Advocating for Financially Savvy Future Generations

Have you ever been struck by a story that changed the way you view finances? The National Financial Educators Council's Vince Shorb shares his journey and the profound influence figures like Sister Maria had on his advocacy for financial wellness. Underscoring the importance of early savings and compound interest, Vince guides us through the intricacies of financial literacy. It is through his anecdotes that we are able to see how mentorship impacts individual lives and, in turn, inspires societal development.

Our conversation with Vince examines the stagnant state of financial education in our schools. Our classrooms cling to outdated curricula despite advances in technology and a changing world. As a result of institutional inertia and a system that is resistant to change, we investigate the challenges that prevent our educational content from evolving. For the youth of tomorrow, financial literacy, career education, and entrepreneurship are key pillars of education reform.

Finally, we talk about our efforts with 'United for Financial Literacy' to create a financially literate future. Our goal is monumental: equipping the next generation with financial literacy tools. In addition to provoking thought, Vince leaves us with practical resources and ideas for fostering financial literacy. This episode is an essential listen for anyone who is passionate about preparing our youth for the world.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:00

My guest today is Vince Shoreb. He's one of the late country's leading advocates for promoting financial wellness and a thought leader in teaching and scaling financial education programming. After spending 15 years in financial services, working one-on-one with more than 20,000 people, he founded the National Financial Educators Council, an organization dedicated to combating financial illiteracy epidemic. He is a current CEO of the NFEC and IACET, a credit company and a certified B Corporation. Vince's mission is to create a world where people are informed to make qualified financial decisions and confidently take effective financial action that best helps them meet their basic human needs, while moving toward fulfilling their personal, family and global community goals. He has led the NFEC in the development of 2,500 financial education programs and more than 80 financial literacy assets and financial education standards that guide the industry. His focus is on mobilizing and developing of community champions and empowering them with the resources, knowledge and processes they need to help their community citizens work toward financial self-sufficiency and security. You are welcome, vince, to the podcast. Well, it's so good to have Vince on the show today, dave.

Speaker 2: 2:28

Good, how about you, keith?

Speaker 1: 2:30

I'm doing great Good to talk to you.

Speaker 2: 2:32

Likewise, likewise.

Speaker 1: 2:34

I'd love to ask my guest this question what is the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Speaker 2: 2:39

I think the best piece really is leaving the world a better place when you came in. Fundamentally, it's the core of the business, I think, not even thinking about the end of life, even if you're staying at a place, leaving it better than when you arrived. I think it just shows an amount of respect for the people, for the community, and keeps me motivated to keep trying to enhance what I'm doing in the financial, education, financial wellness space, which is empowering people, because I know if I can empower people financially, then they can take that same motive that I have to heart and maybe leave their community the better place as well.

Speaker 1: 3:17

That's a great goal because we have so many people who are in spaces or locked in situations. I served congregations in Detroit and inner city, st Louis and Milwaukee. The one thing I discovered in working in those communities was there just wasn't the people pouring into them just kind of telling you how do you do the simple things to make sure that you make the most of your dollars, that you're always putting money aside, that you're planning for a rainy day, that you're investing when you can, just the small things. Like I said, if you did $25 a month when you were younger, by now you'd have a million dollars or so Just that idea of teaching people how to make the best use of the gifts that God has given them.

Speaker 2: 4:02

I think, a little bit of hope, like the teaching them compound interest. A lot of people don't feel like they can ever break the cycle of poverty Just by illustrating hey, here's what compounding interest can do. A lot of people assume, hey, you need to start with hundreds of thousands of dollars or be multi generations of wealth passed down. The reality is high school is a great equalizer. The ability to focus on a small amount of savings when you're young, I think, is a great thing for giving people hope for the future. That's awesome. One of the lessons we're trying to share with you is hey, there's potential, there's opportunity. Let's get you focus on finding that career that's important to you, avoiding a lot of that college debt, having a plan and the hope behind that plan because if you don't have hope behind a plan, you're not going to accomplish that. But if there's hope and details, I think people are much better suited to reach that in line.

