RPF0127-Eva_Teens_Got_Cents
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00:00:30.000 | Welcome to the Radical Personal Finance Podcast.
00:00:32.000 | My name is Joshua Sheets and I'm your host.
00:00:33.600 | Today is Monday, December 29, 2014.
00:00:37.600 | I'm thankful to bring you an interview today with Eva from the blog Teens Got Sense.
00:00:44.000 | Eva is a phenomenal young lady. She is really, really motivating and really, really impressive.
00:00:50.400 | And she started writing a personal finance blog targeted towards teens
00:00:55.600 | at about the age of 16 years old.
00:00:58.000 | And so today's show is an interview with her and we talk a little bit about what she has learned
00:01:03.600 | and what she's benefited and how she's grown from her blog experiences.
00:01:09.200 | And I hope that you're able to enjoy and benefit from that content.
00:01:14.400 | And I hope you can see how, in my mind, education is being transformed.
00:01:19.600 | Because in a world where amazing young ladies like Eva can create content like they're creating,
00:01:26.400 | just imagine the leg up that she's going to have in a decade or so
00:01:30.400 | based upon her early interests and hobbies and blogging.
00:01:36.000 | What an amazing, cool world that we live in.
00:01:38.400 | Before I play the interview though, I would like to share with you,
00:01:43.200 | as an introduction to the interview and something to stimulate your thinking,
00:01:46.800 | a spoken word performance by a performer that I really enjoy.
00:01:51.600 | And here it is.
00:01:54.400 | Revolution and Represent 107.3 FM. My name is Tarek.
00:01:57.600 | Now listeners, you may remember not too long ago, we had a spoken word artist by the name of Sully Breaks.
00:02:02.400 | He came down and dropped a live session and a lot of you were excited about that.
00:02:06.400 | I was excited this morning when I opened up a package. I had no idea what it was.
00:02:10.800 | I opened it up, put it in the player, pressed play and it totally blew me away.
00:02:15.200 | This is a brand new piece from his brand new The Dorm Room EP.
00:02:18.800 | I'm going to have to let spoken word do what it does best and let it speak for itself.
00:02:22.800 | Brand new, Sully Breaks.
00:02:24.800 | [Music]
00:02:37.800 | Right now, there is a kid finishing parents evening in a heated discussion with his mother,
00:02:43.200 | saying, "Why does he have to study subjects he will never ever use in his life?"
00:02:48.000 | And she will look at him blank eyed, stifle a sigh, think for a second and then lie.
00:02:53.600 | She'll say something along the lines of, "You know to get a good job, you need a good degree
00:02:57.600 | and these subjects will help you get a good degree. We never had this opportunity when I was younger."
00:03:03.600 | And he will reply, "But you were young a long time ago, weren't you mum?"
00:03:09.200 | And she won't respond, although what he implies makes perfect sense,
00:03:13.200 | that society's needs would have changed since she was 16.
00:03:16.800 | But she will ignore him, grip his hand more sternly, then drag him to the car.
00:03:22.200 | But what she doesn't know is that she didn't ignore him just to shut him up.
00:03:26.800 | She didn't lie because they were just returning from parents evening
00:03:30.000 | and an argument in the hallway would look bad on her resume.
00:03:32.800 | She won't lie because she's just spent the last one hour convincing a stern faced teacher
00:03:37.600 | that she will ensure that her child studies more at home.
00:03:40.800 | No, she will lie simply because she does not know any better herself.
00:03:47.400 | Although her whole adult life she has never used or applied Pythagoras' theorem,
00:03:51.800 | prophetic fallacy and still does not know the value of X.
00:03:55.000 | She will rely on society to tell her that her child, who has one of the sharpest minds in the school,
00:04:00.200 | is hyperactive, unfocused, easily distracted and wayward.
00:04:05.200 | Students, how many equations, subjects and dates did you memorise just before an exam, never to use again?
00:04:12.200 | How many A grades did you get, which were never asked for when you applied for a job?
00:04:16.400 | How many times have you remembered something five minutes just after the teacher said stop writing,
00:04:20.800 | only to receive your results one month later to realise that you were only one mark short of the top grade?
00:04:26.400 | Does that mean remembering five minutes earlier would have made you more qualified for a particular job?
00:04:31.800 | Well, on application form it would have.
00:04:34.600 | We all have different abilities, thought processes, experiences and genes,
00:04:38.800 | so why is a class full of individuals tested by the same means?
00:04:43.000 | So that means Shirelle thinks she's dumb because she couldn't do a couple of sums.
00:04:46.600 | And if this issue is not addressed properly, it then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
00:04:51.600 | Then every school has the audacity to have a policy on equality.
00:04:55.600 | Huh, the irony.
