Episode 481: The Money Rules That Never Change (And the New Traps You Need to Avoid) w/ Beth Kobliner

Beth Kobliner 0:02

The barrier to entry to get into investing, investing in the stock market to get a low fee index fund or index ETF. Those are great places to start investing. You could start with, in many cases, in some of those as little as $1

Intro 0:22

Welcome to the Journey to Launch podcast with your host Jamila Souffrant as a money expert who walks her talk. She helps brave journeyers like you get out of debt, save, invest, and build real wealth. Join her on the Journey to Launch to financial freedom in

Speaker 1 0:40

543, 4321,

Jamila Souffrant 0:49

If you want the episode show notes for this episode, go to Journey to launch.com or click the description of wherever you're listening to this episode. In the show notes, you'll get the transcribed version of the conversation, the links that we mentioned, and so much more. Also, whether you are an OG journeyer or brand new to the podcast, I've created a free jumpstart guide to help you on your financial freedom journey. It includes the top episodes to listen to, stages to go through to reach financial freedom, resources, and so much more, you can go to Journey to launch.com/jumpstart to get your guide right now. Okay, let's hop into the episode. Hey, Janears, welcome to the Journey to Launch podcast. Today on the podcast, I have Beth Kobliner, who is a personal finance author and journalist. She's written two New York Times best-selling books, Get a Financial Life, Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s, which have helped young people navigate Money Matters for three decades, and Make Your Kid a Money Genius, even if you're not. A guide for parents that has been translated into nine languages. Beth is currently working with the Heckscher Foundation for children to create a financial literacy curriculum for New York City high school students. Welcome to the podcast, Beth.

Beth Kobliner 2:10

Oh, it's so great to be here. Thank you.

Jamila Souffrant 2:12

Yes, and if you're watching the video component, I'm wearing Beth's merch, which is pretty cool, actually. I love get a financial life sweatshirt, but Beth, I'm really happy to chat with you, because I know that you've been in this personal finance space for a while now, and I want to talk about your current work, but I want to go back to the start of your career and how you first got into this.

Beth Kobliner 2:41

Sure, well I was.. it's actually 40 years ago when I graduated from college. I can't believe it. And I was an English major, and I took one economics class, and I was looking for a job, and my dad had a really brilliant idea, which is still very relevant for young people today. He said, 'Look at the Alumni Magazine of your college and check off those that have jobs that sound even remotely interesting to you, and write them letters. And they were literally letters. There were.. we didn't.. I didn't have a computer at the time, so I'd type up letters and mail them out, and some called back, some didn't, and I would ask for an informational interview, and I spoke to a whole bunch of people, and one of those people had a magazine called Sylvia Porter's Personal Finance Magazine. Sylvia Porter was the first person to write about money ever, certainly the first woman, and she had a syndicated newspaper column, and long story short, she hired me to be her ghost writer, basically, so kind of on the job training of writing about mortgages and credit cards and everything that you could possibly write about when it comes to personal finance, and it was an amazing opportunity, and I learned so much.

Jamila Souffrant 4:01

I love that. How long did you work with her, or in that position?

Beth Kobliner 4:04

I worked for her for two years, and basically she was very generous in that she would, after about a year, she would mention my name in her column, like on the bottom, research associate, or she'd put that actually in the column. So I got a little bit of credit, and I learned a couple things, I learned all about personal finance, and I also learned how money can be complicated and seem really difficult, but there's some basic tenets that you need to know, and if you know those basic rules, it's not as crazily complicated as it seems. Now things have changed, and I would definitely argue things have gotten a whole lot more complicated when it comes to personal finance, but I think that there are also tools in place that make our lives easier. But it was really a dawn of information in that for me it was this is complicated, but it's not so hard that someone. Could really nail it, and not spend your whole life doing it. Now, I spent my whole life writing and teaching and talking about it, but it wasn't something that I felt everybody needed to, like, get a PhD in economics before being smart about money.

Jamila Souffrant 5:16

Within those two years, or over those two years, did you know, or what was your thinking in terms of your future? Because I love, I've spoken to many different types of people with different majors, and they always end up, especially English majors or teachers, they always end up doing something different later on, but they use that baseline, that skill set that you have to build on,

Beth Kobliner 5:38

right?

Jamila Souffrant 5:38

So, when you were writing for her, did you say to yourself at that time, 'Oh, I think I want to get into personal finance, or did you just want a career in writing, so it didn't matter what the next genre was?