Speaker 1: 4:59

Exactly. I love to ask people like yourself who've achieved a certain level of success to take a step back and think about the people in your life who have come alongside you along the way. This is your chance to give those people, if you haven't, a shout out, to just say thank you for being there, for inspiring me, for being a mentor for me. Who are some of those people in your life that you can think of?

Speaker 2: 5:22

You know I was very blessed having a great family. Great role models taught me well good, valuable lessons, good morals. I think I grew up in a great place there. From my parents to my grandparents, I had some great business mentors Brenda Bishard being one really helped me shape the business. But I had some unexpected heroes in my life as well where they took a stand for me at times.

Speaker 2: 5:46

That was important times in my life where I was almost in trouble. So one was Sister Maria. Back in the sixth grade she stood up for me. She risked her nonehood, she risked her job at the school I went to because I said some things that were one of my friends got hurt and this Monsignor was covering things up and I said some things publicly to him. He was trying to get me out and she risked everything for me in that moment and it meant a lot and it's just one of those things.

Speaker 2: 6:17

Like you know this person, she trained her whole life to be a nun. She went to all the schooling and she stood up when that one moment came. That was just very impressive and I always look back at that time and I'm like, wow, she took that risk for me and I think nowadays I always look up to people that are taking those risks, making those stands, you know, trying to make the world a better place, whether it's something huge or standing up for that single person. I think that gave me a lot of hope and it helped to build more of a spirit of protecting the those that need it. But also, hey, how can I make a bigger difference in the broader world as well?

Speaker 1: 6:54

I think somebody once that I remember is this quote from somewhere courage is contagious and it's interesting to see that when you see people who are willing to put their life on the line or their career on the line for somebody, it helps you also when you get the opportunity to also be courageous, to step into somebody else's life and the gap when somebody needs you.

Speaker 2: 7:12

Good point. I would agree there, and I think those types of role models out there in society are just great for the younger generation and give them some somebody to follow and mimic and hopefully replicate those moments in life. So when their time is called to be courageous, they're ready.

Speaker 1: 7:31

Right. So I would love to get into your personal financial journey because this is kind of what you do to help teach people that. But you know it's helpful to know kind of how you got there so that you know we what lessons did you learn also along the way?

Speaker 2: 7:46

Yeah, you know, I started out very interested in money. Again, I had great role models as far as I grew up in a very middle class area, but great role models as far as that. So I was always interested in business, always interested in entrepreneurship and investing. And I started young studying instead of paying attention to classes reading books on real estate, reading books on investing, and I bought some real estate at a young age, in my teenage years. I had some early success and I really loved that period because I had people asking me about what I did, how to do it, and I love to spend time working on their budgets and going through all those things with them. Then I made some.

Speaker 2: 8:28

I would look back and say dumb mistakes. Right, I've got a lot of credit cards, but I wasn't making dumb purchase decisions. I was instead making dumb investment decisions because I took out loans on the credit cards and made these riskier investments which I would not advise anybody to do. But I did and it cost me right, took me from a more secure position to really struggling. Hey, am I car going to break down? Am I going to have a roof over my head? Am I going to be able to have enough gas to get to and from where I need to. So I lived a few years struggle and I think those were very formidable years for me and I saw the impact it made not only on my financial life but my relationships, my friendships and things of that nature as well. That really shaped me to really want to be in the financial industry and the goal really was to help people right, and I got into various roles in financial services.

Speaker 2: 9:25

My last stint was in the mortgage side of things last, I think, five, seven years and what I found is I was doing more to put band-aids on people so I'd help somebody lower their payments, consolidate their debt, saving them thousands of dollars a month, and they were in good shape. I was really excited for them. They leave everybody be super happy and then five or six months later they would say, hey, I'm back in debt, I have 50 grand I need to roll back in. I'm like we just worked this out and you were in great shape, and so that really spawned the interest on hey, how do I help people before they're getting into these situations so we can proactively help them?