00:04:58.200 | Exams are society's methods of telling you what you're worth,
00:05:01.600 | but you can't let society tell you what you are, because it's the same society that tells you that abortion is wrong,
00:05:07.000 | but then looks down on teenage parents.
00:05:08.800 | The same society that sells products to promote natural hair, looks and smooth complexion,
00:05:13.800 | with the model on the box half photoshopped and has fake lashes and hair extensions.
00:05:18.200 | With pastors that preach charity but own private jets.
00:05:21.400 | Imams that preach against greed but are all fat.
00:05:24.200 | Parents that say they want educated kids but constantly marvel at how rich Richard Branson is.
00:05:29.600 | Governments that preach peace but endorse wars.
00:05:32.400 | That say they believe so much in the importance of higher education and further learning,
00:05:36.800 | then why increase tuition fees every single year?
00:05:41.200 | I believed Miss Jefferson when she took me into the office and said that my exams would be imperative to my success.
00:05:47.200 | Because we was taught to always follow when Miss Jefferson led.
00:05:50.200 | But then I took Jefferson out of the equation and learned to think for myself.
00:05:53.600 | I realised we was taught to always follow when Miss led.
00:05:57.400 | Huh, the irony.
00:05:59.600 | Test us with tests but the finals are never final,
00:06:06.200 | because they never prepare us for the biggest test which is survival.
00:06:09.400 | And what I suggest is fairly outlandish, so I do not expect everyone to understand this,
00:06:13.800 | except for the kids who knows what it feels like to be worth no more than that D or that A that you get on results day.
00:06:20.000 | And the ones whose best stories were never good enough for the English teacher,
00:06:23.400 | because apparently you missed out key literal techniques, did not follow the class plan,
00:06:27.800 | and the language was too informal for him to understand.
00:06:30.800 | But then he'd reference Hamlet and Macbeth,
00:06:32.800 | and you'd fight the urge to express your contempt by partially clenching your fist
00:06:36.600 | with only your meatiest finger left protruding in the middle of your hand.
00:06:40.000 | And then ask if he was aware that Shakespeare was known as the innovator of slang,
00:06:44.200 | or the kid at the back of the class who thinks, "Why am I studying something that doesn't fuel my drive?"
00:06:48.800 | But then when confronted with a maths problem, his eyes come alive.
00:06:52.000 | So this one is for my generation, the ones who found what they were looking for on Google,
00:06:56.000 | the ones who followed their dreams on Twitter, pictured their future on Instagram,
00:06:59.600 | accepted destiny on Facebook.
00:07:01.400 | This one's for my failures and my dropouts, for my unemployed graduates,
00:07:05.000 | my shop assistants, cleaners and cashiers with bigger dreams,
00:07:08.000 | my self-employed entrepreneurs, my world changers and my dream chasers,
00:07:12.000 | 'cause the purpose of "Why I Hate School But Love Education" was not to initiate a worldwide debate,
00:07:17.400 | but to let them know that whether 72 or 88, 44 or 68,
00:07:24.000 | we will not let exam results decide our fate.
00:07:30.000 | Peace.
00:07:31.000 | - Eva, welcome to the Radical Personal Finance Podcast. I appreciate you being with me today.
00:07:38.400 | - Hi, thanks so much for having me.
00:07:40.400 | - Been looking forward to this conversation since we met at FinCon.
00:07:43.400 | And the way that you and I met, we sat down at a lunch table next to each other,
00:07:47.800 | and you were there at FinCon and I was there and we got to chatting.
00:07:50.800 | And I was fascinated with your story, especially regarding personal finance.
00:07:55.400 | There are a lot of personal finance blogs on the internet,
00:07:58.600 | but yours is unique in a number of different ways.
00:08:02.000 | So let's start with, share your story and share how you got into personal finance blogging.
00:08:08.400 | - Absolutely. Well, I'm 18, and back when I was about 15 years old,
00:08:16.200 | my mom came to me and told me that she wanted me to do a project for the duration of my high school years.
00:08:24.000 | I've been homeschooled all of my life.
00:08:26.400 | And my older brother had to do this too, a project just to develop, you know, some life skills,
00:08:33.200 | communication skills and things of that nature.
00:08:36.000 | And so I thought about it for a really long time and what I wanted to do my project on.
00:08:40.600 | And I knew I wanted to do some type of blog or website, but I had no idea what I wanted to do it about.
00:08:48.600 | And around that time, my parents were getting a divorce,
00:08:52.000 | and my mom was trying to get back on her feet financially.
00:08:54.600 | And so she wanted to, you know, we heard all about Dave Ramsey and, you know,
00:08:59.600 | this amazing guy who is so good with finances and helping people.