Beth Kobliner 5:51

Right. Well, the truth is, I came from a very middle-class background. I grew up in Queens. My dad was a principal, my mom was a teacher, chemistry teacher, before I was born, and then a stay-at-home mom for many years. My parents did not have a lot of money, so it was a real stretch to send me to college. And then also I lived at home for a year, because I had student loan debt to pay off, and that was kind of unusual at the time. I had like $10,000 which was pretty much a lot in those days, and then what I, I was less thinking about, like, what's my ideal, and more like, where can I get a job, what job could this lead to next, and in the process of that, you know, taking the job that was available, this one, I think there was one other job, you know, it was definitely a better job market than it is today, but there was something in real estate, and I'm like, I don't really think I'm interested in real estate, or it didn't, I didn't really know much about it, but this was something it was writing, and I found that it was interesting to me, and I felt I was good at taking something complicated and making it simpler, and I think I really liked talking to people and learning on the phone. Now, again, so much less of personal finance reporting is about calling up a source and spending an hour talking to them. You know, people don't really talk as much and learn as much by talking to people. It's more getting information online and getting a quote from someone that they might email to you, but I think I was lucky to have that be in that sweet spot of journalism where you got to talk to people for a long time and get information, and I realized I love that, and I love the idea of getting to the bottom of something and learning what a consumer needs to know to be smart, because even though my dad was a principal, he was very, very apparently is very poor, and when he, he decided when he took his job as a teacher and then a principal, he wanted to be smart about money for his family and be responsible, so he was very good at, he put the maximum he could in the pension plan in New York, and he was saving for the future, and he knew about, you know, investing in mutual funds, and so I grew up hearing that that was something that my parents really paid attention to, and were serious about. They weren't money people by any, in any way, but they were aware, so I think that idea of bringing that awareness to other people who aren't in the financial field, or even some who are, to make it clear and strip away the kind of marketing and the hype, and figure out what people need to know to be smart about their money and live the lives that they hope to live to have some security,

Jamila Souffrant 8:38

and I think translating, which is what still is being done today is the jargon and making it accessible to more people, and I know for you right now you're targeting, or you're focused on literacy for young adults and teenagers is important.

Beth Kobliner 8:53

High school, yeah,

Jamila Souffrant 8:54

right,

Beth Kobliner 8:54

yeah.

Jamila Souffrant 8:55

But I do want to go back a little bit. So you worked for a couple years there, and then it seems that you got some other writing jobs. How did you start to transition more into different fields or into different publications?

Beth Kobliner 9:06

Right, you know. Gosh, how did I get to Money magazine? Well, I knew I've heard of.. I heard of Money magazine. There were a few personal finance magazines at the time, and I knew Money magazine was at Time Inc, which was sort of a real, like, premier publishing company. Sadly, it's not around anymore, but it was like Time magazine, Money Magazine, Life magazine, People, and Fortune magazine. So I thought Mountie Magazine was a natural place to go after spending all this time writing about personal finance, and I applied for a job there, and I remember I had an interview with Lanny Jones, who was the editor in chief of Money magazine, and he said, you know, you have all this experience, I was really young, I was 23 but he's like, wow, you've written all these articles, and I want. Hire you, and he offered me a salary, and I was so thrilled. I was like, yes, I'll take it. And then he called me back. This is a crazy, embarrassing story. He called me back and said, you know what, I'm not paying you enough. I wanted to offer you more, and I was like, you don't have to, it's okay, like that's the worst thing you could ever do, and I think he ended up paying me a little bit more, but it was kind of that I was so happy to have this new job and have somewhere where I could write under my own name, and I sort of jumped on the opportunity, and that was an amazing experience, and I was there for about eight years writing about banking and investing and savings and mortgages, and you know, we wrote lots of stories called One Family's Finance, which is you'd write about for ego and stay with a family and learn all about them, and then write about their finances and what their struggles are, and how they spend their money, which it was probably the most popular, it was written by this woman, Susacious, I remember her name, and it was really, but every now and then we each writer would get a chance to write one of those one family's finance articles, and it really showed how money was so personal. It really, it almost isn't money anymore, it's about your life, it's about if you, I mean, one story was like a family, and how they were coping because one child had a medical illness, and how do they pay for that, but still go on vacation, and and it was sort of one of those really eye-opening moments of this is really, we're talking about how people can live their best lives, and how challenges cost money, and and opportunities cost money, and all the different ways that you want to be smart and do your best to kind of make sure you're not falling for hype, but you're practicing sound personal finance, and you're working toward a goal, so that I think that's what I really realized. Wow, I love this topic.

