The Financial Education Company

[Pinnacle]

My primary fastlane vehicle.

This is a curriculum design and professional staff development company marketing to public and private post-secondary institutions such as University of Georgia and ITT Technical Institute. The company will specialize in courses and programs covering all disciplines of financial education. My plan is to accomplish what Robert Kiyosaki set out to do but either poorly or never properly executes. I will be introducing degree and certificate programs (under compliance with appropriate accrediting agencies) to foster verifiable financial intelligence and literacy in consumers.

THE PROBLEM:

We get our financial educations from salespeople...Mr. Kiyosaki included (ironically). If you want to learn about cars, you don't seek out a mechanic at an auto repair shop. If you want to know who to vote for in an election, you don't read the New York Times or watch Fox News. If you are looking for the best-tasting chicken sandwich, the last place you go is Chick-Fil-A and ask their opinion. Further, as we all well know, financial education is as critical to life as scholastic and professional education.


MY PROPOSAL:

"To take basic school economics a massive step further by encouraging the infusion of mandatory personal finance and money management core courses in middle schools, high schools, colleges, and private institutions—alongside mathematics, sciences, social studies, and grammar."

*This idea--and the marketing plan that drives it--will evolve in stages, so that I don't bite off too much at once.*

I want to make financial education more readily available and easily assessable to individuals and families through partnerships with private post-secondary institutions, public universities, high schools and middle schools. Courses and curricula will cover myriad disciplines and topics related to personal finance, investing, consumer credit & debt, insurance, taxes & the IRS, estate planning, wealth creation & preservation, banking, consumerism, macro & microeconomics, globalization, and all financial topics related to business


I'm going to do what so many of you and others have been talking about and wishing for...what society has been needing for so many generations. I am sick and tired of waiting for this problem to be solved.


This is my primary fastlane vehicle.

bturner@mychiefemployee.com

 

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[Runum]

Good luck Pinnacle and I do mean it. You face many challenges, time, inertia, maturity from the students, public acceptance(it's my right to spend my money and any money I borrow the way I want), legislative and academic acceptance. From what I have seen, for profit companies that pitch to the legislature for implementation of new curriculum are immediately suspect by the educated public and the teachers.

As I see it, the best chance you have is to design your curriculum to be interdisciplinary. You will have to integrate your financial lessons into social studies, math, science, and reading lessons. Many of the teachers that will have to deliver your message to the students will not be financially literate themselves.

Not trying to shoot you down. You need to be aware of your challenges so you can make your plans to overcome them. I wish you well.:cheers:

 

[Pinnacle]

Good luck Pinnacle and I do mean it. You face many challenges, time, inertia, maturity from the students, public acceptance(it's my right to spend my money and any money I borrow the way I want), legislative and academic acceptance. From what I have seen, for profit companies that pitch to the legislature for implementation of new curriculum are immediately suspect by the educated public and the teachers.

As I see it, the best chance you have is to design your curriculum to be interdisciplinary. You will have to integrate your financial lessons into social studies, math, science, and reading lessons. Many of the teachers that will have to deliver your message to the students will not be financially literate themselves.

Not trying to shoot you down. You need to be aware of your challenges so you can make your plans to overcome them. I wish you well.:cheers:

I thank you, Runum. You've both reminded me and made me aware of the obstacles that brought me to this point. Your suggestion of designing interdisciplinary curricula is a heck of an insightful idea. Before I climb the Mt. Everest that is public education, I'm going to spend a few years building market share in the private educational realm. Speaking to delivery, staff development will also involve bringing in financially-educated people to serve as instructors. I would encourage the financially illiterate to immerse themselves along the way as well. I plan on taking MY OWN courses once they are developed.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

What an awesome idea!!! Instead of bringing financial education to the post-schooled masses, you are trying to get them early while their still in school. I think this has got to be one of the best ideas I've heard of in a while. Of course, your challenge is getting to the decision makers of the school system which will be difficult -- beaucracies don't like change, and they don't like making decisions.

However, if it was *easy*, someone would have done it.

Your challenge might be an advantage as it creates barriers to new competition. You can have a monopoly on the process.

 

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[ZDS]

Great idea! Many economists such as Adam Smith wrote about integrating more economics into schools for years. I am glad someone is attempting to do this, for it is much needed!