Speaker 2: 10:06

And a lot of it came down to what we talked about at the beginning, which is the empowerment piece. How can I empower somebody with the knowledge and motivation and hope for the future so they make better decisions in alignment with their longer term goals? And that led me to found the National Financial Educators Council back in 2006. We're going on what is it? 18 years now? So that's what led me to this point and really I just want to see people where they're self-sufficient and able to contribute back to the community. That would be success to me and that's what we're really striving for here.

Speaker 1: 10:42

You just gave an interesting scenario and I'm sure it's not unique to people. What are some of the common mistakes that people make with money? I remember when I was younger the new thing on the block was the rent to own market. You can get this wonderful TV for just these low, low rates of $20 a month and you sign up for 60 months of paying for this TV and then you look back, if you actually studied, that you've just spent three times more than a TV would have cost if you just put the money aside and put it in the bank and get compound interest and bought the thing for cash. So what are some big mistakes that you've noticed that people keep falling into because they're just not aware of the financial situations that are out there for them?

Speaker 2: 11:29

Yeah, I'd say some of the biggest. I look at people spending on housing, on cars. Those are some of the biggest areas that people are overspending and it takes up a large percentage of income. Everybody has to have a fancy car these days, it seems like. And the other thing I see a lot of is people getting into student loan debt early.

Speaker 2: 11:50

People get into credit card debt early and I feel, hey, when you're getting into debt when you're younger, it puts off you being able to save, it puts off you being able to invest, it puts off the ability to you to benefit from compounding interest. And a lot of people they're in their mid 30s, early 40s, late 50s, right before they're out of position where they can do so, and that really limits their ability to grow their money through compound interest and other vehicles. But if they could, I always tell people, hey, and you can live how you want, but just make sure you have designed the lifestyle plan you want. So I have friends that are big spenders. They don't care about the future, that's how they like to live and they've made that decision, which is fine, right, that's fine for them, that's their lifestyle. But at the same time I'm like, hey, be in a position where nobody has to take care of you. Now you're encroaching on other people's lives, right? So if you want to be a big spender, make sure you have enough to take care of yourself For those people that are just normal everyday people.

Speaker 2: 13:00

I think always making sure you have that base level foundation so you know your needs are met. This way, you could be a contributor in times of challenges like we saw in COVID, right? What happened? As soon as COVID hit, everybody went to the store. Everybody's buying all this stuff. Well, I think part of money and financial plans make sure you're in a position to help people during those times. So really, the biggest challenges are the largest expenses people not laying that big foundation and getting into debt early. I'd say those would be the top challenges I see out there and they're very common, and we see that in the data out there, where the majority of people 70% to 75% state that stress from money is their largest item that they're concerned with, compared to any other stress. Its financial stress is leading them and it's causing damage personally, emotionally and in their relationships.

Speaker 1: 13:58

I've had a couple of financial people on my podcast before, but I'm kind of curious because everybody has a different approach, different things that brought them into the industry. What makes you different from, maybe, some of the other people in your field?

Speaker 2: 14:12

Yeah, our organization. We're the only accredited financial education organization that I'm aware of and I've been looking for quite a while. That's a long process and we're teaching personal finance in alignment with research based education principles. So I think that's the big differentiator from the company. Also, our model is different, so we are training other educators, counselors and coaches to bring this into their local community.

Speaker 2: 14:42

I don't feel there's a one size fits all financial education. If I'm down here in Dallas, Texas, there's certain needs, certain socioeconomic markets and certain challenges they're facing here, compared to where I was from before honey to beach California completely different, Right? So I think it's. You know, the importance of making sure the education you're delivering is in alignment with the person's socioeconomic status, their goals, their life stages. I think is critical and that's why we're in that.

Speaker 2: 16:10

We've trained over 6000 educators and coaches all across the country, every state, 70 countries, to bring local programming there, because they know the needs of the groups that are in, the needs of the groups they're serving and they can do so in a way that connects with them, it aligns with them. So there's no, you know exact, you know financial literacy, one on one course. That's a holy grail. That that you do know it's listening to who you're teaching, understanding where they're at, where they want to be, what are their near term challenges they're facing, what are their long term goals, and then pulling the lessons material and education methodologies to best meet their needs. And I think that's our difference is really more taking that consultative approach to serving people, as opposed to hey, we have this course that fits everybody Absolutely not. It's more targeted to meet them in their particular situation.

