one point you would 

[00:09:17] Robert: [00:09:17] choose? Obviously it would be budgeting because budgeting teaches you to live within your means. And if you're not budgeting properly, if you're not planning your expenses based upon your income and weighing your wants versus needs. You can't achieve that savings or the funds to invest or the funds to invest in education for your children or in that new car when you need it.

[00:09:48] Sorry. Everything starts with looking at your overall income, creating a budget and weighing those versus me. Yep. I think so 

[00:09:59] Eric: [00:09:59] too. [00:10:00] So Robert, what if. 

[00:10:03] Robert: [00:10:03] 50% of was financially. How would that change the landscape? I think it would be dependent upon how you're defining financially fit, but it would certainly give a large part of the country, um, would have a skillset that would help them better manage and plan their lives, their futures, and certainly plan for their families.

[00:10:31] I think that is, is the number one thing with us as parents, we want, I always want to do better for our children than our parents were able to do for us. We always want to build greater wealth, greater opportunities in life for our children than we had. So I think that having a financially literate or financially fit community.

[00:10:58] The more individuals [00:11:00] that are, or are financially fit the better that our families and our next generations will. And that's a good 

[00:11:08] Eric: [00:11:08] point idea. The next generation. I think if we concentrate on that, your family line alone much better off. 

[00:11:17] Robert: [00:11:17] Yeah, absolutely. All of my siblings, we were all able to go to college.

[00:11:22] Our parents didn't, our parents were homemakers. Sheet metal workers, engineers, labor, laborers. It was part, I was doing my family history and I went back to see how many generations of my father's family worked at the Brooklyn Navy yard. And not only did my father worked there, but his brother worked there and his father worked there and his father's father worked there.

[00:11:45] And then we've grown through that in my generation. We've all had the opportunity or created the opportunity to go to college and. Uh, my siblings and their children, [00:12:00] a greater percentage of our children have attended or are attending college and a greater percentage are receiving postgraduate degrees.

[00:12:13] Oh, 

[00:12:14] Eric: [00:12:14] that is absolutely good. Cause it just shows the progression of where family 

[00:12:19] Robert: [00:12:19] is. Right. Absolutely. It also allows you not to become a victim and we understand. How to manage our personal finances. If we understand incoming careers, pay benefits and deductions taxes, budgeting banks, and banking, savings, investment, how credit works, how insurance works, we are less likely to become victims of a system that really is designed to, to benefit from our lack of knowledge of you think, how banks and financial institutions make money.

[00:12:54] They make money off of fees when we overdrew our accounts or we're [00:13:00] paying too high in interest, they're making money. 

[00:13:03] Eric: [00:13:03] It is so funny that you said teaches us not to be victims. That exactly what I do with my daughter. I intentioned with me try to cheat her whenever I. Giving her allowance or when she is paying for things at the store.

[00:13:20] So I would take a dollar less or more and see what she does right now. She's a C he's like a C plus student when it comes to the 

[00:13:29] Robert: [00:13:29] math, even though I like you dad, right? It doesn't mean I'm going to let you get away with cheating me. And that when it comes down to, I have to say, do similar things with my son who now spends some time working with me.

[00:13:43] And I should, I think he owes me like $790 or something. They said, well, you owe me $800. He says, no, I don't. I just have 100 nights. Yeah. But you had paid for your food.

[00:13:57] That isn't [00:14:00] my job. And this is you being here. Yeah. So 

[00:14:06] Eric: [00:14:06] let's get into the meat and potatoes. What is domain financial literacy foundation. 

[00:14:11] Robert: [00:14:11] Domain literacy foundation is a nonprofit organization whose main objective it is to prepare today's students for a lifetime of financial literacy or financial responsibility by offering culturally competent comprehensive curriculum for schools.

[00:14:33] That relates to where students are in life and a domain financial literacy foundation. Actually, we evolved from a company called domain.com, which was a company that was created by a gentleman named Ken Demato fortune 100 executive work with Jack Welsh or G Lee Iacocca or former chair of Chrysler and another gentleman named Mort Collins.

