The Catholic School Leaders Podcast

Welcome to the Catholic School Leaders Podcast, where we discuss leadership in Catholic education. My name is John Mahalio. I'm the president and founder of Elementary Advancement Solutions, and which is dedicated to enhancing Catholic education and connecting Catholic school leaders worldwide. I believe there are six things that every Catholic school has to have in order to be successful, and I want to share a quick guide that includes some great questions for your school leadership to be discussing in these key areas at absolutely no cost.

Go to www. elementaryadvancement. com to get your free copy of the keys to a successful Catholic school today. Before I get to today's interview, if I could just get one quick plug in, this podcast is designed to be a resource for Catholic and faith based school leaders worldwide. If you're enjoying the podcast and you're benefiting from it, be sure to like, subscribe, leave a quick review if you have just a quick second that you can do that, leave a positive [00:01:00] comment in there.

Uh, and most of all, if you find it beneficial, share it with other Catholic school leaders around your diocese, or, that you're connected with. Um, the goal of this podcast is to help grow Catholic education together, and by you doing that, it really helps the algorithm, and I can't say thank you enough, so, Just a quick like, a subscribe, a share, a quick comment in the, in the section, in the feedback section would just mean the world to me, and I can't say thank you enough for that.

One of the things that I'm sure all of us here probably about a hundred times a year, if not more, and I'm gonna guess you have heard it as well, is why don't they teach kids about money in school?

Why don't they teach kids how to balance a checkbook or just managing money and financial literacy in school? And that's something I have heard so many times and my guest today is someone who does just that. through her company, or non profit I should say, Wealthy Habits. Tracy Tanner is the current President and CEO of Wealthy Habits [00:02:00] and the Jonathan D.

Roseman Family Foundation. She joined the JDRFF in 2011, and was the initial creator of the Wealthy Habits brand and curriculum, and it's only in full time employee until 2018. She focused on growing the brand, the technology, and the curriculum of the organization. Their mission is to equip underserved youth and young adults with practical money skills, and helping them cultivate a mindset of wealthy habits.

for Lifelong Financial Stability. She has since grown the curriculum the organization's reach has gone from its initial 30 students to over 13, 000 students. I can tell you I've been blessed to have Wealthy Habits at my school multiple times, and I can tell you firsthand what an amazing program it is for our students.

Let's begin our episode today with a quick prayer. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father, thank you for this opportunity to come together today as your children to [00:03:00] talk about and discuss this important topic about teaching our students, Financial Literacy.

Please bless my guest today, Tracy Tanner, and her work so that together we may give your name honor, praise, and glory through our discussion. We pray it will bring your light, love, and mission to our listeners and to the world. We ask this through your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

So today it's my pleasure to welcome Tracy Tanner to the Catholic School Leaders Podcast.

Welcome, Tracy. It's great to see you today.

Thank you. It's great to be here.

So this, what, what you are leading and you and I have known each other for a while here because we, I've actually had wealthy habits come to me. The, the, the schools that, that that I've been a principal of and just the amazing program that you're doing. So when I, so I can kind of really talk to this firsthand to see the impact of, of what you do and what your organization does.

When it comes to [00:04:00] financial literacy, I, I hear this from people all the time, both in and out of education. Why don't they teach this stuff in school? Why don't they teach this stuff in school? And, and here we are, Wealthy Habits, it helps schools do just that. So, talk our listeners a little bit through of what's your mission of your organization and how you bring this mission to life.

Sure. So, so Wealthy Habits started in 2012. when I was asked to build something, I had middle school kids at the time. And so, you know, I kind of, I looked at what they didn't know. I kind of looked also at what I didn't know and wanted to create something that was Common sense for people or for kids, right?

Like, you know, there's no point in making it harder than it needs to be. Sometimes I think when we're in school you know, the subjects are just, they're so hard that kids just sort of check out. So, so we wanted it to be fun. I wanted it to be engaging. I wanted the kids to really sort of walk away.

excited that they learned something. I didn't really care whether they [00:05:00] memorized, you know, what a 401k was or, you know, any of those definitions or anything along those lines. I just wanted them to walk away and say, personal finance is actually kind of cool. And I want to start focusing on my financial future because here's the thing, you know, back in my day, we didn't have Google.

Now we have Google. So, you know, if we have questions, we can always look them up. But if we're afraid to look them up, we're not going to look them up, right? So, so just getting kids to sort of feel comfortable with it and being able to have those conversations is sort of our biggest goal when the kids sort of leave our program.