Speaker 1: 17:04

I'm going to a little bit tell my age a little bit here, but back in the early 80s we didn't have this in school and I think it would have made a huge difference in so many of my classmates life, my own personal life, if there was something in our public school system that taught you how to personally deal with your finances. So why is it not? Or maybe I'm wrong, maybe it is taught more in public schools. What's your? What you've been finding about that?

Speaker 2: 17:31

Yeah, it's sad I'm actually doing a training, comparing a report card from 2023 on our youth advisory board Derek with my report card from 1991. You shared your age, all kind of share. My age of 1991 report a 32 years difference. I did a line by line comparison of the classes he took versus the classes I took Now. He was smarter than me. He took some more advanced classes that were you know the more advanced math and so forth, but the same exact coursework was offered that he took, as me English one, two and three. They covered the same things Writing, research first, two years, and it was American literature and British literature. Right, who needs that? Right, if you're a poet, what important. He took the same exact biology, chemistry, science classes. He took PE. He took a foreign language, right, he took the exact same coursework I did. And we actually pulled up report cards for the last 100 years, 1920, 100 years same similar subject. Back then they had home act, they had some religion classes and some variants, but the same math, english, science, social studies same coursework. And when we go back to when they brought this over, the American school systems based on the Prussian model, which use it to train army and military to be obedient and follow orders and obey bells and so forth. And then horseman brought this over and had backing from the Rockefeller. So it was more business training for their business. They want to train workers to be obedient and so forth. So that same model applies today.

Speaker 2: 19:05

Now, I would think that the last 32 years technologies changed a lot. Back in 1991 was the first website, in fact. Nowadays we have AI, we have driverless cars, we have just technologies exploded. In my phone here I have the computing power of a room, 1000 pounds in my hand. You might remember Thomas Guy. Do you remember Beepers? The kids today don't understand that. Yet they're taking the same subjects that I took 32 years ago and it blows me away. So you know, the conspiracy side of me says, hey, they're doing something to keep people in that working class. They never give exposure to the career planning that. The other you know where the future is. The other side of me just says, hey, you know, people, government institutions are slow to change. They don't make change.

Speaker 2: 19:56

Now there's some states adopting financial literacy bills. About half the states have them. But the states that even do, it's minimal. They don't. They don't. They fail to meet even minimal education standards.

Speaker 2: 20:09

So if I took math, I would have to have a qualified teacher, funding, I would need to be a standalone class. There'd be rigor, there'd be scaffolded lessons that would help me develop and grow with financial literacy. It's not that it's like, okay, he will teach it for 10 hours. Imagine trying to learn Spanish after 10 hours or whatever form language or algebra after 10 hours. It's not possible.

Speaker 2: 20:29

So I think it's really a cover for their failure to change and adapt, you know, subject reform that would benefit the working class of Americans, a ivory tower education system that still focus on these, these, these topics that nobody uses. Right, less than 10% of people use anything above algebra, the very basic level of algebra. Most people don't use anything with science. Now, maybe I love discovery channel, I love what learning, but it's not needed today. And I think if we implemented financial literacy, career education, entrepreneurship, as well as some other core life skills, I can go a very long way in helping these youth, lowering the dropout rate, because the subjects like algebrates the leading cause of dropouts, which is, you know, one of the most detrimental things somebody could do in their life.

Speaker 2: 21:20

And I think if we can adopt more practical topics. So even when I was in school, I was in the back of class reading my investment books, right. And the kids today I talked to they're like I have no need for this, I'll never use it. They understand, they're smart and just making it more relevant to them, I think we can empower a nation. We can change the how people are living and I think that would be the biggest change and that's really what we're pushing for. This this, this year and continuing is subject reform within our high schools and even early college years as well.

