NGPF Podcast

I had a great time talking with social entrepreneur, Ted Gonder, who co-founded Moneythink. Moneythink is a non-profit organization, based in Chicago, helping firstgen high school students navigate "to and through" college. Ted shares what he has learned since starting Moneythink out of a college dorm room at the University of Chicago and the mentoring influences that led him to pursue the "road less traveled." He discusses the thinking behind the new service delivery model for Moneythink and why the "college decision" is the most pivotal one for the students he serves. As a passionate advocate and keen observer of the financial education field, Ted has some great insights on how the industry can improve too. Enjoy!

I know you will enjoy my conversation with Allie Nault, Miss America's Outstanding Teen for 2016. From working at a 24 hour diner to grilling presidential candidates about our nation's debt, Allie has a level of composure and maturity well beyond her years. She uses her platform to advocate for financial literacy and she travels throughout the country talking to students, parents, and teachers about the importance of financial education. Listen to this podcast and you will learn about how she went from opening her first Certificate of Deposit when she was four, to investing in McDonald's at eight, to interning at the top-grossing hotel restaurant in the country this summer. She has an inspiring story to tell. Enjoy!

I recently served on a panel with USAA's Vikram Parekh at the Visa Financial Literacy Summit in Chicago. In my research for the panel, I discovered that Vikram has a really cool job at USAA, which is not your typical financial institution. Their customer base is drawn from military and their families and to say they are hyper-focused on their customers' financial wellbeing is probably an understatement. You will hear how Vikram uses principles of behavioral finance to get USAA's customers to save and invest more. You will enjoy hearing what he has learned from his "experiments," some of which you can apply to your own financial life too!

Today, you will hear from an amazing social entrepreneur, Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose.org. Ask any teacher about his organization and you will see their eyes light up and inevitably hear these words "I love DonorsChoose.org" Why? They have channeled hundreds of millions of dollars from citizen-philanthropists to support teacher projects in classrooms throughout the country. He was crowdfunding for public schools long before it became "a thing." Here are some examples of financial literacy projects currently up on their site. What has impressed me about Charles over the years has been his laser focus on impact (here is how his organization measures it), his management prowess at scaling DonorsChoose.org and how he has created a mission-driven organization enabling him to build an A+ team. If you haven't used DonorsChoose.org, you definitely should, and if you have used them, you will enjoy hearing the origin story while also getting some tips on how to make your next project a success. Thank you Charles!

I really enjoyed my recent conversation with Marla Blow who is not your typical credit card executive. She runs a start-up credit card company (FS Card, Inc.) focused on helping subprime customers get their "sea legs" to establish a positive credit history. In a sense, she has been preparing for this role for her entire career. You will hear about her odyssey from modeling losses in credit card portfolios during the Great Recession to signing on as an early team member at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and learn how these experiences inform her work today. Enjoy!

It was great to have Kiplinger editor Janet Bodnar on the podcast recently. As a newly minted college graduate, I recall leafing through a Kiplinger magazine (pre-internet) and benefitting from their practical, easy to understand financial advice. As an editor, columnist and author, Janet has an amazing depth of knowledge about personal finance. We focused our conversation on what we should be teaching young people about money as well as the importance of encouraging women to develop financial skills. You will get great advice about investing while learning about Janet's collecting habits which she gleefully displays on her home refrigerator. Enjoy!

I really enjoyed my recent conversation with Dave Mancl. I wanted to learn more about how actions at the state level can act as an accelerant to get financial education into more K-12 classrooms. Dave's state, Wisconsin, has been an early adopter in seeing the value of this education and creating a comprehensive and holistic approach to increasing access. In this podcast, Dave shares his work as director of the Wisconsin Office of Financial Literacy in the Department of Financial Institutions and the keys to his success in driving financial education efforts. You will also learn more about how to manage a "night crawler" business. Enjoy!

It was great to have NGPF Teacher Innovator Award winner Jesse Peterkin on the podcast recently. Jesse teaches at Ridgefield High School (Ridgefield, Connecticut). His project Create a Budget and Financial Plan uses celebrities and avatars as hooks to engage students to develop comprehensive financial plans for their "clients." Hear Jesse share the trials and tribulations of his first job (spoiler alert: his dishwashing skills were subpar and he was fired from his aunt's restaurant in Danbury) as well as his ideas on how to bring the subject of personal finance to life for his students. Enjoy!

If you love to learn about behavioral finance and how it can make you a better investor, then you will enjoy my recent conversation with Daniel Crosby. We delve into his early years and learn that Daniel grew up in a financially knowledgable family where his father referred to "debt" as that "d-word." Daniel sees the world of finance through multiple lenses, given his background as a psychologist, financial advisor and author. We will go into detail about his latest book, The Laws of Wealth: Psychology and the Secret to Investing Success, in which Daniel not only provides excellent advice but does so in an engaging way. I enjoyed it and hope you will too!

I had a great conversation recently with NGPF Teacher Innovator Award winner, Tara Kelley, a math teacher from Harwood Union High School in Duxbury, Vermont. Tara created a“Spring Break Project” (who doesn't want to plan a spring break vacation?) which allowed her students to explore the cost of using a credit card to pay for their Spring Break vacation. They learned through this activity the impact that changing their monthly credit card payments has on the total interest paid as well as the importance of paying off a credit card balance in full every month. Enjoy!