[00:14:58] Who's a venture [00:15:00] capitalist. And the idea of domain.com was a website that was an engagement tool for banks and financial institutions that they would register their clients or their customers with. And customers would be able to learn money management skills as they were developing the website. They brought in educators from throughout New Jersey to work with students to beta test some of the games and activities and the teachers.

[00:15:26] Said, Hey, you guys should do curriculum. This is great stuff. So in 2012, domain financial literacy foundation was created as a nonprofit whose mission. It is, like I said, to prepare today's students for a lifetime of financial responsibility. And our focus today is to develop continually developing the curriculum for middle school, high school.

[00:15:54] College students as a comprehensive course in personal finance, [00:16:00] specifically targeted towards youth who come from low-income communities low to moderate income communities to educate, to empower and help them to overcome financial challenges in life. By providing them with a skillset that they can use and build upon throughout life.

[00:16:22] Managing their, their resources. Some of them are supporters. And 

[00:16:31] Eric: [00:16:31] I would say advocates of 

[00:16:33] Robert: [00:16:33] financial literacy. So certainly we were partnered with the jumpstart coalition for financial literacy and for personal finance education. We're a national partner. And then we have local banks. Financial institutions, local flock philanthropists who just support our organization.

[00:16:55] And we are working to create greater relationships [00:17:00] with individuals that we can partner with that can help bring the fit kit into low to moderate income communities. And so one of the things I'm going to tell you is one of the interesting things with COVID. And all of us being locked in our homes or offices is that sometimes it causes you to think about other opportunities for growth.

[00:17:27] And we were fortunate that one of our internships, we're an all volunteer based organization. So everybody comes in here and works every day, who helps to develop curriculum. And when lays out our curriculum is a volunteer and they're all for the most part, young men and women. Ages 20 to 26 years old.

[00:17:50] Excuse me. So one of our interns began working for a marketing company who was tasked [00:18:00] with helping build a relationships with an organization known as the rep snacks foundation. I don't know if you've heard of the rap snacks foundation, but it's run by a gentlemen named wise, intelligent. Who is a, or was a Jersey based rapper from Trenton.

[00:18:20] And he was a rapper with the poor righteous teachers through developing that relationship. We've come to me, another gentleman named master P. And at this point we're working on the possibility or the opportunities to create a curriculum that includes hip hop artists in the video content to help introduce.

[00:18:45] Concepts of personal finance in low to moderate income communities. So this is something we're really excited about. Yeah. One of the neat things about our curriculum is we've always [00:19:00] gone into school systems. We've had the teachers teaching the curriculum, the students obviously learning, but we've all we've gone in and talked to the students.

[00:19:09] We've talked to the teachers. What works with you, what's most appealing to you. And one of the things we did as a result of those conversations with students was we introduced original animated video content that introduces each of our units. And we have eight units within our curriculum. As I said, it's a 60 hour tested program.

[00:19:32] And then we began introducing peer to peer video content, which was students. Talking to the students within the classroom explaining how or why a certain concept is it is important or should be important to them. And the neat thing about this is in discussing this hip hop version of the curriculum is that now we will have some of the most identifiable [00:20:00] celebrities or influences in hip hop, take up some of that video content within the curriculum.

[00:20:06] And it's very important. And one of the things I found Eric is in my background is that no matter where you come from, some of the stressors in life related to money related to personal finance management, come from the same belief systems. Or the same challenges in life. So though I may be a Caucasian man from a farming village in upstate New York, friends of mine who grew up in the inner city, in Harlem, in the South Bronx, who came from the same type of economic conditions as I did have the same stressors and that's something we can share and we can build upon.

[00:20:49] So I think that having a curriculum that is reflective. And that's in that hip hop voice will reach generations of young men [00:21:00] and women who may have the same stressors, but come from different regions or different circumstances. 