 

[Redshft]

Great idea and I applaud you for taking action on this issue. I think something like this is most needed in a high school curriculum.

 

[Pinnacle]

"A rising tide lifts all boats..."

I intend for this company to be the perpetual SOURCE of the rising tide.

Thank you all for the encouragement. :thankyousign:

 

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[CashFlow]

I am so glad you are doing this Pinnacle!

As someone who is younger, I wish I had the advantage of knowing what I know now back in school. I always wondered why the subject of money was not taught...and you don't know, what you don't know.

My suggestion to you would be to incorporate it with social studies. I remember learning about Rockefeller and Carnegie in 8th grade and being fascinated by the business acumen those men had back then. We also studied the World Wars and the Great Depression.

As I've continued to learn and study, I've been attempting to piece together the economics of the time surrounding the major political and worldly events, as economics and politics is inter-related.

It would be great if you could run parallels so to speak showing what was happening with: the Federal Budget, Deficit Spending, the Fed, Monetary Policy, Fiscal Policy, Foreign Policy, the National Savings Rate, Corporate Income Tax Rates, Income Taxes, Capital Gains Taxes, and others.

I think all this would make for an insightful lesson in history and economics. It would prove to students how important it is to understand what truly constitutes an asset, liability, and the correlation between those terms and our collective and individual long-term prosperity.

If you should desire it, I would gladly help you in designing your courses. I have put together a number of items myself (Powerpoints, checklists, question sheets, etc) that I could license to you, or we could come to a mutually-beneficial arrangement - that way your materials are produced faster, and by someone who shares your passion for financial education of the wealth variety.

If I don't hear from you, best of luck. I look forward to hearing your great results!

 

[randallg99]

you might want to contact or team up with "Junior Achievement" which is a volunteer organization I particpated with for quite some time....

Junior Achievement - Educating youth on business, economics, and succeeding in a global economy

....
Educating Students Worldwide
384,925 Junior Achievement volunteers teach 367,305 classes to 9,326,748 students a year...

That’s 25,553 students a day and nearly 1,065 students every hour who become empowered with the skills to create a better tomorrow for themselves and their communities!

 

[Pinnacle]

First of all, Randall...that could save me millions in instructor compensation once I'm ready to launch my company's public education project in several years. I have to wonder about how this will be received, however, considering this will be a for-profit company. Thank you for the heads up, though...I will definitely look into this. I need all the allies I can get.

My suggestion to you would be to incorporate it with social studies. I remember learning about Rockefeller and Carnegie in 8th grade and being fascinated by the business acumen those men had back then. We also studied the World Wars and the Great Depression.

As I've continued to learn and study, I've been attempting to piece together the economics of the time surrounding the major political and worldly events, as economics and politics is inter-related.

It would be great if you could run parallels so to speak showing what was happening with: the Federal Budget, Deficit Spending, the Fed, Monetary Policy, Fiscal Policy, Foreign Policy, the National Savings Rate, Corporate Income Tax Rates, Income Taxes, Capital Gains Taxes, and others.

I think all this would make for an insightful lesson in history and economics. It would prove to students how important it is to understand what truly constitutes an asset, liability, and the correlation between those terms and our collective and individual long-term prosperity.

If you should desire it, I would gladly help you in designing your courses. I have put together a number of items myself (Powerpoints, checklists, question sheets, etc) that I could license to you, or we could come to a mutually-beneficial arrangement - that way your materials are produced faster, and by someone who shares your passion for financial education of the wealth variety.

If I don't hear from you, best of luck. I look forward to hearing your great results!

It would be a privilege to discuss and do business with you, Cashflow. I would love your input, as the curriculum design (along with sales & marketing) is the part of this enterprise I am most interested in staying involved in. Just email me at the address in my opening post and we can exchange contact info and ideas.

I certainly want to make these teachings as comprehensive as possible, and to tie economic history in with the courses is a priority I had overlooked before you mentioned something. Exposure to many of the historic topics would be at the student's discretion, however...because the company (through the clients) will offer individual courses, course-packages, and entire curricula. Social studies will definitely be incorporated so a solid foundation can be lain in students' financial educations.

 

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