NGPF Podcast

It was great to have Jill Thompson, an NGPF Fellow and teacher at Kelly Walsh High School (Casper, WY), on the podcast recently. She has a real passion for preparing her students for careers and shares the activities and projects she uses to educate and engage her students. She also discusses how she was able to transform personal finance from an elective course to a graduation requirement at her high school. Enjoy the conversation with an inspiring educator!

ACC rivalries aside (I'm a UVA grad), I enjoyed my conversation with Josh Harris, personal finance lecturer at Clemson University. In our conversation, you will learn how Josh's interests evolved from studying religion, his undergraduate major, to becoming a leading advocate for financial literacy at Clemson. His path provides another useful reminder that careers often don't follow a straight line. Josh describes the process of developing and delivering a new online personal finance course. He discusses his strategies to motivate, monitor and assess the progress of his students. He also delves into the money mindset of a college student including their top concerns and blind spots. Enjoy!

Thanks to Jim Rowley for taking the time to discuss investing on the NGPF podcast. As a senior investment analyst at Vanguard, Jim and his team provide thought leadership on index investing and ETFs. His wealth of experience at Vanguard and in the broader investment management business provides him with a unique perspective to share his insights on: . What an index fund is and why they are increasing in popularity . The differences between active and passive investing . Why investment fees should matter to investors . How Vanguard's ownership structure is different from other investment management firms . What advice he gives to novice investors For educators looking to increase their content knowledge about investing, this podcast will be time extremely well spent (and as an added bonus, I bet it will help your own portfolio too)! Enjoy!

With hundreds of blog posts, articles and media mentions under her belt, Kristin Wong has her finger on the pulse of personal finance. We cover a lot of ground in this conversation on the NGPF podcast but what I found most interesting is Kristin's recent revelations about money that have led to a dramatic shift in her money mindset. You will also learn how she comes up with material for her writing, where her interest in personal finance derives from and her favorite apps for managing her finances. You also will enjoy her favorite life hacks that you can apply to your financial lives. Enjoy!

Thank you to Kathleen Brennan of Mount Saint Mary Academy (Watchung, NJ) for participating in the NGPF Podcast. Kathleen has won multiple teaching awards (she was the 2016 Outstanding Educator of the Year and 2013 Sloan Foundation Award winner to name must two) and loves using case studies in her classroom. Our conversation touches on the her favorite case studies (see Show Notes below), how she prepares for a case study discussion and the student engagement and learning she witnesses in her classroom. Enjoy!

I have to be candid and say that I get a little ticked off when I read about how personal finance education doesn't work (see here and here and here). Here are just a few of the quotes that I came across questioning its value: . So when it comes to education, I start rolling my eyes when people suggest education is the magic bullet. Let’s get real, please. As heretical as it is to say in our society, “education” is not the panacea for personal finance. . There is almost no evidence that personal finance education works. . Financial education is simply not working. So, given my contrarian nature and based on my experience in the classroom, I went in search of research that showed that finance education works. Long story short, Brian Page (thanks Brian!) connected me to Dr. Carly Urban at Montana State University and this conversation happened. Dr. Urban shares her recent research which demonstrates that financial education DOES have an impact. She discusses what she found in her research and the impact financial education had in three states that currently have mandates. She also highlights shortcomings of earlier research on the topic and the big questions that she hopes to answer in the future. Enjoy!

My conversation with Elizabeth Justema, a personal finance teacher at Summit High School in Bend, Oregon was timed to coincide with schools opening across the country post-Labor Day. Elizabeth courageously raised her hand when the Social Studies department created a very popular personal finance elective (over 250 students and counting) for this fall. With a previous career in international marketing at Microsoft, Elizabeth has a wealth of experience to share with her students. As for her interest and knowledge of personal finance, she has her entrepreneurial parents to thank for that. Our conversation focused on a few topics that educators will benefit from: . The process Elizabeth went through this summer before landing on a primary curriculum, . How she decided what topics to teach in her semester-long course, . How she developed her first unit ("Intro to Personal Finance") to have students identify their money beliefs and values. Enjoy!

Thanks to Colleen Poynton and Alex Davidov of Core Innovation Capital for recently appearing on the NGPF podcast. As venture capitalists, Colleen and Alex invest in promising early-stage companies in the financial services sector. As such, they have a front row seat to the innovative companies disrupting the status quo and changing the way we pay, we borrow and we invest (to name just a few). Colleen and Alex also provided insights into the changing nature of work (aka "the gig economy) and what young people need to do to thrive in this new environment. Enjoy!

Thanks to Jason Vitug, founder of Phroogal and author of recently released You Only Live Once: The Roadmap to Financial Wellness and a Purposeful Life, for joining me on the NGPF podcast. Jason shares his personal story of how he went from a senior executive role in financial services to devoting his time and talents to improving financial literacy. While many focus on the mechanics of how to be financially capable, Jason takes a more philosophical approach. He highlights the importance of creating a long-term vision for one's life as a starting point to setting any financial goals. Jason also shares some entertaining stories of what he has learned on his "road trips" over the past two summers. Enjoy! For show notes: http://nextgenpersonalfinance.org/ngpf-podcast-tim-talks-author-financial-literacy-evangelist-jason-vitug/

Kristina Ellis stopped by the NGPF podcast to share the insights from her new book, How to Graduate Debt Free. In our conversation, Kristina shares the sobering "money talk" she had with her mother when she was a freshman in high school and how that spurred her into action to find ways to pay for college. She answers the most common questions that college bound students and their parents have, including: . What is the best way to research scholarships? . When is the right time to be thinking about scholarships? . How can I best package myself to increase my odds of getting a scholarship? . What are the factors that I should consider when selecting a college to ensure that I get a return on my investment? Enjoy!