[00:21:06] Eric: [00:21:06] Wow. When do you plan to implement this 

[00:21:09] Robert: [00:21:09] strategy? We're certainly helping them by September, August or September.

[00:21:13] It's ready to go into schools. One of the other things we did as a result of COVID was we partnered with a company called core achieve and core achieve is a leader. In e-learning and we are in the process of loading our curriculum into two basic e-learning platforms. One is a subscriber level teacher presentation platform.

[00:21:36] So this platform would allow teachers to subscribe, access the curriculum online and present the curriculum directly from the online link. It would also allow the educators to download. The resources within the curriculum so that they can print and provide those resources to the students, or they can convert it [00:22:00] into a PDF and drop it into whatever system the school is using to communicate lessons with students electronically.

[00:22:09] The other version of the platform is an e-learning classroom, which will allow teachers to log in to invite their students into the online classroom teach. Personal finance online, gather responses have discussions with students online as students complete their work online, and then have that work automatically directed back to the educator in some circumstances already.

[00:22:36] Great. The educator's job, a little more easy, and then eventually we'll see the course of all. Into a third platform, which will be an online self study course where you can print a certificate of completion. And as long as the program was approved by your school, you can take that certificate to the school and receive [00:23:00] credit for taking the course.

[00:23:01] Great. Yeah. They sound 

[00:23:02] Eric: [00:23:02] like definitely has some strong project. 

[00:23:05] Robert: [00:23:05] Yeah. By the way, we're also talking to a number of presently active and retired professional athletes. Across the sports about opportunities to have a curriculum that is supported and features some of, some of these professional athletes. 

[00:23:23] Eric: [00:23:23] I know that would definitely help.

[00:23:25] What is the fit kit and what, how is it helping to spread financial literacy? 

[00:23:29] Robert: [00:23:29] So the fit kit is a comprehensive 60 hour course. In personal finance with an additional 30 hours of extension kit activities. So at any time a teacher can expand or contract the course or change some of their lessons, structures, or students and the fit kit.

[00:23:50] The interesting thing about the fit kit is 69% of teachers go to the internet to find something, to teach about personal finances [00:24:00] or about financial literacy. To this day, I do not know of a college that offers a course that certifies you for teaching personal finance in a public school system. So what we've done is we've built a team of over 20 educators from throughout the tri-state area here in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and who at one point or another, and a school leader walk up to them, hand them a book of standards and say, here.

[00:24:31] I know you teach social studies or math or business or computer science, but now you have to figure out how to meet these standards and financial literacy. So teachers went to the internet to find something to teach, and there are a lot of different products have there, a lot of wonderful content out there, but it has not been built from inside the classroom out to be a comprehensive course in personal finance.

[00:24:58] And that's what the fit kit [00:25:00] is. So as an educator, as, as certainly as a leader of DMing financial literacy foundation, I can tell you that we have an average increase of 40% in test scores, predisposed assessment. I can tell you that young men and women would take our course young women perform almost as well as young men.

[00:25:20] I can tell you that students who come in. Who need to learn the most because they've taken the pre-assessment to the course, you learn the most as a percentage by the end of the course. Now, if I went to my local high school here and asked them and they teach financial literacy, ask them what Mike's son knew when he started the course and how much he learned at the end, they couldn't tell me because they're not tested courses.

[00:25:48] Right. And that's one of the great things about the fit kit program is that it assesses students prior and then assess those students at the end. So we know what they're learning [00:26:00] throughout the course. We know if we're not communicating something properly throughout the course, and we go right back in the next summer and we continue to refine it.

[00:26:13] So 

[00:26:13] Eric: [00:26:13] now as a parent, how can I get my child involved in it? And. Also as a parent say, I didn't have any teachings in my time. Can adults get involved? 

[00:26:26] Robert: [00:26:26] One of the great things about the fit kit course is it's designed to be taught within the school system, by educators who are already teaching. Within the school system that said we introduced the fifth kid into a inner city school in Philadelphia with an 80% Hispanic population.