Jamila Souffrant 11:58

Would you say, and you know, this is more of a, like, a personal question, in terms of, I know, the, you wrote about finance, and you, in a way, were teaching people through your writing about personal finance. How would you say your own personal finances were at the time? Because I find that sometimes there is a, an alignment or disalignment to, like, what you teach, or what you talk about to your own finances, and then on top of that, going back to publishing and being a writer. I'm assuming this is all in New York City, and I'm thinking about the creatives and the writers now that live, you know, in New York, or high cost of living areas, and it's this idea of doing something you enjoy, but being able to pay for it and survive, right? So, like, I just feel like that's an interesting topic or idea to explore, if you could share.

Beth Kobliner 12:43

Yeah, I mean, I think I was very well. First off, I think I was most lucky coming from a family where my parents were very frugal and very careful and smart about money, and also, you know, reasonable. It wasn't like they never spent money on anything, but they spent on education and healthcare. I think their values were reflected very well in how they handled money, so that was part of my DNA. And I notice it's both of my brothers are the same way. Now, it doesn't always work out that way, but I think in our case we were very, and they were teachers, so we kind of, whether it's through osmosis, seeing what they do, or, you know, I didn't get a credit card in college. A lot of people did, but I didn't want one, because I remember being.. I didn't want to get into a lot of credit card debt, and I just didn't feel like.. and it's not like I had that much money. I had many jobs in school, but I was on the meal plan, which I remember, like friends would go out for ice cream or go out for drinks, and I wouldn't go, or I would, you know, just because I didn't have the money to do it, but it didn't feel like I was deprived. I just knew that wasn't my priority. And I think moving to New York, like I said, I lived at home in Queens for like a year and a half, it was, and so commuting in, which wasn't terrible, but I do recommend young people consider if it's possible, and it's not - it isn't always possible, but if it's possible for kids and for parents to agree, if the young person could live at home after college, you can sort of save up and get your footing a little bit before moving out, and then I had roommates, I had a roommate, and it was like a basically almost it was a one bedroom, but there was no door on the bedroom, so it was kind of like a living room and a closet, and we both kind of made do, and I did that for two years, so it was, you know, it was great, it was just the way big city living certainly still is now, having roommates, and you know, again, I was lucky in New York, there were subways, it was easy to get around, and I was such a nerdy hard worker that I was never like at that time when I was younger, I think it was just like, okay, I'm getting a job, I'm not thinking about what my dream job is, I just. A job, and then I was very lucky to enjoy that job a lot, and feel like, wow, this really is something I really like doing. And then I think when it came to spending, and you know, eventually after two years, I was able to save up enough to rent my own place, and it was like a small, you know, very small place, but it was my own, and that was fun, and so I just think that it was easier at that time to do what I'm describing, and I think the costs have gotten so much higher, and now for people right out of college, the job market is really, really challenging, so I do think that there are a lot of more complicated factors when it comes to the economy right now for college graduates, and certainly people who don't graduate from college, it's even more difficult for them. So I think it was a blessing of parents who taught me this, and timing was a great place to work.

Beth Kobliner 15:58

We had even a tiny little bit of a defined benefit plan, like a pension plan, but we had a 401 k, and everyone talked about it, because we were money magazine, and so in matching plan, and great health insurance, and a lot of benefits, and there was like when I would write a story in Washington, DC, that was the first time I ever stayed in a really nice hotel, I remember going to Washington, and they're like, 'Yes, you could stay at the Jefferson Hotel, and it was like, 'Ah, I love this. I would get up extra early just to sit and, like, enjoy the room, and so those kind of perks, I think, are just pretty much non-existent these days when it comes to, you know, magazines and what that world is like now,

Jamila Souffrant 16:42

right? And every day, but there's some things like the foundational things I feel like stay the same, but like you said, the environment and cost of living and opportunities, those I think change, but then I think there are the like these tenants of personal finance where you try to spend less than you earn and you're frugal, which is kind of go hand in hand, and and career, like focusing on like working and building income and setting yourself up, even if you don't know the ultimate career path, but like the next best step in making those decisions are so important, even today.

Beth Kobliner 17:16

Yes, I think that's right, and I think that first job is sometimes there's almost so much pressure put on, like, oh, I'm trying to get this job in X, and I think it's, you know, these days it's like, take a job, and if it can be, you know, ideally it's a job that offers you health insurance, it's somewhat in a field that you're interested in, so that in itself is a challenge to find that, but if you can find a job like that, or and even if you can't, then you work as hard as you possibly can in the job that you're in now, because you never know what leads to other things. You know, so much of life is really, you know, you're working really hard, and your boss says, you know what, why don't I send you to another office, you could be a manager there, or why don't you talk to my cousin, because he's in this field, and I know you're really in this field. If you're a good worker, and you're really known to be a good worker, and you're hardworking, then I think there are rewards that will come along that you might not even anticipate,

Jamila Souffrant 18:15

right. Well, and kind of bringing us to today's current environment and workplace I think for a lot of young people, even older people who have to make career changes and maybe just think about things differently. What are some ways, or the silver lining, you know, to look at how they can get ahead if they're feeling a bit stuck or they don't feel like there's much momentum?