00:09:04.400 | And so she wanted to read his book, The Total Money Makeover.
00:09:08.000 | But the library only had it on audio tape.
00:09:11.200 | And so whenever we drove anywhere, I had to listen to it with her in the car.
00:09:15.600 | And so like, you know, a 15-year-old me at that time was really not excited about that.
00:09:22.400 | But as I was listening to what he was saying, I learned so much.
00:09:27.200 | I was very intrigued. Everything he was saying made sense.
00:09:31.600 | And so I started looking online and I, of course, found so many great resources for adults
00:09:37.000 | to help them get out of debt and to help them set up a budgeting plan.
00:09:41.600 | But there was really nothing for teens, you know, specifically by a teen,
00:09:46.600 | helping them come up with a plan to not get there in the first place.
00:09:50.600 | And that's when I decided to start my website, Teens Got Sense.
00:09:53.800 | Very cool. And how long ago was that now?
00:09:56.600 | It's been two years.
00:09:59.200 | Wow. Good for you.
00:10:00.800 | What have you learned?
00:10:03.200 | I think that I've learned just an incredible amount.
00:10:09.600 | Just my communication skills, my interviewing skills.
00:10:13.600 | You know, I've learned just so much about this whole world, this whole financial world.
00:10:22.600 | And because on my site, really the things I write about are things that happen to me in real life.
00:10:29.000 | They're things that happen to me and experiences that I've learned from,
00:10:33.000 | whether they're successes or failures.
00:10:35.800 | And really just my goal with the site is to take my stories and my personal experiences
00:10:42.600 | and share them with other people in hopes that they can learn from them, too.
00:10:46.000 | I don't feel like I know more about personal finance than other teens or anything like that.
00:10:52.000 | As I'm learning, I'm just sharing those experiences.
00:10:56.000 | Has there a community of a few regular readers that read your site?
00:11:01.000 | Has that developed? Are you aware of other teens that are reading and benefiting from your information?
00:11:06.000 | Yes.
00:11:08.000 | How do you interact with them? And have you seen any changes?
00:11:12.000 | Have they written to you and said, "Hey, because of this, I learned this"?
00:11:15.000 | Or what's been the experience as far as the changes in their life because of it?
00:11:19.000 | I've had some of my friends tell me that they do enjoy reading my site
00:11:24.000 | because I'm able to put it in terms that they can understand
00:11:29.000 | and ways that make it enjoyable for them to read.
00:11:33.000 | I reach out to them through Facebook, through Pinterest and Twitter.
00:11:39.000 | And so really anybody can find me and hopefully benefit from my site.
00:11:47.000 | As you've studied personal finance,
00:11:51.000 | I never really thought about finance from a teen perspective.
00:11:55.000 | I've always just put an adult lens on everything that I've ever thought about and studied on.
00:12:00.000 | What are some of the themes or topics that you think about, face and write about
00:12:05.000 | that are unique to young men and women?
00:12:11.000 | Well, on my site, I write about just budgeting basics.
00:12:16.000 | I write about how to get the best deals when shopping.
00:12:19.000 | Specifically, how to go to college debt-free.
00:12:22.000 | I think that's a huge monster that us as teens look at and that we know we have to tackle.
00:12:31.000 | The decision of going to college debt-free or taking out student loan debts
00:12:36.000 | and getting a job to help pay for all of it, it's a huge thing and it's very overwhelming for us.
00:12:43.000 | I also write about how to get a good part-time job as a teen
00:12:47.000 | and even how to start your own business as a young adult
00:12:51.000 | in order to help yourself save up to hopefully be able to go to college without having any debt.
00:12:57.000 | What's your plan? Do you plan to go to college yourself?
00:13:01.000 | Yes. My plan as of right now, I will graduate in the spring
00:13:04.000 | and I am hoping to go to my local community college to get into the respiratory therapy program,
00:13:10.000 | which is a two-year program, and graduate with that and be able to get a job.
00:13:17.000 | I have Florida Prepaid, which is a huge benefit to me in helping me reach my goal of going to college debt-free.
00:13:26.000 | But I also continue to keep blogging and definitely want to stay in this world.
00:13:34.000 | I'm interested to know, you've gotten pretty plugged in to the larger personal finance community, right?
00:13:42.000 | You received an award at FinCon for your blog.
00:13:45.000 | Yes.
00:13:47.000 | Have other bloggers taken you under their wing? Have you built relationships with other bloggers?
00:13:53.000 | What's been your experience with actually having a blog on finance?
00:13:56.000 | It's been amazing. My first FinCon was two years ago
00:14:00.000 | and when me and my mom were getting ready for it, we weren't really sure what to expect.
