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April is Financial Literacy Month, which started as “Youth Financial Literacy Day” and eventually became “Financial Literacy For Youth Month” in 2000 before settling on Financial Literacy Month in 2004 under President Bush. I find it a bit ironic that it comes during the month of Tax Day, but also quite apropos.

Since our mission at Next-Level Income is to “Help individuals achieve financial independence through education and opportunities” (note that education is first!), this month is a big deal for us!

OpenDoors Of Asheville

This month marks the start of our financial literacy partnership with OpenDoors of Asheville. A little less than a year ago my coach’s son (who was 17 at the time) ran 100 miles to raise $100,000 for OpenDoors. We were a sponsor of the fundraiser. My wife paced Connor for 10 of the miles and my older son, Ethan, decided on the car ride that he was going to join them. Yes, my 10 year old son ran 10 miles on a whim. If you know him, you know what I’m talking about! I turned around and he said, “I’m going to run with them!” and then showed me his pockets stuffed with Jolly Ranchers, his preferred fuel. Sometimes I think he just wanted to eat Jolly Ranchers for 2 hours straight. The family learned so much that long summer evening. The whole story is so inspiring!

Fast forward a couple of weeks and the Director of OpenDoors, Jen Ramming, reached out to me to personally thank my family for our contribution in time and dollars. For someone who’s been donating money since I was 12, it was a fairly rare occurrence. If someone gives you money, say, “Thank you!” It goes a long way, trust me.

We ended up having a wonderful conversation about the mission of OpenDoors: To break the cycle of poverty. I was impressed and inquired if there was a financial literacy component. Learning that there wasn’t, Jen and I decided to implement one. We started our first classes this month with support from local sponsors of OpenDoors as well as EVERFI.

The Basics

I remember teaching my grandmother how to use a computer and saying, “click here.” My grandmother looked at me, puzzled. I said, “Use the mouse and push down.” . . . another puzzled look. OH! My grandmother didn’t know what a mouse was, how to right or left click, etc. We had to go back to the basics and start there. It’s overwhelming to teach a group of young individuals who may not even have a bank account nor know the differences between checking, savings, etc. I’m learning as I go, just like the students. Parents sit in the back of the room taking notes as well. So do the staff! What I’m learning is that we have uncovered an absolute massive need across all socioeconomic bounds. We MUST teach our youth how to understand money. This must start as early as possible.

An Even Bigger Issue

Over the last year we have watched our country, businesses and students’ lives get turned upside down by local and national policies. I believe that the handling of the pandemic in 2020 will be shown to be the biggest policy error in recent history. I’ll stop at that, but if those making policies don’t have basic financial literacy and understanding of statistics, how can they be expected to determine if an action carries more or less risk than another? What about the long-term economic and socioeconomic impact to society? What has occurred is no surprise at all in that context. This goes all the way back to financial literacy. If we can understand finances, the time value of money, and the long-term economic impact of our choices, then we can make better choices.

If you have children, I encourage you to begin teaching them at a young age. Teach them about saving, compound interest and financing. But also teach them about entrepreneurship, how you can build a business instead of a job, and how college is an option. We need to ask questions like, “Which college degrees are worth it?” And use tools like this to educate ourselves and our children. After all, if we can’t determine the time value of money, how can we also factor in opportunity costs like spending 4-8 years in school?

As we approach the end of Financial Literacy Month, choose something that you can do to improve the financial literacy in your life, your family, or your community. This could be as simple as starting a Roth IRA for your child (as we did) or sharing an article on compound interest, as I discuss in my book (get a free copy of my book and audiobook here).

Hopefully you’ve found the information in our podcasts and on this blog helpful in your journey toward financial independence.

This is only the beginning!