Money doesn’t grow on trees we’ve been told since infancy. At the core of the discussions on the draft, agreed and now $101 billion adopted City budget for Financial Year 2023 is a familiar, annual conundrum – the need to balance the books of government, while attempting to satisfy the needs and desires of various interest groups seeking to build upon a budget allocation received in previous years.

 

While both the budget size, and the disparity between incomings and outgoings may differ, it’s a similar process for every country, corporation, nonprofit, institution, small business, single-parent household or individual. For some time now, Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernandez (A.D. 80) has come to believe that young Bronxites stand to benefit from acquiring an early understanding of basic financial literacy.

 

“People don’t know, you know?” she said. “I’ve noticed myself, getting older, seeing young people get into their adult lives and managing and financing themselves, and the conversation student debt and debt, in general, is bringing to life.” April marked Financial Literacy Month and Fernandez said it was the opportunity to really look at what kids were not being taught.

 

The assemblywoman organized a workshop in her district with a few organizations, including World of Money, a nonprofit based in midtown Manhattan which, for 17 years, has been providing immersive financial literacy classes to children and youth aged 7 to 18, based all over the City, including in The Bronx, through afterschool and summer programs.

 

Sandra Lamb is the nonprofit’s founder and executive director, and said their approach is not just a workshop on budgeting. “It’s expansive, from the financial history of the world to wealth mindsets, to stock valuation presentations, and, and so it’s a total immersion,” she said, adding that their courses comprise 120 hours of training.

 

“The way we look at it is we need to play generational catch-up, because the world that we live in requires that we know how to respond to money, manage money; it just requires that,” said Lamb. “That’s why we provide all the information that children need to know, so that they can begin creating a financially secure life.”

 

Fernandez said as everyone gets older, they realize they haven’t been saving properly. “We haven’t been utilizing the knowledge and the services that are out there the proper way, falling prey to the predatory financial services that don’t really help communities come out of the debt holes,” she said. “There have been proposals over the years in the legislature to incorporate financial literacy into the curriculum, but it hasn’t made its way in yet.”

 

She said legislators are looking at ways to make it available to high school students specifically, adding that the goal was for high school and middle school students to understand that they can start saving now. “You can really start setting yourself up for a little bit of an easier future when it comes to your finances, and it’s important to have that base of education because it’s going to further remove the equity gap that remains in our communities and society,” she said.

 

Asked if financial literacy was being taught in any schools or just in some schools, the assemblywoman said it’s barely being taught at all, though some schools make it a priority. She said she remembers being in 3rd Grade and being taught how to balance a checkbook. “That was really the only flash of any financial education that I recall in my elementary / high school years,” she said.

 

“It really has been reliant on the school and I guess principals, themselves, to say, ‘This is something we need to offer to our school community’.” She said in the public school system, it’s not mandated but as students enter college, there are electives they can take. “We want that elective to be available and [the students] made aware at an earlier age in high school so students can better understand their finances.”

 

Fernandez, who, as reported, is currently running for the State senate seat in Senate District 34, said conversations around the fact that college students who play Varsity sports are now being compensated for their skills is also sparking more conversations in the legislature about the need for more financial literacy among youth. “I think we just need to get ahead of the afterthought of it and make this part of the general conversation at an earlier age,” she said.

 

The assemblywoman explained that entities like World of Money are paid by the schools to teach financial literacy, though students may need to sign up and pay a fee also. “Should there be funding assistance, students can get little scholarships to attend these courses,” Fernandez said. “Unfortunately, [there’s] nothing free right now to teach you how to be financially literate, but that should be the goal, that this is basic education that we’re teaching our young people.”

 

She added that the lack of local banks, especially in The Bronx, as reported, also impacts upon young people’s ability to understanding personal finances. “Cash checking is not a bank. Having local banks that can help you with loans, creating saving accounts, is a huge step in just being in the mindset and the action of being cautious with your financials,” she said.

 

She continued, “Ultimately, if we can create communities, generations that have become more financially stable, achieving equity, then we’re uprooting those that are impoverished, and we want to uplift our communities.”

 

Lamb said World of Money’s annual, youth, financial education training institute operates in June and July each year and the kids are with them from 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. every day. The curriculum is taught by Wall Street professionals who dedicate some of their time to teaching children. The course is also available virtually to facilitate broader access.

 

World of Money is funded by corporations, sponsors, and through parent donations. “We say no-one pays [for a class] but everyone contributes to their own financial education,” she said. “As a nonprofit, we always are applying for grants.”

 

In terms of how the nonprofit measures its success, Lamb said, “I’m really proud to say, first of all, World of Money exposes children to a world they didn’t even know existed, and we attract students from economically diverse households.”

 

“Children are very intuitive, and very few children will say to their parents, ‘I want to go learn how to manage my money.’ They like this gravy train! They love it, so they don’t want to stop that,” said Lamb. However, she said once they get past why their parents want them there, and the ramifications surrounding money [in life] are explained to them, and why they need to be knowledgeable about this, they tend to get hooked.

 

She said they are told that money doesn’t just exist to provide them with their wants but also their needs. “What about saving? What about investing? What about entrepreneurship? What about becoming a philanthropist?” she said. “And so, when you expose all of those tenets under the world of money, you have the child’s attention,” she added, adding that 99 percent of their students graduate.

 

There are three separate classrooms: the young moguls, aged 7 to 9; rising moguls, aged 10 to 12; and the teenage moguls, aged 13 to 18, to cater to different abilities. “It’s very rigorous,” said Lamb. “They have daily homework, they have a final quick quiz that they have to pass, they are monitored in terms of their attendance, their dress code, all of that.”

 

Rebekah Givan is from The Bronx and is a current “World of Money Rising Mogul.” She started as a “Young Mogul” and has attended the World of Money Institute for the last six years. She’s 14 years old. “Over the years, World of Money has changed how I think about money, and how I manage my money,” Rebekah said. “Before, I thought money just grew on trees (you know what I mean?) …but now, I am asking questions like, ‘How do you make money?’ As a result, we talk about how I can earn money, and I have learned how to save and invest my money,” she added.

 

Rebekah said, most of all, she’s enjoyed the experience and has made new friends. In addition, she’s learned about FICO scores when it comes to loan applications, how to obtain better interest rates, about prepaid, credit and debit cards, and even some Mandarin Chinese!

 

In terms of her plans of how she plans to use her financial knowledge, Rebekah concluded, “I am determined to be a philanthropist so I can give back to my community. For someone my age, financial education is important so we can grow up to be independent and take care of ourselves and others.”

 

For more information on World of Money, go to https://worldofmoney.org/.