00:14:05.000 | Me being so young, coming in and being a part of this group of adult professionals,
00:14:12.000 | we were a little bit hesitant at first of what that was going to be like and if I was going to be accepted or not.
00:14:19.000 | We just had the most amazing experience.
00:14:23.000 | Everyone was so welcoming. Everybody has been so helpful.
00:14:27.000 | I have a number of friends that I've made that if I ever have a question about personal finance blogging
00:14:34.000 | or the technical part of blogging itself, they are always so helpful.
00:14:39.000 | People have allowed me to do guest posts on their sites.
00:14:43.000 | People have written guest posts for my sites.
00:14:46.000 | Getting to do interviews like this one, I couldn't have asked for anything better.
00:14:51.000 | Everybody has been so amazing.
00:14:54.000 | With regard to the conferences, have you visited and spent time at other adult conferences, so to speak,
00:15:02.000 | other than FinCon or has that been the primary exposure to the conference world?
00:15:07.000 | That's definitely been the primary exposure, yes.
00:15:11.000 | What I keep thinking about when I met you, I just thought, "Man, I wish I had started at 16 years old
00:15:17.000 | actually taking all of the studying that I did on personal finance
00:15:21.000 | and translating that into some kind of written concept."
00:15:26.000 | I've had the idea to try to make sure that my son, I have a one-year-old son,
00:15:31.000 | I've tried to make sure that my son, I'm hoping from a very early age,
00:15:36.000 | can be fully involved in the adult world.
00:15:40.000 | I didn't go to my first conference like FinCon until after I graduated from college, certainly.
00:15:49.000 | Although there may have been a couple of things here and there during college.
00:15:52.000 | But when I think about the jumpstart that you have, starting at 16 and now being 18,
00:15:59.000 | and getting awards in an adult world, I love the egalitarianism of the internet
00:16:06.000 | where it doesn't really matter your age, what matters is do you have an idea
00:16:10.000 | and can you sit down and create something that is useful and valuable to other people.
00:16:15.000 | I'm excited about your opportunity to experience those things at an earlier age than many of us have.
00:16:25.000 | It's definitely been a great experience and an incredible journey.
00:16:30.000 | I definitely didn't just start when I was 16, but even when I was younger than that,
00:16:36.000 | at age 5 my parents started me with giving me an allowance.
00:16:40.000 | With the envelope system I had three envelopes, one for spending, one for saving,
00:16:45.000 | and one for giving to our church. At 5 I think I got like $3 or something.
00:16:51.000 | But as I got older I was given more allowance.
00:16:56.000 | Finance was never something that was a taboo subject in our household.
00:17:02.000 | At age 13 my parents were able to give me the real responsibility of purchasing all of my own clothes.
00:17:09.000 | They increased my allowance so that this was possible.
00:17:12.000 | But I was responsible for making all of those decisions.
00:17:16.000 | The money was mine and I could spend it on whatever I wanted.
00:17:19.000 | The first time I got that much allowance I might have gone and just blown it on whatever I wanted.
00:17:25.000 | But then when it came around time for me to buy new clothes I didn't have anything.
00:17:29.000 | That was a mistake I only made once.
00:17:32.000 | But I think that I've just been incredibly blessed by my parents so early in my life
00:17:42.000 | that this journey started then for me.
00:17:46.000 | I can feel secure in my knowledge of personal finance that when I do go out and have my own house
00:17:59.000 | and live out in the real world away from home that I'm equipped to be able to take care of my finances wisely,
00:18:08.000 | be purposeful with my money and have some of these skill sets that this blog has taught me.
00:18:13.000 | Communication skills, interviewing skills, all of those things that I already have those tools under my belt.
00:18:21.000 | What practical tools and methods do you use yourself to track and control where your money comes from,
00:18:32.000 | where your money goes and what are you teaching to others of your peers?
00:18:38.000 | I still use the envelope system.
00:18:43.000 | Physical paper envelopes?
00:18:46.000 | Yes, physical paper envelopes. I think I have six of them or so.
00:18:53.000 | I have some for long-term savings, some for short-term savings.
00:18:56.000 | I use those faithfully. I have one for just spending for whatever I want.
00:19:02.000 | I have a clothing envelope. I have an envelope for my car, for college, for retirement, and one for giving to my church.
00:19:10.000 | I use those constantly, but I also have a checking account and a saving account at my local credit union
00:19:18.000 | that I use to handle my finances and to keep my money where I want it.
00:19:28.000 | Do you use an electronic solution like with a phone to track the spending that you make out of your checking account,
00:19:35.000 | something like that, or do you just do it with the envelopes?
00:19:38.000 | I do it with the envelopes, but I know my mom has an app on her phone that she uses for all of her budgeting.
00:19:44.000 | I'm pretty sure it's called Good Budget, and she uses that faithfully to track all of our expenses.