I love that your organization and when your programs and I don't want to I don't want to give too much insights in terms of because it's it there's some things that you all do that are wonderful. I don't want to spoil the end of the movie for people type things if they if they do that. But I love what you do because you're teaching kids those big pieces but also the day to day common sense [00:06:00] budgeting pieces that so many people don't think about.

And you give those kids those choices of well hey if you want this. then maybe you have to do without this or things like that talk about kind of what, how that, how that comes to be or, or kind of what your goal is in teaching kids those aspects of things,

So. We try to make sure that it's relevant to what the kids are sort of thinking about now, right? So, so it might be, okay, do you study for a test so that you can get a good grade so that maybe you can get a scholarship so that you can go to college and then it doesn't cost you as much, right? It doesn't always have to be about personal finance 100%, to be, oh, okay, well, if you want to buy this, you, you can't buy this.

It's, it's about sort of, how do you have everything that you want, right? What do you need to start doing today? In order to have those things that you want down the road. We talk a lot now about opportunity costs for the kids, right? So, and that's not really a personal finance thing. It's a, okay, you want this and this, how do you make that decision on which one you pick?

[00:07:00] Because that is what budgeting is, right? It is, you have this much money, you want all of these things. How do you decide which one to go for? Right? Cause, cause honestly, the worst thing that we can do is go for all of them. Right. So, you know, and lots of people do because they don't learn how to say you know, okay, I want this one more, or this one's a better choice for me.

And getting them to realize that just because somebody over here has something doesn't mean that they have to have it, right? Figuring out, you know, one of the big things is figuring out how to get the kids to understand what their values are, what, what they want out of life. Because just because this one over here wants to buy big fancy cars, doesn't mean this one over here does.

Maybe they want to, you know, maybe they want to invest more. Maybe they want to take more trips. It really just, kids need to understand that they're the ones making the choice. I think too often kids are so used to being told what to do and what to think. When they do come to our class, then they realize that they get to do to decide what they want to think.

[00:08:00] Like it changes the whole dynamic of whether they want to learn and listen, right? So, so I think that's sort of how we get the kids to understand and, and to sort of buy into that sort of, you know, let's make good choices, because good choices end up Making good life.

And, and those good choices, maybe that deferred pleasure of, of, of things carries over into other areas because when they see the impact of Well, if I, if I don't buy this, if I budget my money for this then I'll be able to have this later, okay? That also carries over, like you just said, if you budget your time, if you budget your, you know, it's the same thing.

If I study for this test now, then I'm going to be able to do this. Or if I go to the gym and work out, then it's a better chance I'm going to get a scholarship. Or whatever, whatever those opportunities are. But I think so many times that, that our kids nowadays think they're going to make money off of YouTube videos or the scratch and win lotto ticket or, or [00:09:00] whatever the case might be, rather than that, that long game of, of that financial literacy piece of things.

Yes. No, most definitely. You know, one of the, you know, a lot of times I really try to make sure kids understand that, you know, they're sort of in charge of their own financial future. And so, you know, and sometimes just because somebody else made it big, the number of kids that we have, especially being here in Atlanta, the number of kids that we have that think they're going to be pro pro ball players, or they're going to be rappers.

And, and it's like, okay, you know, the percentage of that is like, minute amounts of people percentage wise that are going to be make it big. You know, have a backup plan.

Right, exactly. Well, and, and, and just Plan for beyond just today. Plan just beyond for today. And, and, you know, I know we talked about that. It's, it's like seeing I always use that analogy, if you're the surfer sitting on the, on the wave, on the water, you're looking seven waves out, not at the one that's, that's there right now.

And so, being able to think long term and, and what's the benefit of this right now versus what [00:10:00] it's gonna be if I, if I'm able to wait and, and, and get a little bit more. There's probably surfers out there that listen to this and go, oh my gosh, this guy has no clue what he's talking about. My point being is looking, looking out in terms of seeing what, what is coming rather than what's here right now being the point of that.

Yeah. Well, and I think that too often curriculum, just education, and I think parenting, you know, they, they're all focused on today, right. Or maybe even like, okay, they might go out to, you know, Oh, your next test is on Friday. Okay, well, we're not talking about what that test means for, you know, the end of the school year or for the next year.

We're all focused on what is today. And so, you know, that's a big part of our job is To sort of break kids of that, just to get them to think long term, right? Like one of the things that we do in class is we show them the rule of 72. And so the rule of 72, basically it's a formula that tells you how long it takes your money to double based on [00:11:00] whatever that rate of return is.