[00:26:46] One of the challenges we found was that as the course was being taught, parents would call the school and ask because they were being asked questions at home and weren't sure. How to answer those questions. [00:27:00] So what we created was something called the fit kit express and the fit kit express is downloadable from our website.

[00:27:07] It's eight 45 minute conversations that introduces the topics aligned with our curriculum to parents, caregivers, family members, young adults, outside the school system. It provides. An opportunity to learn a little bit about, what's been hard in the classroom, learn a little bit about one of the concepts, whether it's incoming careers, pay benefits and deductions, and then to have an exercise.

[00:27:37] And it's more built as a conversation, but in this way, we're able to introduce what's going on in the classroom for parents, provide them with a little bit of knowledge and maybe resources where they can go to learn more. But the most important thing is now the conversation is happening. From the student to parent or caregiver or aunt or uncle [00:28:00] or grandmother or grandfather in the home.

[00:28:03] So there's more likely to be actioned upon what is being learned. And incidentally, the express programs are designed so that if a community within the Philadelphia area, a neighborhood wanted to create. A version of that curriculum that reflected people from that community within the content, we would be able to, what is the 

[00:28:30] Eric: [00:28:30] biggest challenge?

[00:28:32] Say? That's the 

[00:28:33] Robert: [00:28:33] organization? Well, as a nonprofit, the biggest challenge is always funding. And then. Getting the message out there. What are the things that we've seen for instance, our curriculum? What are the initial goals in fundraising for our organization was to work with banks and financial institutions to provide funding for the fifth kid curriculum in schools and communities.

[00:28:56] Through there, we are a obligation, the community [00:29:00] reinvestment act and what the community reinvestment and Eric does is require banks and financial institutions to invest. In the communities they serve, especially if those communities are low to moderate income community. And what we've seen is a lot of banks and financial institutions look at funding or financial literacy education as a marketing opportunity, not as an educational offer.

[00:29:30] So getting them to invest in that. Has been a challenge, but I think things are starting to change. If you think about it, somebody coming into your room for school, speak to your child about a topic or one or two hours have great. Can that impact fee if there's no follow-up so if somebody from a bank or financial institution comes into my son's high school to teach financial literacy, Or one to two [00:30:00] hours and they're not being graded on it.

[00:30:01] There's no testing on it. My son is in the classroom physically, but yeah, one ear out the next. Yeah. Now if that person says something impactful, he might think about it for a day or two. You might think about it for a week. He might even do a little bit of research on the internet, but if there's no follow through, if there's not another talk coming in a week or two.

[00:30:26] If there's not anything to encourage him to want to learn more eventually that'll thigh. And that's why we see personal finance education. Certainly we believe it should be taught as a comprehensive course. So it's treated the same way. Your math class is treated your science class, your social studies class for a grade.

[00:30:51] It's not treated as if it's something we just have to get through it. And as long as you show up, you're good. And for instance, here in New [00:31:00] Jersey where financial literacy has been required since 2014, you have to have 60 hours of financial literacy in order to graduate high school. Only about one in six of the state 582 public school districts were import teaching any skills related to personal finance.

[00:31:23] Think about that. 582, approximately public school district needs only one in six reports, teaching skills related to managing personal finance. They all meet the standards because they will offer an economics class. They'll offer something called 21st century life skills. They'll offer entrepreneurship classes.

[00:31:50] But we're still not teaching them the basic skills they need to build upon and become successful becoming entrepreneurs. 

[00:31:59] Eric: [00:31:59] And that's what we [00:32:00] stress here. The foundation children need foundation. Would this be in financial literacy month? What does domain have going on as you speak about the company? 

[00:32:10] Robert: [00:32:10] So we've been working on our fit kit curriculum, and we were.

[00:32:15] Are offering it to educators, to schools, the opportunity to utilize our curriculum over the summer at no cost to them, to pilot the curriculum, to see if it's useful to them. And then our goal as well is that banks and financial institutions can actually support providing the curriculum to schools by donating the cost of providing that curriculum to the schools.