00:19:51.000 | It's basically like a digital envelope system.
00:19:55.000 | Have you started doing any investing beyond just checking your savings accounts yet?
00:20:01.000 | No, I don't know anything about that.
00:20:05.000 | Well, hopefully my show can serve as an option for that.
00:20:09.000 | I think sometimes the vision that I have for my show is to be able to take somebody from the absolute beginning knowledge
00:20:17.000 | of finance and investing and all the way through advanced, master's level information.
00:20:22.000 | I've struggled to figure out how to curate the content in a way that would be where you could just sit and have a listening path through to learn.
00:20:30.000 | With the format I've taken, it seems like each show is different on a daily basis,
00:20:35.000 | but that's my vision is for people like you to try to provide a master's degree level of information for you so you can grow into that.
00:20:45.000 | Question on blogging.
00:20:50.000 | Having an internet presence and building a blog, is this more common among your age group?
00:20:56.000 | Is that common among your age group?
00:20:58.000 | Is that common among homeschoolers?
00:21:01.000 | It existed a little bit when I was in school, but I'm just wondering if that's changed in popularity.
00:21:06.000 | Are you weird and unique or are you fairly normal in the idea that you have a blog that you're curating around a specific subject?
00:21:14.000 | I think there's kind of two different sides to it because I think that a lot of teens have a blog where they write about their experiences
00:21:24.000 | or girls who have a fashion blog or something like that.
00:21:29.000 | I think that maybe me having a blog about personal finances is a little bit different,
00:21:34.000 | but what makes it even more different is that I've turned this blogging into a business,
00:21:40.000 | into my part-time job essentially throughout high school.
00:21:45.000 | I think that is very different from what you would normally see, but a lot of people could do it.
00:21:52.000 | It doesn't take a lot of hard work and a lot of time, but it is something that's possible for everybody.
00:22:00.000 | So you have earned income on your blog?
00:22:03.000 | Yes.
00:22:04.000 | How do you do that?
00:22:06.000 | Just through monetizing.
00:22:08.000 | One of the main ways is that I have a sponsor, a local credit union here in Florida,
00:22:15.000 | One to One Financial sponsors my blog and we have an amazing relationship.
00:22:20.000 | It's been an incredible experience working with them to further educate teens.
00:22:26.000 | Also, I have had many opportunities to go all over the state of Florida teaching personal finance classes to other teens.
00:22:37.000 | That has been one of my favorite things, one of my favorite experiences that's come up from this site.
00:22:44.000 | It's an incredible way to share my passion with other teens directly and something that I've learned so much from.
00:22:55.000 | What tips do you have for teens around how to get productive part-time jobs?
00:23:03.000 | I think that it's just something that you've got to look around, find a place that you're going to fit into to best.
00:23:11.000 | I think it's important for teens when they're going into an interview or just even going into pick up or drop off an application
00:23:21.000 | that they are dressed appropriately, dressed business casual.
00:23:24.000 | First impressions matter so much and that they are just persistent in pursuit of getting a job.
00:23:33.000 | They don't just go in and drop off an application but they go in, ask to meet the manager, introduce themselves,
00:23:41.000 | make that good first impression and then keep coming back.
00:23:44.000 | Obviously, don't be annoying about it but be persistent and let them know that,
00:23:50.000 | "Hey, I'm here. I want this job and I am the best person for you to hire."
00:23:57.000 | You're just about to graduate from a homeschool environment. At this stage in your perspective with your educational career,
00:24:06.000 | how would you talk about your experiences with being educated at home versus being educated in a government school or a private school?
00:24:15.000 | I really don't know a lot about real school or whatever you want to call it just because I've been homeschooled all of my life.
00:24:28.000 | It's been a great experience for me. Both me and my brother have always been homeschooled.
00:24:33.000 | I don't think that it's necessarily the best choice for everyone but it definitely has been for my family.
00:24:40.000 | It's allowed me to do other things, pursue other things that I'm interested in like this site.
00:24:47.000 | I wouldn't have had the opportunities that I've had if I was in school all day. I'm really grateful for that.
00:24:56.000 | How do you actually structure your educational track?
00:25:01.000 | Are you going through a formalized curriculum, making it up as you go? How does your family handle that?
00:25:06.000 | It's some of both really. My mom uses different curriculums.
00:25:12.000 | A lot of it is just she sees something that reads an article online that is interesting about something that's happening in our world.
00:25:22.000 | We'll sit down and have a really great discussion about it and that's interesting to both of us.
00:25:27.000 | Then I can consider that part of my school because I just learned something.
00:25:32.000 | It definitely really varies. I've also been using Florida Virtual School this year just for one class and using a mixture of a bunch of different curriculums.