And so we show kids, you know, basically, okay, it's gonna. You know, you're this age now, and then your money's gonna double when you're this age, and then double when you're this age, and so we, we drag it all the way out to retirement, right? They're 14, right? So we're looking at, you know, 50 years down the road, and, and they're like, well, it's really cool that it does that, but that's a really long time away, but, but getting them to sort of see that the person that they're going to be when they go to retire, You know, is relying on this 14 year old right now to do good things.

And usually I'll, I'll, I'll ask the question, Well, how many of you guys want to just sit in a little tiny apartment and eat oatmeal all day, you know, for every meal? Or how many of you guys would rather go on old people cruises and, you know, have a good time? And the kids just laugh because, you know, I call it old people cruises, but they laugh and they're like, yeah, I know, I'd much rather have the latter, so.

Yeah. They wanna go for the all you can eat buffet and, and cruise around the Caribbean. That, that sounds a lot more fun to me

Right, right. And, you know, [00:12:00] that's, those blunt, weird conversations are, interestingly enough, sort of what makes our program a little different, you know, it's not, it's not just here's a worksheet, finish it and, you know, tell us what you learned. It's, it's a, let's have a conversation about, you know, fun, interesting stuff that they might be thinking about.

and making it relevant to them. And I think that's one of the things that, that you, as I said, you and I have known each other for, for over 10 years. You've, you've been to schools that I've, I I've been a principal at I see it firsthand. It's a unique program. It it, what I think is really great about this is it doesn't just.

You know, that lecture of just drilling the students and lecturing and everybody sits here and takes notes and here's this information. It's a real hands on experience that the kids are taking part in. You know, kind of, I don't want to give away too much about, you know, because like I said, there are some pieces of it that are nice surprises for the kids and things like that.

But what benefits do you see from this approach and kind of the way you've [00:13:00] structured your programs?

You mean as far as like just them being engaging and

the engaged, yeah, being very hands on and, and the kind of the way that you structure the, the programs that you do.

So when the instructors talk a little too much, you can see the just blank stares on the faces, right? And we know they're not listening. So like, you know, when, when they're looking at a PowerPoint, honestly, when I'm looking at a PowerPoint, I'm glazed over, right? So like, if somebody is, is doing a presentation and, and it's PowerPoints or it's some, you know, subject expert speaker that's, that's trying to tell me stuff like it's going over my head.

But when we get the kids up and actually sort of talking about the things that they know and the things that they, you know, and, and honestly, it's a lot of peer learning too, right? So like figuring out how to sort of get those kids to learn from each other. One of, one of the things being a non profit, one of the biggest things is a lot of people say, Oh, well, you know, do you do groups of, you know, just underserved kids?[00:14:00]

Honestly, I hate doing groups that are either, you know, one sort of socioeconomic demographic or another. I'd much rather them all be. Together, because the thing is, is that they learn so much from each other. And when there are different kids in the room, right, if there are different kids in the room, then they're learning things that they wouldn't normally learn.

You know, when, you know, your kid goes to a private school, well, you know, all those kids are the same. Right? But you get in a couple of, you know, a couple of kids, their own scholarship, then there's a whole different view of the world, whether it's money, whether it's just education, whether it's choices, whether, you know, do you go to college, do you not go to college, like all of those sorts of things now become relevant because they're hearing from their peers more than they're hearing from, you know, So it definitely changes the dynamic when you get the kids sort of talking to one another.

And I think that's one of the things, because when it comes to your programs coming to school, I think one of the most impactful components of this is you have [00:15:00] mentors that are there that are just a few years older than them. in, in some cases. And, and they're relatable to the kids because many of them might be college students who are bringing this information.

Talk to us about kind of what the, the vision is with that and kind of how that came to be.

So, obviously I don't want to teach a five day summer camp, so, cause I'm way too old for that. So way back when I was like a little Let's bring on some college students. So I, I think it was when we first started Summer Dance. So we brought in some college students. I actually had them help me sort of write the whole week long curriculum, right?

Like what do we need to teach them? And then we, we sat and talked about games to include and they were so creative and, and, and, you know, they really wanted to impact these kids lives, right? You know, a lot of times curriculum is created by these, you know, Subject experts and you know, masters that people that have masters in curriculum writing.

These were just college students that wanted to make a difference in, you know, in the way the kids thought about money. So, so that was super helpful. And then just as we started to [00:16:00] grow, like right now we have 12 instructors that are just in Atlanta that teach summer camps all summer long. You know, the kids love it much more so than they do having an adult teach.