Speaker 1: 21:54

One thing you said I also kind of remember I didn't take economics until college and I loved economics, but I never got exposed to that. In high school it was a fun subject. I understand economics. I think one of our problems in America is we don't understand the basic economics of how it even works. So we keep. Our nation is kind of modeling what America is doing. We're deep in debt. We just keep borrowing more money, borrowing more money, not paying it off. We're not investing in the future. We're just like you're talking about your friend, I'm just going to spend it out now because it's not going to be my problem, it'll be my grandkids problem. And so if more people, I think, understood how money worked and how investing worked and how to value financial freedom and personal finance, I think we as a nation would probably understand better than how dire the situation we're in right now is.

Speaker 2: 22:51

Very true, I think so, and I mean really it's not rocket science. Personal finance is easier than most topics in high school. We need income coming in right. That's a focus. We need to control our expenses and the ultimate goal is just being able to save on a regular basis so we can put that to you. So there's really the main goal is being able to save on a regular basis. Spent expenses, income are the two pieces.

Speaker 2: 23:16

So I think a lot of the industry tries to make it so complex. It scares people off, but the reality is, for the average person, that's what we need to focus on. How can we get you an income and improve your skills so you can earn more? How can we help you reduce your expenses or at least live within your range there? And then how can we establish a habit of saving on a monthly basis so you can put that to work? And I think that demystified would inspire a lot of people to take action. But instead they get caught up with credit. All this stuff, it all plays a role, but if we can just focus them on, hey, this is the basic framework and these little things like credit plays in there can help lower your expenses with a better credit because you have a lower interest rate. So we can build off that framework to really help people get that big picture concept, demystify that and again adding in that hope so that they actually want to take action and feel confident that they can achieve some success financially.

Speaker 1: 24:19

I love that. So if someone's listening to this podcast and are going, he makes a lot of sense. I would love to get this in my local school. What are some steps that you can help? Maybe parents go? I want my kids taught this. What steps should they be taking?

Speaker 2: 24:35

Yeah, there's a few things you can do. Looking with schools, it can be challenging because there's levels of red tape and processes and procedures that can be frustrating for some. I always like to go through the path of finding somebody within that system that's as passionate as you are. So, finding that person that really feels and values financial education and there's a lot of them. We have teachers coming out of pocket to invest in our materials and training because they want to bring it there. They're coming out of pocket. So there are those people, there's those principles, there's those educators that have that passion, they want to bring this in, they know the importance of it. So, finding that advocate within the system and that will help you navigate it without your kind of make a lot of calls bouncing around Everybody's sending you different directions, but when you have the advocate they can direct you. So that'd be step one. And then you know bringing in.

Speaker 2: 25:32

I think board meetings are always a great place to present. If you're comfortable, presenting Board meetings are always a great way to raise awareness for that and gender, other support, building a local, other parents, that that share your beliefs and being able to present. Hey, this isn't just me, this is the belief of this parent Partner with PTA's, pto's, I think, is always a great objective as well. So really finding that nucleus of relationships that you can then leverage to implement policy change and it does take a lot of effort to do so, but that's one way. The other way is to instead, just as you're waiting for policy change take place, to lead programming yourself or to help the school fund their, their, you know, the teacher, whatever fund a financial literacy program.

Speaker 2: 26:25

Again, what we do is we help different parties. It could be a parent, it could be a teacher, it could be a financial advisor, it could be a nonprofit, faith-based organization. We provide them everything that they need to build and scale a program. So, as you're going for that policy change, if you feel called to actually implement a program or do something in the meantime, we can definitely help you there as well. And we have resources for you letters for school boards, letters for you know, influencers in your, in your school, to help implement that policy change, and we want to be that support system for you, so you don't have to create these letters and so forth. So feel free to reach out if you do need that type of support.

Speaker 1: 27:09

So the person inside of me is going okay, this sounds great. What does it cost? So someone who's listening going I'd love to do this. Is it cost prohibitive for my group? So kind of let us know, kind of, what your tears of cost is or what the overall program would cost to run this in a school system.

