Since joining NGPF as director of educational outreach in August of 2019, Yanely Espinal has visited close to 100 high school classrooms. In these workshops, she inspires young people through her own personal story and shares the money lessons she learned through the "school of hard knocks." In this podcast, Yanely shares what she learned during these visits, including the money topics that mattered most to young people and the "hooks" she used to engage them. She also explains the creative process that goes into developing her weekly current events resource, FinCap Friday, which is now closing in on 300,000 students since its launch a year ago. Finally, Yanely describes new initiatives that she is most excited about this school year. Enjoy!

Details:

• 0:00~1:39 Introduction
• 1:39~4:14 Experience visiting schools 
• 4:14~8:13 Yanely’s personal story
• 8:13~11:54 Topics students are interested in
• 11:54~14:13 Memorable stories
• 14:13~18:43 Thoughts on the lack of personal finance classes offered
• 18:43~19:18 A word from NGPF
• 19:18~22:31 The gender gap and investing
• 22:31~24:43 Recommended books and resources
• 24:43~29:43 Beginning to invest
• 29:43~34:35 Behind the scenes: FinCap Friday
• 34:35~37:43 Upcoming initiatives 
• 37:43~39:01 Conclusion

Resources:

• Payback Challenge Essay Contest
• The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke
• The Simple Path to Wealth
• FinCap Fridays

Quotes:

• “The approach we have taken is to start with a personal story. A lot of the schools that we’ve visited in the year and a half have primarily been schools that are Title I funded or schools that our under-resourced so my story really resonates with them because I too had a similar experience and upbringing but I still was able to have success professionally and personally.”

• “With the FinCap Fridays, I’m passing on the baton. I had the chance to learn all of these things but I learned it the hard way by experiencing mistakes, reading books, and pushing myself to fix my mistakes. But the students get to learn it the fun way through doing engaging and fun activities by doing Kahoots and chatting about it before they hit the point in their life where they need to make actual money decisions.”

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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