I've had parents though, they've said, Well, no, I want a financial planner teaching my 12 year old. I'm like, no, no, you really don't. Because your 12 year old doesn't want to listen to a financial planner, right? Anytime we have like bankers come in and talk about banking, because sometimes we'll do it just, you know, to make the bank feel good.

We'll say, yeah, go ahead and come in and teach. Most of the time the kids are like, are they done yet? So it really does pay to sort of have that that, that younger generation teaching them. And at the same time, one of the things that I've really realized is that those interns that we have teaching the program, they now see the impact that they've had.

And, and they want to do more. So even no matter what their track is. They now sort of feel that sort of sense of giving back, you know, they're going to go finish school. They're going to go and, you know, have amazing [00:17:00] jobs and do amazing things. And they will always have it in their mind that they need to give back and teach and, and really focus on sort of just making the world a better place.

So, so not only are we making a better impact on the kids that we're teaching, but those college students, Hopefully we'll then turn around and, you know, make this sort of a lifelong journey.

Yeah, it's a pay it forward. You're, you're, you're really investing in our future by teaching them to invest in themselves now. Which I think is an amazing, amazing piece of things. You're teaching kids the what about money. And you're kind of diving deeper into the why of the financial literacy piece of things.

I know when wealthy applicants came to our schools, parents would say, Hey, can I come to that tonight? Or can you guys do one tonight for, for the, for the parents to do? Because this is a hard concept for people because, you know, what they've been taught their whole lives is just to use a credit card or borrow money or, you know, you got to have a great credit score.

So therefore, you know, borrow as [00:18:00] much money as you can. And using this method. And I think what you're teaching kids at a very young age is not so fast on that one. Let's look at some different approaches to those things. Talk a little bit about that, how you bring that to life for them.

The the credit sort

Just in terms of going against the norm of what society tells us we should be doing with money versus I guess what common sense tells us.

So one of the biggest things is, you know, you know, how many kids or how many teenagers have you known that, you know, really want to listen to an adult? Really not very many, right? Especially not parents. So because they're always telling them what to do, right? Like, I mean, even my kids, when they were younger, it was like anytime they would hear that sort of, Oh, mom's telling me what to do again.

Like all of a sudden their ears closed, right? Now that they're, you know, in their twenties, it's much better. However, you know, kids, when they're, they're trying to learn something, especially something that affects them personally, they want to [00:19:00] sort of. have that ability to make those choices themselves, right?

So even when it comes to credit cards and, you know, building credit and just making those sorts of choices on do I get a loan? Do I borrow money for school? Do I, you know, do I try to work instead? We want to make that about what the kid wants, right? We want to show the kid Okay, if you do this, and you do this well, this is what can happen.

If you do this, and you do it poorly, this is what can happen. Right, so giving them all of the scenarios, so that they can make the decision that works for them. Right, you know, they're going to follow in their parents footsteps. unless something changes, right? And whether that's a good footsteps or bad footsteps, you know, I, there's such a wide range of parents who are like, no, no debt whatsoever.

And then there are parents that, you know, they basically live off of debt. So I want kids to know all of those sides. I don't want to [00:20:00] tell them what they should do because because they, they need to own it, right? If they get a credit card and they pay interest, they need to know what that is going to cost down the road, right?

If they get a credit card and they don't want to pay interest, then pay it off in full, right? Read the benefits of what some of these things have to offer. You know, lots of people say, Oh, you know, loopholes and, you know, Oh, only wealthy people get to take care of, you know, get to take advantage of those loopholes.

But honestly, it's just educated people, right? So people who actually learn about it. How to use them wisely, right? How do you, how do you leverage a 401k? What, how do you know whether to do a traditional or a Roth option, right? Like getting them to understand that those are the choices and that They need to make those choices and not sort of just rely on somebody else is really sort of what we focus on when it comes to debt and credit.

And I think especially when we're seeing, I mean, you just watch the, the news out there of student loans that are, [00:21:00] you know, that's one of the biggest debt causers in, in our country right now. And, and so if we can teach kids at a younger age of, of how to get ahead on that, or maybe how to minimize those types of, of long term debt that they're going to be carrying.

By not falling into the traps of, you know, what does it really mean when you're going to do a car loan? And it looks like this even as much as what does it really mean when, you know, I mean, you look at it though, you go to college, I guarantee you that first year on your freshman year, you'll have somebody in the student union or whatever, getting ready to Here, sign up for this credit card, and we'll give you a t shirt, or we'll give you the candy bars, or whatever, I don't know, whatever their incentives are.

And the next thing you know, these kids have six and seven credit cards opened and it's like, well, hey, I got free money here because they haven't been educated, and they get themselves into such trouble because they just haven't been told this is not the way to do things.