[00:32:42] And they get the marketing opportunity. They get the tax credit for it. And the schools benefit by getting the curriculum. 

[00:32:51] Eric: [00:32:51] Well, that's good. That is definitely good. And it's a win-win situation if I'm 

[00:32:55] Robert: [00:32:55] looking at it correctly. Absolutely. And I think with the launch, if [00:33:00] things continue to go well with the launch of the hip hop version of the curriculum with ref snacks, foundation and wise, I think we will see that curriculum become greatly influential.

[00:33:12] In schools and inner city schools in low-income communities because of the appeal to young men and women in those communities. One of the things I, that was important to us in developing the curriculum is that, listen, you can have somebody from outside your community, come in and talk to you from the sun, goes up for the sun, goes down.

[00:33:33] But because that person doesn't look like you because that person doesn't relate to where you are in life, because that person doesn't share experiences with you. It may not have as great an impact as somebody who does look like you, who does understand the neighborhood you come from, or who does understand the community you live in.

[00:33:55] And certainly it's important that our curriculum is [00:34:00] reflective of the students. It is being offered. 

[00:34:04] Eric: [00:34:04] I think that's what, what you just said. There is social there's someone who looks like you always around you with, in your community, telling you about 

[00:34:14] Robert: [00:34:14] this. Yeah, I it's listen, but you look like me. You talk like me, you understand where I'm coming from.

[00:34:22] You succeeded. Why can't I, and I think that's very important. The mentoring process and engaging your community. I think that's something that's extremely important, no matter where you are. Yeah, 

[00:34:35] Eric: [00:34:35] I believe so, too. Rob, during these times that we're in right now, how important is it that we make the best decisions 

[00:34:44] Robert: [00:34:44] on money?

[00:34:45] Listen, I think if you look at the statistical information that's been gathered over the course of the past two years. You will find that low to moderate income communities have been more adversely affected [00:35:00] by as a result of the economic conditions created by COVID. I think that if you look at female populations, I think are at risk as well with regard to it because of the economic conditions.

[00:35:14] And I think right now we're looking at a time where there is potential for taxes, for costs, for inflation. Cherise, right? Yeah. Gas prices have gone up here in the Northeast, almost a buck in the past several months. So I think the less, the less disposable income that you have, the greater, they need the need to be more financially responsible with it because the effect of not managing your finances is much greater as a greater impact.

[00:35:49] Yep. So I think this is the time where we're starting to see States come to the realization of the need for quality personal finance education. [00:36:00] And we're also seeing communities start to realize this and ask, how can we get this? How can we get this quality personal finance education into our schools?

[00:36:13] Into our communities and how can we help empower our young men and women? You said a lot, just 

[00:36:19] Eric: [00:36:19] the mall. Is that a lot since you started on this road of financial literacy with what is the best 

[00:36:26] Robert: [00:36:26] thing that's happened? I think for me personally, the best thing that has happened is that I have learned to deal with some of the stressors in my life as a related to personal finance, personal finances.

[00:36:40] Growing up in the circumstances I did. So at times in my life I was homeless jobless parentless. So I think from a personal stand point has helped me connect with my, my basic understandings and [00:37:00] improve, but also connect with communities who have similar or have had similar challenges in life. And I think from a foundational standpoint, Domain financial literacy foundation.

[00:37:12] As I said, we are an all volunteer non-profit. So since I came to the foundation in 2015 to now, we have had hundreds of young men and women who put in tens of thousands of hours of their time, because they believe teaching personal finance is an important skill that they want to help communicate. To young men and women of their generation of, and of generations going forward.

[00:37:46] And I think the privilege of being able to work with these young men and women not only teach them about the different aspects of nonprofit management, but also having them learn and [00:38:00] provide input on a curriculum that is going to other students is something that's been very beneficial. I, I have two young women, sisters who have worked for the foundation nearly almost two years now.