Speaker 2: 27:26

Yeah, we have a lot of free curriculum online as well. So, you know, moving out on your own for kids I think that's one of my favorite ones for teenagers, because we're not teaching them financial, living, financial literacy, we're teaching them how to move out on their own, gain financial independence. You know, do those things. I think that's a fun one to do. So that's free. We have a lot of other material free. All of our standards for schools and policy for framework for schools is free. All that is available on our website, financialeducatorscouncilorg. Now we have a training and certification for educators and coaches that starts at $297. So for some that may be cost prohibitive, for others not. It's $297 for the certified financial education structure training which really teaches people the content that they'll be sharing how to teach the education methodologies, how to manage a class or really how to run a program, and so you know, our goal is to grow with people.

Speaker 2: 28:27

So, hey, so a lot of people start with the free material. Hey, I'm doing this program, I'm seeing some success. Now I want to improve myself professionally. Okay, now I can go through this training, earn my credentials. Oh, maybe now I want to start a business around that, or a brand or a special programming. You know around that, so now I can add those pieces. You know where it's branded to them and so forth.

Speaker 2: 28:50

So we have different levels but we definitely pride ourselves on being able to grow with people. Our goal is to meet them where they're at and nurture that program so they're seeing success, they're serving people and with that success comes the ability to to fund programs. So we help with the funding aspects as well, so they're not having to come out of pocket. Instead they're just trading money that they've earned, you know, for upgrades on, maybe enhancements, like they want to add their logos, or they want to offer different programs, or maybe they want to serve different ages. So that's our mission as an organization. As opposed to making a very cost prohibitive, we want to grow with them.

Speaker 1: 29:30

That's great. I'm curious. You have a lot of good things going on. I'm curious what are you excited about in this season of your business or your life?

Speaker 2: 29:41

You know, we've launched our state campaigns, which, which I'm very excited about. So for me, and basically it's our philanthropic arm of what we're doing, I'm on a national scale. We have that model where, you know, we grow with people, but on this model we're releasing state campaigns. We have California, florida, ohio, massachusetts, texas are launching January, illinois, new York launching in April, and really, as a certified B Corp, that's our. Our focus is on social impact and giving back. In fact, we're graded upon that we have to meet certain standards to qualify for that status, and so this is really our giving back arms. So faith based groups, schools, nonprofit organizations, through our state chapters, we're able to get the material complimentary and we've been able to build great boards and leaders within those communities, and that's really, I think, a key thing. So our state chapters are focused on increasing access to programming, especially where funding may be a challenge. We want to help there, raising awareness and advocating for financial literacy education, not only in schools, but also getting parents involved in teaching their kids about money. And then, finally, it's about relationships, relationships with various stakeholders from the nonprofit community, education community, business leaders, faith based leaders, and really making it a campaign that can scale and continue to serve the community for years, and that's really where our model will be changing.

Speaker 2: 31:15

We hope to have all 50 states launched in the next three years and that's really our focus is a hey, how do we make a difference on, on a, on a state and community level? And this gives us the ability to measure the impact. And I love seeing the impact, especially when you can tell, you know, say, hey, this is a community, this is how it's been impacted, this is the benefits that they're receiving and that's our focus. So really, that's that's one of the things I'm most excited about from a business perspective. And you know, just, I love talk with people on our board and local community leaders because even though everybody's so different different backgrounds, different ideas, even different political beliefs, different religions Everybody has a shared common goal how do we empower today's youth to live better than what, what we did, and have a brighter future? And I think it's a great unifying cause.

Speaker 2: 32:11

In fact, we called the campaign United for financial literacy and you know it's nice today to see something bipartisan where really nobody disagrees, nobody says, oh, don't teach my kid about financial, and nobody says that so I like it. Nobody's. Nobody's trying to cancel me or boycott me, it's. It's one of those things that I think. I think that's a pro, but also the con is when you don't have like an enemy or somebody against you, right, if the media is not focused or they're directing intention where there's a battle, because everybody supports financial literacy, I think we need that. You know that bad guy or that group that says, hey, stop financial literacy. So if anybody wants to get financial literacy, I welcome you.