Yeah. Well, I mean, and even just student loans, like my daughter's fiance he, he went to Clemson [00:22:00] University and when he graduated, he had like 100, 000 in loans. Nobody, he said basically nobody when he was 18, nobody really explained to him how, how detrimental that was going to be on his finances when he graduated and said, it's like, oh, well, when you get out of college, you're going to make all this money.

So you'll be able to pay it back. Right. But, but. And I know that there are lots of people that try to give the information, and before you sign up for a loan, you're supposed to do this little, you know, online course that, you know, explains what it is. But the thing is, it's a click next, click next, click next, I didn't learn a thing.

So, so, and, and even if you do learn something, or if you, even if you do read it, does it really resonate with you to look at, you know, You know, 22 year old self when you're only 18, right? You're just excited to go off to college. You're excited to learn. You're excited to sort of like get into that next sort of, part of your life.

And so, you know, it's not going [00:23:00] to affect me now. It's kind of like that wave thing, right? With the surfing, it's not going to affect me now. So I'm not going to worry about it now. And then four years later when they graduate and they get that like, holy moly, that's how much I owe. And wait, my, my bill's going to be a thousand dollars a month for how many years?

And they don't, I mean, unfortunately it's kind of like going to the hospital, right? Like you don't know how much it's going to cost you, right? So like you're signing up for all these loans. You don't know how much, you know, you go into the doctor, you're like, how much is this going to cost me? They can't tell you.

Or like the hospital, they will not tell you how much it's going to cost you by the time you're done. And it's like,

not a good surprise.

it's not a good surprise. Either is college sometimes, you know, it's like you get out and you're like, wait a minute, I got what for that?

Yeah, exactly. Well, and I think too that so many times our you know, we have schools that want to do this. Okay. But I think it's one of those things that much like teaching anything if you're going to do it, do it [00:24:00] right. Okay. Don't just do it to say you're doing it. Okay. Do it right and give these kids the, the, the tools.

To truly have that comprehension of what it is that, that they're expected to understand you're not going to be able to do this over, you know, a 30 minute class once you're not going to be able, it's, it's something that you've got to build on. Now, your program comes in and you're going to spend a kind of a crash course or a campus over a week and things like that.

So I understand that. But I'm saying if you're going to do this as a school, where you're going to make this as part of your, of what it is that you're doing doing it right, and, and bringing that. So, talk to us if, if there are schools out there that are, are thinking about a financial literacy program.

And, and first off, I would strongly suggest give Tracy a call because having, having wealthy habits at your school is a wonderful, wonderful thing to, to do. But if they're talking, thinking about doing a financial literacy program for their kids, What advice would you offer them and, and, and what would make that really [00:25:00] successful,

I think the biggest thing is just finding the teacher who's actually passionate about it, not just the teacher that has time, right? Or, you know, figuring out how to, I know there are lots of organizations or there's lots of programs now that are working in schools where, you know, they don't have to necessarily be a teacher, they're like contracting these people in.

Find somebody who's passionate about Making a difference in the subject, right? They don't have to be a financial planner. Honestly, those people are probably not the appropriate ones. Maybe it's the person who learned the hard way, right? That was kind of me. I learned the hard way on, on how to do a lot of this stuff.

And so now my big goal is to, to be able to get kids to not have to go through the hard way. So it's, it's really just find that person who's passionate. You know, don't worry so much about, you know, Oh, do they, do they know all the legal ramifications of, you know, where the tax law around a 401k or around, you know, employment law, things like that.

Who cares? The biggest thing is just really getting kids [00:26:00] to ask questions and talk in class and discuss things with each other. You know, there's, there's most Most states have sort of a requirement that they have to understand, but I think that if we just get kids to sort of enjoy learning about it and talking about it, those tests are going to be easy.

So, really just, you don't have the volleyball coach do it just because he's got an extra period, right? Have, bring somebody in if you have to. I know there's all kinds of rules and regulations around that, but I'm sure there are loopholes. So, you know, bring somebody in who's really passionate about it.

Somebody who knows sort of kids and sort of how kids think about things, because honestly, that's the biggest thing. If you don't know how a kid is taking it, then you're not really making a difference,

And that investment in your kids through that method, you have people within your community who would likely love to get back. And it's not for their own self promotion or anything like that, but it's something that, as you mentioned, maybe it's an [00:27:00] alumni member, maybe it's a member who just graduated, or whatever the case might be, who's just looking to give back.