[00:38:15] And I say work, but they're volunteer. They have committed 15 hours a week as you go through and you look at our print materials, you go through and look at the website for our foundation. You look at the online curriculum, the fit kit online that's nearing completion. They have their hands in every part of that.

[00:38:37] They've designed the layout of our pages. They've taken what our teachers have created and, and made it more appealing for students. It's just an incredible effort from these young people. And I would say this it's it's, it's just a wonderful thing to see. Young men and women grow and mature [00:39:00] and to be passionate about something that they believe is important.

[00:39:05] And that's personal finance, definitely 

[00:39:09] Eric: [00:39:09] a salute to your team. What is Rob? What is the best piece of advice you could give 

[00:39:13] Robert: [00:39:13] the parents? I think as a parent, the best piece of advice I can give is talk to your children about money. Start talking to the young age. My parents didn't talk about money, but I certainly knew when there was a problem when we didn't have it.

[00:39:30] Talk to your children about money, make it fun, make it engaging, create wants versus needs less for the supermarket. Create wants versus needs list for, for the holidays for Christmas or whatever, holiday gift giving holiday you happen to celebrate and make it fun. One of the things our board chair did with his sons and he was fortunate because he had the financial resources to do it.

[00:39:57] He has three sons and he gave them each [00:40:00] a certain amount of money and explain the stock market to them, for instance, and. You had them make the choice of what to do, whether they're going to invest it invest part of it, save it all. And after a number of years they followed it and one of the sons invested it.

[00:40:20] I think he invested it in a stock that was about a dollar a share. It went up, he had enough money when he was 17, the party zone, but you can play that game. The stock market game, pick a stock and the paper and everything. Every Sunday, you sit down with the kids and say, okay, listen, how did this stock through this week?

[00:40:39] So if you had a hundred dollars, how much do you have now make it fun, make it interesting and certainly teach them to save, but also teach them to get them to set aside a certain amount of money from their allowances or a certain amount of their time to give, to help others. Because if we're not helping others, we all [00:41:00] lose.

[00:41:01] Eric: [00:41:01] And with old debt, that can be the foundation. It's your pitch of what they could build on 

[00:41:06] Robert: [00:41:06] that. Rob, 

[00:41:10] Eric: [00:41:10] I want to thank you for coming on the show who shared a wealth of knowledge with us, and I have a better understanding of what domain does and whether they fighting that is no way to meet you continuous conversation.

[00:41:25] And what else does domain 

[00:41:28] Robert: [00:41:28] going on? Okay. Well, thank you very much. I can be reached at. Uh, www.dmfinancialliteracy.org, or@ourchurchatdomainfoundation.org and domain financial literacy foundation continues to work on programs for high schools. We have a college program in the pipeline. We have our fit kit, middle school program, and certainly the express programs, which can be custom created and targeted.

[00:42:02] [00:42:00] Eric: [00:42:02] Wow. All those links will definitely be in the show notes. And once again, Rob, I want to thank you for 

[00:42:09] Robert: [00:42:09] coming on the show.

[00:42:12] Eric: [00:42:12] Well, as you can see. Why are they one of the main leaders in financial literacy, that conversation was full of gems. And I am just so happy that Rob was able to find the time to talk with me. As we close out the month, we will still be here giving you the leaders, the tools, the books, the advocates all will be here talking about money.

[00:42:36] Hopefully you will take what you can and use with your kids until next time, stay safe. 

[00:42:45] Introducer: [00:42:45] We really hope you enjoyed this episode of pleasing the feed of the podcast. Stay connected with us directly through raising financial freedom.com. You can also join the discussion on social media, which you can also find links on our website.

[00:42:59] If you [00:43:00] would like to speak with us, please send us an email to info@raisingfinancialfreedom.com and as always thank you for pushing your mindset towards a better reality. This concludes. It's the most thought provoking portion of your day. Don't forget to please like, and subscribe to stay fully up to date until next time.

[00:43:17] Be kind to yourself and each other. .