00:25:45.000 | The Florida Virtual School, that's where a state-sponsored teacher is teaching all the classes online and it's officially run through the state school system.
00:26:00.000 | You can just pick one class or do you have to do all the classes? How does that work?
00:26:04.000 | No, you can just pick one. Since this is my first time using it, I don't know a whole lot about it. I'm just doing one class right now.
00:26:14.000 | Have you thought about savings rates for teens? Do you talk to teens about what percentage of their income they should be saving versus spending? Things like that?
00:26:23.000 | Somewhat, maybe not exactly what percent, but definitely have been really trying to impress that when you get any amount of money, some of it should go to your savings.
00:26:38.000 | It doesn't have to be a lot or all of it, but some of it should.
00:26:43.000 | If you're saving for retirement, if you start now, even if you only put in $5 a week or $4 a week, that's better than nothing.
00:26:54.000 | By the time you retire, that's going to be a pretty substantial amount of money.
00:26:58.000 | It really is. When you look at the charts, I love to teach junior achievement and I like to teach high school juniors and high school seniors.
00:27:09.000 | To me, that's probably my favorite age group. The things that you can do as a young person, if you get a vision of what you're doing, are really amazing.
00:27:21.000 | The things that you can accomplish when you have time on your side, it really is.
00:27:28.000 | The other thing is that if you can avoid some of the big mistakes, you have an incredible opportunity to speak into young lives.
00:27:36.000 | A lot of finance is about avoiding the big mistakes. If you can just avoid some of the big mistakes, that can put you so much farther ahead.
00:27:44.000 | Then, if you master the topic of how time is your best friend when growing money, and if you make a few simple decisions in the early years, it can set you up for a lifetime of abundance.
00:28:02.000 | There are so many moving parts at a young age that are about finance, but not necessarily related to the actual flow of the dollar bills.
00:28:14.000 | I'll tell you one story, and then I'm interested in stories that you've seen of people who've done amazing things.
00:28:23.000 | I taught at a junior achievement class here a few years ago, and there was a young man in the class. I'm not a very good junior achievement teacher because I like to use the curriculum, and then I like to completely ignore it and try to connect with what I think.
00:28:39.000 | I just watch as I'm in the class, and I try to really connect with the students and understand what they're interested in.
00:28:49.000 | We went through, and I was teaching goal setting in one of the classes. We used an example of, and I said, "Who has a goal?"
00:28:59.000 | There was a young man in the class, and I picked on him somehow. He said, "Yeah, I got a goal." I said, "What kind of goal do you have?"
00:29:07.000 | He said, "I like cars. I'd like to have a Shelby Cobra Mustang, classic 1967 blue Shelby Cobra Mustang with white racing stripes down the top."
00:29:16.000 | I said, "Man, that is awesome. What a cool car." I said, "Let's figure out how you could do it." I said, "Do you have one?" He said, "No, I don't."
00:29:24.000 | "How much does one cost?" We figured out the cost, and I'll make the story briefer.
00:29:30.000 | The point was, we went through the goal setting, and it came out that he didn't have one, and he knew how much they cost, but he didn't have any money.
00:29:38.000 | I used that as an example of saying, "Here's how we can accomplish one." I asked him, "Are you working?"
00:29:43.000 | He said, "Yeah, I work part-time. I work part-time at the local fast food place in the mall, at the mall food court."
00:29:50.000 | I said, "You're not going to afford a Shelby Cobra Mustang on a part-time fast food wage at the mall. It's going to take you way too many years, and when you add living costs on, it's not going to be doable."
00:30:03.000 | I said, "The number one thing that you need to do is we need to figure out a way to earn more money."
00:30:08.000 | We went through the process, and I said, "Where are you with regard to your earning ability? What skills do you have? What's your career plan?"
00:30:14.000 | I said, "Have you taken the SATs?" He said, "I can't remember if he had or hadn't at that point. I think he had not."
00:30:20.000 | We worked out a plan from where he was today to the Shelby Cobra Mustang, but what he needed to do was he needed to build his earning income to be able to earn enough money to save for that Shelby Cobra Mustang.
00:30:36.000 | The path was the very next step that he could take. We backed it up to the very next step was to dedicate three hours each Saturday morning to studying for the SATs.
00:30:47.000 | The keys for him were going to be getting a great score on the SATs.
00:30:52.000 | Getting the great score on the SATs would get him entrance into whatever university environment he wanted to go to, and most importantly, it would help his financial aid scores.
00:31:03.000 | Then, with building those financial aid scores, that would give him the professional income that he needed to fund the Shelby Cobra Mustang.
00:31:10.000 | It was just one class. Two years later, a year and a half later, I get an email from the young man.