Maybe it's somebody who's retired and is very relatable to the kids. And so, I think the key is just making it something that's relevant to the kids so that they can see it because like you mentioned before you're talking about 401k that they're probably three words into that the kids are gone okay they're thinking about what's going on on friday night but if we're making it relevant to them and showing the impact to them i think that's a huge piece of the pie for them is is because i hate to say it but but the kids and everybody what's what's how does it impact me you what do I get from this?

That's, that's our world that we live in nowadays.

which is not necessarily a bad thing. Because I mean, you know, we go to work, we go to work to, you know, the incentive is our paycheck. Right? So, so we do things because we're incentivized to do them and I love how you said, you know, having an alumni do it because there was that one kid at your school who went through our program and once she got to high school, she [00:28:00] started her own nonprofit and was like, and she said that basically from taking our class, She sort of learned the whole, like, how to budget it, how to make it work.

And wasn't it like she was getting shoes to send to another country or something? Isn't that what she was doing? Yeah, like, honestly, that was one of my favorite stories. And like, I mean, it just warms my heart to know that, you know, we impacted her enough to do something that, you know, is then going to impact, you know, how she feels about her choices.

And her choices, what she took away from it, her choices and the impact on others, I thought was what was so awesome about that. Because it was something that I, I, I don't know where she came into that, you know, the, the, the, the training or, or the workshop or whatever you wanna call it, was, I dunno, where she was at that well, that is something, or the spark.

And it was like, Ooh, I have this idea. And so we talk about. God has a plan for all of us and his [00:29:00] plan will be much better. I don't, I don't think there's any accidents in this world. We are, we are put where we need to be, when we need to be there. And I think that that spark that you provided to allow that to happen, I think about all the kids that benefited from that.

And, and probably are still benefiting from it to this day. Which is, which is incredible.

I mean, but for her to go back, like, I mean, if the school had her come in and talk about financial literacy, right? Like that would be way more powerful to those kids than having some banker come in and talk about how to open a bank account, right? Like kids don't care. I mean, the thing is, is if you don't know how to open a bank account, you go into the bank and you ask, right?

You don't have to know ahead of time. So, I mean, you can even Google, what questions should I ask before opening a bank account? Like, it's all figuring out how to get the kid's mindset into, you know, how do I do these amazing things with my life? How do I make myself happy? What do I get out of it? Not how do you open a bank account?

Right. And, and [00:30:00] one of the things at a school that I was at, that was a high school, we would bring in people from the community to talk about subjects that I felt that the kids were going to benefit from long term. And I remember one of the groups of people that we would bring in, we would bring in somebody who was a car salesman to talk about what is the true impact of this loan.

This is what the car sale prices, and this is what I'm going to be able to settle you for, but this is with interest what this loan really looks like. Do you really like this car this much, or would you be happy with this car, okay, or would you be happier saving up for the car to be able to pay cash for it, okay, kind of thing.

Also brought in somebody that worked with debt cases to show the impacts of credit cards and how those can build up in a hurry, and so, just, just all those things, but I think it's just giving kids those opportunities to see these things in a real light. and how it impacts them in their real world is so powerful rather than open your book to page 24 and let's learn about compound interest today.

Okay. And so, but just showing them that impact [00:31:00] of compound interest and, and, you know, I know that something like Ben Franklin was fascinated with was, was just the power of compound interest. And so, it's a powerful, powerful tool that I don't think anybody truly understands the, the, you know, but it just, it's, it's an amazing, amazing tool and the sooner these kids can learn this and, and adults can learn this, the better they're going to be in their lives not having to worry about others taking care of them.

So, Kelly, can you walk us through maybe a, a 10, because I don't want to like give everything away, but when you arrive at a school and you're going to be working with a group of students, Can you kind of give us a 10, 000 foot overview of kind of what a day looks like and what, you know, when they come in And versus when they leave what that looks like,

So when it comes to, you know, schools or working with other partners, you know, it's, it's always, we're very flexible, right? So it's, you know, we can do a one hour, we can do a full day, like at your school, we did the full [00:32:00] day. When we do, and you know, we kept coming back to your school. So when they saw me pull up, when the kids were walking and they saw me pull up, they knew exactly what to expect.

But when they don't know what to expect so just for example, you know, we went and did a one day program at Emory Hospital in Atlanta. And so basically their employees brought their kids in, dropped them off, and then, you know, they went to work and then they picked them up at the end of the day.

Well, it never fails. The kids are just sitting there with this look on their face like, I cannot believe I'm going to be here all day long. This is going to be awful. Ugh. Okay, I can just get through it. I can get through it. Luckily, there'll be lunch soon. So they're not happy to be there. They're not excited, right?