Speaker 1: 32:54

There you go. I love that. I'm curious, vance what do you want your legacy to be when you leave this world?

Speaker 2: 33:04

Really, I think it circles back what we talked about in the beginning. I want to leave it better for the future, specifically financially. But I know if I'm helping people financially, it spills over in many areas of their life. So I think, hey, if I can help them with that financial side of things, they're going to be more attentive in their relationships. They're going to work toward those higher spiritual needs. The spirituals will have more time. They're not having to work the five jobs right, they'll be able to take more time with their kids. They'll be able to, you know, just be better just because they have more time to focus on those areas.

Speaker 2: 33:37

If we look at the you know hierarchy of human needs, you know we need to have our physiological needs met. You know, health security, food, shelter, etc. We need to have our emotional needs met. When we finances issue, people often report that they're under mental strain and they feel poorly about themselves. So that's an issue. We need those love and belonging needs met, right.

Speaker 2: 34:04

And if you don't have finances, right, if you're single, it's very hard to date, right? What are you going to do? And if you're in a relationship and you haven't been able to afford a date night in six months and I've been there before and it's stressful, right. It's like kind of like okay, well, what are we going to do? We'll stay in again? There's always. And then you know the higher order thinking skill, you know the higher order needs of the spiritual growth, seeking truth and those more important things. And if we're focused on those lower level areas, we're not able to dedicate oftentimes the time there. So I really see, you know money as a foundation to helping those other areas. Now, if people were super spiritual person, they can bypass all those other needs, right, yeah, but the average person out there, they need to make those lower order human needs. They need to satisfy those before they can really focus on certain areas. And really that's what I want for the world and for individuals.

Speaker 1: 35:04

That's awesome. Is there anything I haven't asked you that I should have asked you?

Speaker 2: 35:08

No great questions, but I love what you're doing here with the show and you know I always like to point out that. You know you raise an awareness for these issues. You bring in on the guests or focus on empowerment. I really consider you a financial educator in many senses. We talked about the, the guest you had on, that business host that was teaching, helping businesses. You know, really. You know, even though you know people look at me and say, hey, I'm a financial educator, I consider what you're doing, we're in the same space right, and you're helping empower people through a channel. That's a word blessed with today.

Speaker 2: 35:42

You know, back in, going back to my high school years, we didn't have podcasts, right. We didn't have smoke signals and newspapers, right, and then nowadays we have all these opportunities to learn. I think that's one of the most important things we can, we can share with our youth is get that passion for learning. I want every kid to leave school wanting to learn right. I think it does a big disservice when they're like, okay, school's done, I'm over it.

Speaker 2: 36:09

If we can teach lessons of subject matter that inspire learning and just let them know, no matter what is out there, you can learn. We had to go back to the library Dewey decimal system we had to go to the encyclopedia, right, and now you have at your fingertips anything you want to learn. So I think you know, just just you know. Only thing point I want to make is we have huge opportunities here today to really increase our knowledge, build wealth or build financial security, gain critical skills that will help you earn more at our fingertips. Take advantage of that. We're very blessed with where we're at today and that's the only point I wanted to add here.

Speaker 1: 36:52

Well, thank you, vince, for my fans who are calling, who are listening, from Bangladesh and DC, new York and even places in London, where can they find you and where can they follow you on social media?

Speaker 2: 37:05

Yeah, our websites financialeducatorscouncilorg. You can get me on LinkedIn at Vince Shorb, SHORB or just type in National Financial Educators Council on Google and you'll see our various social channels there. And yeah, we welcome anybody. Again, if you have a passion for this, if you want to be an advocate educator, just you know, have an interest in the subject matter, I'll reach out. I'm happy to talk to you.

Speaker 1: 37:36

Well, vince, thanks so much for being a guest on the podcast and blessings on what you do. Hopefully your game momentum will get this in all of our schools. I really do think this will help the next generation to start out on a much better footing, get us a much healthier understanding of finances and really plan better for the future. I think we do. We have the potential, we have the resources. We just need to know how to manage them better.

Speaker 2: 38:02

I agree. Yeah, thanks for having me, Keith.