00:31:17.000 | Just his name pops up, and he says, "Joshua, you probably don't remember who I am." I still have the email saved.
00:31:23.000 | He says, "Joshua, you probably don't remember who I am, but I'm the guy who was in your junior achievement class. In that class, I was the one we talked about my goal of owning a Shelby Mustang."
00:31:37.000 | He said, "Prior to that class, I didn't plan to go to college. I wasn't bothering with it. I wasn't even thinking about it. I didn't plan to go to college. It really wasn't a big deal to me."
00:31:50.000 | He said, "I really valued the process that you laid out for goal achievement."
00:31:56.000 | He said, "Since that time, I took your advice. I signed up for an SAT prep class. I studied really hard. I was in the 1400s on my SAT.
00:32:10.000 | I've gotten two full-ride scholarship offers to two different universities. I think one was in Alabama, one was in Florida, one of the Florida universities.
00:32:19.000 | I have my pick between a full-ride at either of these universities. This weekend, I'm going up to visit both of them to make my final choice.
00:32:28.000 | I'm planning to study finance and get a finance degree based upon the impact."
00:32:35.000 | I just thought, "Wow, how amazing is it that you can chart out these two very different life courses at such a young age, at 16, 17 years old,
00:32:46.000 | and a simple decision and a simple skill of learning how to set goals and learning how to create a path that might work?"
00:32:55.000 | We never have any guarantees with goal setting, but we create the best path that we can to say, "This path might work."
00:33:01.000 | What a huge difference in life trajectory from part-time fast food employment at the mall food court to full-ride to college to study finance and get a finance degree.
00:33:14.000 | For a young person, the change can be done like that. It just doesn't take that much to set aside three months of Saturday morning SAT classes and studying, and the whole trajectory of your life is adjusted.
00:33:28.000 | That is an incredible story. That is a perfect example of a teen who maybe didn't know about the coals, didn't know about setting goals, didn't know much about finance or how to budget for his Mustang,
00:33:49.000 | but then once educated, was able to make the correct choice. This is where I feel that this is the problem in our society is that nobody is stepping up to teach children and teens about personal finance or about how to set goals.
00:34:08.000 | We wonder why, as young adults, they have so much trouble with their first credit card and their first checking account and buying whatever they want.
00:34:21.000 | It really comes back to parents and how it's their responsibility to educate us on these issues so that we can just make those, like you said, just those instant decisions like that that are easier for us to make now than later when we've made all the mistakes and had to learn the hard way.
00:34:45.000 | I have a real burden to try to help young people because we really do a disservice in our society. We don't teach people how to accomplish what they want to accomplish.
00:34:58.000 | I don't care what it is that somebody wants to accomplish. At least you should have the tools no matter what it is, whether it's buy a Shelby Mustang or make a million dollars a year or go and help people get clean water throughout the world.
00:35:14.000 | We need a path to do it and that's one of the most important things that I hope you can continue to teach and learn. Learn and teach is the path from here to there and then give people the confidence to follow it and to pursue it.
00:35:30.000 | Are you aware of any personal finance classes or resources that are targeted towards the teen community that you've looked at, that you've heard about, that are good, that are useful?
00:35:43.000 | I know that Dave Ramsey, his daughter does classes and outreach specifically to teens and I think she has a book too.
00:35:57.000 | Do you know anything about the course? I've heard of it. I haven't been through it or seen what the material is. Have you gone through it or seen what the material is?
00:36:04.000 | No, I haven't.
00:36:06.000 | It's on my research list. At some point I'd love to create some resources for people. I haven't made the bandwidth to get it done yet but I was just curious to pick your brain and see if there were resources that would be useful for students.
00:36:23.000 | Well, Eva, I think it's awesome what you're doing and I hope that you can keep it up.
00:36:30.000 | I'd encourage you, as a friend, use the blog as a format to guide your research. I'm sure you do this but you may have to change the domain name at some point.
00:36:42.000 | One of the things I wish I had started doing earlier in my life was using writing or speaking. For me, I'm a verbal learner and speaking is actually how I learn.
00:36:54.000 | But using that as a method of guiding your research so that as you face each of the new things that you are thinking about, then I hope that you can continue to help someone else. But that'll just set you up for an incredible growth yourself as you go through life's journey.
00:37:12.000 | Thank you.
00:37:13.000 | Anything else you'd like to share as we go?
00:37:15.000 | Yes, I would like to mention that I have a free e-book on my site. It's called "7 Days to Sensible Saving." It's just a little step through plan of how to earn some money.
00:37:29.000 | And then when you have that money, it's very, very basic budgeting skills maybe for a younger teen. But it's free on my site when you sign up for my email list.