I mean, it's not like they're, you know, going to play video games all day long or they're gonna, you know, play basketball or whatever fun thing that they want to do on a regular basis. So typically though, and we know that, and honestly, that's on my favorite part of the day is watching them come in unhappy because I know that they are going to really change how they behave.[00:33:00]

You know, look at the day. And so it really just sort of starts out with a conversation, right? Like, hey, you know, what do you think the difference between wealthy and rich is? Or, you know, what habits do you think you need to have in order to be wealthier? So just having those conversations or getting the kids to sort of talk and, and, and be.

Come out of their shell. Right. Getting them to sort of get outta their seat and, and to walk around and, and, you know, play a game. You know, one of the, the games that we used in longer programs is basically where they earn a paycheck, right? We give them a job. It's. jumping jacks or whatever. Maybe it's they change it up.

Who knows? But they do this job. They get a paycheck. They then get up and they go pay their bills and, and they decide, you know, do they want to splurge? Do they want to save? They are the ones making those choices. We're not just standing there at a board saying you should save this amount of money, right?

Like that whole 50, 30, 20 rule or whatever it is. I [00:34:00] hate that stuff because it really just depends on where they. You know, that individual wants, right? Maybe that individual wants to live less, sort of, extravagantly, and they want to save 50 percent of their paycheck. Nobody should be telling them they should only save 10 or 20.

So basically, we give those kids the, the, the chances to, or the, the choices, the chance to make their own choices. You know, and there's always competition. Kids love competition. Adults like competition. And so, so, you know, we encourage kids to engage, we encourage kids to ask questions, answer questions, you know, we do like, you know, games where they have to compete against each other and they get, you know, they get extra little, we call it moolah, where, you know, you get moolah, whoever at the end of the, the program has the most.

Whoever has the most wins, the big prize. Like it is just, it is, it is. Regardless of whether it's a one day program or if it's in school, we wanna make sure that the kids are having fun because that is what they're gonna remember. And then by the time, you know, all of the [00:35:00] responses that I get from parents.

So many reviews are the parents talk about how as soon as the kid gets in the car, they like have all these like comments about like, Oh, this is what I learned. And they have questions. And I had a parent that's like, well, now because of this class, now they have so much stuff to talk about at the dinner table, right.

To talk about sort of finance and futures. And, and, and that's what I want. I want the kids to ask questions. I want them to feel comfortable asking people. You know, for advice, for, you know, and, and to, to take that as, you know, a grain of salt, with a grain of salt and, you know, get lots of advice. And, you know, I, I just, I want the kids to own their own sort of education when it comes to this and, and sort of learn that we do have every now and then we'll have a kid that says, Oh yeah, I don't have anything else to learn.

I learned everything I need to know. And I'm like, you have no

No. Just the tip of the iceberg on that one. Is the,

Yeah, it is. It's even the div. It's like, it's like a, you know,

No, without question.

a [00:36:00] lot of the, you know, everything that I hear from parents is just, they're just so surprised that their kid actually, enjoyed it. There was one that was like, you know, on Monday, they, the child was so mad.

But then on Thursday we're, they were so disappointed that they only had one more day left. So, so it really is on the delivery. It doesn't matter what it is you're teaching kids. If you make it fun and you make it something that is relevant to them, they will love it. Embrace it and learn it and have fun with it and they will take it on and you'll be leaving a legacy with that kid being able to, you know, know that you made a difference.

So many of our kids that have gone through camp are actually Like I had one parent said that their child is actually now going to college for finance because they got so much out of it. So hopefully there'll be one of our instructors down the road,

Yes, I was going to say, there you go, get in touch with them, say, hey, come on, we're going to get you in on this, so. And I think that's so big, because they give back, and like you [00:37:00] talked about, the young lady who saw the impact of it, just bringing those stories back to say, this was so cool, and this was the impact that it had on me, really ignites that, okay, let me give this a look, as opposed to, You know, no disrespect to you or I, but you and I standing up there leading something, okay, another class, and this is gonna be, you know, versus like, wow, this is something that's, that's interesting me, and I know that person.

I, I've seen that person at church before, in the community, or things like that really ignites things. What's, what's some of the impacts? I know we've talked a few already. But what are some of the impacts have they, has been for your organization, the results that you're seeing as a result of, of what it is, the work you do?

So I guess the biggest one is just the number of kids that we get in our programs because they heard about us from somebody else. So that's always helpful. We've had, we've had a number of. Our, a number of our instructors have actually been past students, [00:38:00] so that's always fun, because then, you know, they get to see it from You know, the class, they're in the class versus now I'm teaching it.

