NGPF Podcast

Thanks to Fred Selinger, Personal Finance instructor at Berkeley's Haas School of Business for joining me recently on the NGPF podcast. Fred shares his story of how he went from a successful business career in corporate finance to taking on the challenge of building a personal finance program at one of America's flagship universities, the University of California at Berkeley. He describes the meteoric rise of the program: from the the first day of class when he didn't know if anyone would show up (thankfully about 20 students did!) to today where he is filling auditoriums with hundreds of students eager to learn these essential money skills. Listen carefully to Fred's Rules and you too will benefit from his wisdom. Enjoy!

After evaluating 11,000 high school course catalogs, NGPF researchers found that 1 in 6 high school students attend a high school with a personal finance requirement; the numbers are 1 in 12 in low-income communities.

Without the work of Grace Deng and her team, we would not know about this huge gap between the need for financial education and what is actually happening in high schools across America. She and a team of researchers spent the summer combing through thousands of high school websites in search of....financial education courses.  Their report "Who has access to financial education in America today?" has provided the community with the most comprehensive analysis of how financial education has found (or not found) its way into the high school curricula. From being embedded in economics, business, family and consumer science and math courses to being a standalone elective course to being a standalone required course, her team identified and categorized each course they found. She shares the meticulous process required to create such a groundbreaking report, some interesting findings and questions for future researchers to tackle.

How can we get more first-generation students to consider college when they don't have parental role models experienced in the process? Michael's non-profit organization has the answer by providing trained mentors to guide and encourage students so they can achieve their college dreams. Listen to Micheal's story on how he has built Strive for College from his dorm room at Washington University (St. Louis) to an organization serving tens of thousands of students. Enjoy the journey of this social entrepreneur!

 401(k) plans have gone from 0 to about $5 trillion in assets in just 35 years. They have become THE dominant way that people save for retirement today as pensions have become a thing of the past. Today on the NGPF Podcast, you will hear from the "Father of the 401(k), Ted Benna." You will hear about his "aha moment" that led to the birth of the 401(k), the challenges of getting employers and employees to sign up for the program in the early years and his opinion of 401(k) plans today. Enjoy!