00:37:39.000 | Right on the front page it says "Get Email Updates" and that'd be the great way. And so if any of the listeners have, either they're interested or if they have teens, that would be a great resource for them.
00:37:50.000 | So Eva, thanks so much for coming on. I really appreciate it.
00:37:53.000 | Thank you so much for having me.
00:37:54.000 | So you want to get a degree. Why? Let me tell you what society will tell you. It increases your chances of getting a job, provides you with an opportunity to be successful. Your life will be a lot less stressful. Education is the key.
00:38:11.000 | Now let me tell you what your parents will tell you. Make me proud. Increases your chances of getting a job, provides you with an opportunity to be successful. Your life will be a lot less stressful. Education is the key.
00:38:25.000 | Now let's look at the statistics. Steve Jobs, net worth 7 billion RIP. Richard Branson, net worth 4.2 billion. Oprah Winfrey, net worth 2.7 billion. Mark Zuckerberg, Henry Ford, Steven Spielberg, Bill Gates. Now here comes the coup de grace.
00:38:48.000 | Looking at these individuals, what's your conclusion? Neither of them in being successful ever graduated from a higher learning institution. Now some of you will protest like, you know money is only the medium by which one measures worldly success.
00:39:07.000 | And some of you will even have the nerve to say, I don't do it for the money. So what are you studying for? To work for a charity? Need more clarity? Let's look at the statistics. Jesus, Muhammad, peace be upon him, Socrates, Malcolm X, Mother Teresa, Spielberg, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali, Sean Carter, Michael, Jeffrey Jordan, Michael Joseph Jackson.
00:39:30.000 | Were either of these people unsuccessful or uneducated? All I'm saying is that if there was a family tree, hard work and education would be related. But school would probably be a distant cousin.
00:39:48.000 | As if education is the key, then school is the lock. Because it rarely ever develops your mind to the point where it can perceive red as green and continue to go when someone else says stop. Because as long as you follow the rules and pass the exams, you're cool.
00:40:05.000 | But are you aware that examiners have a checklist? And if your answer is something outside of the box, the automatic response is a cross. And then they claim that school expands your horizons and your visions. Well tell that to Malcolm X who dropped out of school and is well renowned for what he learned in a prison.
00:40:23.000 | Proverbs 17, 16. It does a fool no good to spend money on education. Why? Because he has no common sense. George Bush, need I say more? Education is about inspiring one's mind, not just filling their head.
00:40:43.000 | And take this from me because I'm an educated man myself who only came to this realisation after countless nights in the library with a can of Red Bull keeping me awake till dawn and another can in the morn.
00:40:54.000 | Falling asleep in between piles of books which probably equated to the same amount I had spent on my rent. Memorise equation, facts and dates right down to the letter. Half of which I'd never remember and half of which I'd forget straight after the exam and before the start of the next semester.
00:41:09.000 | Asking anyone if they had notes for the last lecture. I often found myself running to class just so I could find a spot on which I could rest my head and fall asleep without making a scene. Ironic, because that's the only time I ever spent in university chasing my dreams.
00:41:25.000 | And then after nights with a dead mind I'd then find myself in the queue of half awake student zombies waiting to hand in an assignment. Maybe that's why they called it a deadline. And then after three years of mental suppression and frustration, my proud mother didn't even turn up to my graduation.
00:41:47.000 | Now I'm not saying that school is evil and there's nothing to gain, but all I'm saying is understand your motives and reassess your aims. Because if you want a job working for someone else then help yourself. But then that would be a contradiction because you wouldn't really be helping yourself, you'd be helping somebody else. There's a saying which says, "If you don't build your dream, someone else will hire you to help build theirs."
00:42:11.000 | Redefine how you view education. Understand its true meaning. Education is not just about regurgitating facts from a book on someone else's opinion on a subject to pass an exam. Look at it. Picasso was educated in creating art. Shakespeare was educated in the art of all that was written. Colonel Harlan Sanders was educated in the art of creating Kentucky Fried Chicken.
00:42:35.000 | I once saw David Beckham take a free kick. I watched as the side of his Adidas sponsored boot hit the patent leather of the ball at an angle which caused it to travel towards the skies as though it was destined for the heavens. And then as it reached the peak of its momentum, as though it changed its mind, it switched directions.
00:42:55.000 | I watched as the goalkeeper froze. As though reciting to himself the laws of physics and as though his brain was negotiating with his eyes that it was indeed witnessing the spectacle of the leather swan that was swooping towards it and then reacting, but only a fraction of a millisecond too late.
00:43:13.000 | And before the net of the goal embraced the FIFA sponsored ball as though it was the prodigal son returning home and the country that I live in erupted into cheers, I looked at the play and thought, "Damn. Looking at David Beckham, there's more than one way in this world to be an educated man."
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