The, a lot of the a lot of the, the students that we reached out to some of our alumni and one of the girls that I taught years ago. Small class, but I even still remember her. It was probably well over a decade ago, where we reached out to her and asked her some questions about like what she got out of it.

And the biggest thing was she learned that it's okay to talk about money. And, and in response to that, she's like, if there's anything that I can do to help the organization or volunteer or anything, she's like, I really want to help. It really made such a huge impact in my life. So I think that just, you know, just seeing.

And we get lots of kids that come back and volunteer to be junior instructors. Like, I think that the biggest thing is, is getting them, like the one girl that I was just talking about, she said she went to school and just started talking to her friends about it, right? So [00:39:00] like the impact that it can have, even those that we're not You know, directly impacting.

It does have an impact. I had another student a long time ago. He, he said, basically, he went home and started telling all of his family members that they needed to start, you know, saving a little bit of money, putting an investment account, watching it grow, you know, stop spending it on stuff you don't really need.

Like, I mean, these are kids in the class that go and, and then sort of, you know, Teach it in their own little way. So, I think that that is super impactful. We don't always know all those stories. But, you know, I know if I'm hearing a few, then there are probably a whole bunch of them.

Yeah, and it's so important because our kids nowadays, I mean, unfortunately, everything is digital now. A lot of things are digital. Even our, our debit cards and our, you know, we can even walk up with little Apple Pays and just put our phone up next to the thing and it dings and we've made the purchase.

But we don't think about what, money actually just [00:40:00] changed hands there. That 20 that I had in my bank account now just went to, I don't know, Starbucks or whatever the case might be for a coffee. And I don't know if I could get a coffee 20, they're a little, a little a little expensive. But you, you understand what I'm getting at though.

But I think when we teach kids that, no, no, you had 100 in there, and now because you purchased this item, rather than delaying that gratification, or saving that, wow, now this is the car you can buy versus this one, or this is the house you can buy versus this one, or this is the loan you're going to take out versus this one.

Showing it and making it real for them is so critical, and I think that's one of those things, again, as I hear it. Everybody wants to talk about it, and everybody wants to say this is something we should be teaching, but nobody's actually saying we're gonna do it. You all are doing it in your organization, and for that, I applaud you for sure.

Thank you. Well, you know, I love making a difference. And, you know, honestly, you know, they don't really have to do it. We've already done it. So, you know, they don't need to reinvent [00:41:00] the wheel. Just call me. You know, we love working with partners. We love making a difference. You know, we, you know, we have all different kinds of options.

We have self paced courses, we have virtual, we have in person, like there's so many different options. And, and if we don't have something, Dick's Sporting Goods called and said, Hey, we want to do a program for the people who work for us. And so we created something just specifically for them. So, so, you know, you don't need to reinvent the wheel, but make sure that you're finding.

The program that's right for the kids.

Absolutely. And, and, If a school wants to get in touch with you to explore a partnership, because let me tell you folks when you talk about your alumni out there, or your parents, or folks like that, this is the type of program that they'd love to sponsor to bring to your school, okay? So, so many schools are out there saying, hey how are we going to do this?

This is the type of thing. You bring this to them, I guarantee you have people coming out of the woods to, to to make this, bring, bring this to your school. If a [00:42:00] school wants to explore a partnership with you to bring wealthy habits to its campus, how are they going to get in, how can they get in touch with you?

So they can either visit our website at WealthyHabits. org, they can email us at info at WealthyHabits. org, or they can certainly give me a call. I think on our website, they can even set up a time to just chat with me, put it on my calendar. Like, there's so many ways that they can get in touch with me, and I'm hoping that you'll sort of share that information as well on, you know, sort of how to get in touch with me because, you know, Like I said, we just, we really just want to make a difference.

We are nonprofit. Our goal really is to, to just keep spreading sort of good financial habits so that maybe, maybe we won't have such a huge debt problem in our population.

Well, and I can tell you again, firsthand the impact of the program and bring it to your school. Give Tracy a call. It is well worth your time to sit down and have a conversation about how Wealthy Habits can come to your school, make an impact on your [00:43:00] school, but also your students. It's just a wonderful, wonderful program, and wonderful people to work with.

So Tracy, I can't thank you enough for your time today and wish you nothing but the best in the upcoming school year ahead.

Thank you. Thank you. And you know, I hope you keep in touch. You know, it's like you said, it's been over 10 years. It's, you know, we've known each other for a long time.

Awesome. Well, I appreciate your time today. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

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