Beth Kobliner 18:39

Right. Well, I think that there are some basic things that people can do that have been made earlier with technology, and one of the biggest right now is if you're graduating from college with student loans, there are going to be two basic repayment plans, and that will make it a much simpler process. The bad news is sort of some of the more generous repayment plans are going away, but the key move, if you're graduating from college, is to go to the government's loan simulator@studentaid.gov to figure out which is the best repayment plan for you. You need to sort of take charge of that, pretty soon, I mean, you have six month grace period before you have to absolutely start paying back your student loans. There's also public service loan forgiveness program that, if you're going to be a teacher or a nurse or a government worker, if you work for a nonprofit, your debt might be forgiven after 10 years if you make on-time payments, so those are very specific things, but I think the system is in place and technology is in place to sort of get that rolling and and make sure you're starting to pay back your debt, because you know, just like people know, credit cards go on their part of their credit score, their credit report, student. Loans also can hurt or help your credit score, so starting to pay back student loans, I think, is one thing that was, you know, true back in the day, and it's still very important and true now to know how to do it

Jamila Souffrant 20:14

right, right? So, being proactive and figuring out, depending on, I guess, your career path or what you've chosen to do, and how much loans you have, is to figure a plan out for that, and not just put it on the back burner, and not think about it

Beth Kobliner 20:28

totally. Yeah, I think that's another one. I'd say another big one is credit cards, like we talked about. You know, it used to be that you could get a very low interest rate credit card, that doesn't exist anymore. Most, the average credit card rate is about 22% now, so credit card debt is really, really expensive debt. So, if you have a credit card and if you owe a chunk of money, one early goal should be to pay that off as quickly as possible. Being charged 22% is a lot, and even in the best case scenario, you're only getting 3% on a high yield savings account. So, if you have some money in a savings account and say you're living at home, you can use that to pay off your high rate credit card debt, and paying off a credit card debt of 22% interest is the equivalent of earning 22% on your money guaranteed after taxes, and you can't beat that. So, pay off that high rate credit card debt. That's another one that was true then, but it's even truer now. And try to use your credit card only for something that you could actually afford to pay off in full. It's good for your credit score to buy something and pay it off in full on time every month, that's really good for your credit score. There's some like misinformation, people think, "Oh, don't I have to carry debt in order to improve my credit score? And it's the opposite. You really can improve your credit score by paying off your debt on time in full each month,

Jamila Souffrant 21:59

right? That's, I mean, so important to do, and I think, especially like, so, if you are a parent listening to this, and have a teenager, or someone who's graduating from college, or even yourself, if you're young, what tips can we give them for, like, let's just say foundational, you want to start out, or having these things, and they could be like bank account, or certain types of bank accounts, or whatever you think would be foundational things they should be focusing on.

Beth Kobliner 22:26

Right, I would say a high-yield savings account, you know, why get 1/10 of 1% interest when you can get 3% interest, and that's.. you could find it on Nerd Raw Wallet or Bank rate.com they list the high yield savings accounts, and the good news also about today is the barrier to entry to get into investing, investing in the stock market to get a low fee index fund or index ETF. You can get it from low cost companies, and I don't get any kickbacks, or I don't work for any companies, but you could get a straw, Vanguard, Fidelity. Those are great places to start investing. You could start with, in many cases, in some of those, as little as $1 to invest in a stock index fund or stock index ETF, and get started with either an IRA or just opening account straight out and putting small amounts of money into that. The other big thing, of course, is if you work for a company with a 401 k, if you get a job and they say you have a 401 k, first question to ask is, is there matching? Because if there's matching, that right away is free money. If they give you $1 for every, you know, dollar you put in, that's an immediate 100% return on your money. And even if you're young, first off, there are ways sometimes you can get at that money if you need it in a real emergency, but the money grows exponentially quickly because it's tax favored and it's growing, and that that's probably the one piece of advice, you know. I wrote the first version of Get a Financial Life, personal finance in your 20s and 30s. When I was in my late 20s, it was back in 1996 And I have people come over to me now who said, "You know what, I read your first book, and I'm in my 60s now. And thank you for saying, look, even if you don't have a lot of money, you put something in that 401 k, because now I have hundreds of 1000s of dollars that I wouldn't have had otherwise, and that to me is super gratifying to hear, and it does show when you start really young, and even if it's small amounts of money, if you do it regularly, if you have it taken out of your paycheck automatically, and put into something like a 401 k or a Roth IRA. You can really see over long periods of time it does grow. That's one that I think is worthwhile for young people to know about, and to realize that this isn't going to be a quick fix. Situation, it's gonna, it's a long game, and even small amounts really can pay off over 30 years.

Jamila Souffrant 25:12

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Beth Kobliner 27:00

I would say one of the big differences is the way young people pay things, like nobody uses checks anymore. So, I talk a lot about peer to peer payment systems, like Venmo and PayPal and Cash App and Zelle, and it's something that young people use all the time, but I think there are cautions you have to be aware of, definitely opt out of putting your spending on social media, as one example, and there's specifics like that, but also not to let money pile up in a peer-to-peer wallet, like a Venmo, because chances are, if it's just a plain old Venmo account, you're not getting any interest on that money, and it's not in a federally insured financial institution, so making sure you have money transferred back into your bank savings account. Hopefully, a high-yield account would be something I think that that management of money, you know, used to be your money goes into your checking account and then you have it transferred into your savings account, and you knew you were building up if you could put $50 away every month, then it was a good, you were working towards something. So, I think young people have to really think about, is this institution financially insured? If something goes wrong with it, but also, am I getting a decent yield? Am I getting a decent return? You know, why get again a 10th of 1% if you could earn actually, or no money, which you're not in some of the pay to pay, like a Venmo or Cash App, you're not getting interest in most cases. Try to put that money into a place where you are getting more money, whether it is your 401 k, if there's matching, or into a high yield savings account.

Jamila Souffrant 28:40

And what did she also say, like, I think the opportunities, or the way we spend money, is just it's all, is everything so fast-paced, and with a click of the button, versus, you know, back in my day, you know, or our day, where it was harder to buy things, it took longer, and things weren't as accessible, you didn't know what the next person was doing as much, because social media, now you know, back then wasn't as rampant,

Beth Kobliner 29:02

right? Well, it's so nice of you to say our day put me in the same category as me. You're much younger than I am, but given the fact that, yes, I mean, it is in it, is so different. I was just with a few really little kids, like 10 year old kids, they didn't know what quarters and dimes and nickels were. I was amazed. They don't see change, they don't see cash. And this generation has been brought up on using your phone to tap and pay, and the problem is that we know that by tapping and paying, people end up spending more than they would have, certainly in the olden days with cash, or even going through a credit card transaction because it feels like magic, and now we also buy now pay later deals. It's hard to buy something these days without somebody saying, well, would you like to split that up over four payments? Oh, and there's no interest, and it sounds so great, but the problem is if you're buying $100 jacket and you. Have to make four payments each of $25 It sounds like, oh, that's good, but the problem is you feel psychologically okay. I'm paying $25 now, so I still have much more cash than if you actually had to pay the full $100 and people we know studies show people are spending much more than they would have, because they feel more flush with money, they feel that they have access to money they've already spent. So, I think that can be tricky, and the marketing of it is, you know, really sophisticated. So, I think that's important when it comes to spending. I think just going back to a very basic point, do not spend money that you don't have, and it's like, of course, don't spend money you don't have, but there's so many ways we can spend money we don't have now with, you know, overdraft protection, that, oh, wow, like the bank will give me, if I'm using my debit card, and if I go over often a bank, if I didn't say no to it, if I didn't, if I said yes when I signed up for the bank, I have overdraft protection that you know I don't get embarrassed if I don't have enough money in my account, but I will be paying fees, extra fees for that, and it's very expensive, so I would say making sure you don't spend more money than you have with your debit card, with your credit card, and I think the other big one that I'm worried about is gambling. Do not gamble, do not gamble, do not go to the prediction markets and try your hand at that, because you're going to lose that statistically speaking, you're going to lose, and if you hear of people winning, they only tell you when they win, because they lose too, and you have a 96% chance of losing when it comes to these gambling sites. There was a study of 700,000 people, and they found you lose 96% of the time. So, statistically speaking, you have a much better chance of making money in a stock index fund or stock ETF, and it is definitely a big trend that I'm concerned about.

Jamila Souffrant 32:08

Yeah, I'm so glad you actually brought that up, because now that gambling is legal and more advertised, and like micro gambling, especially in sports, and you see it all the time, and like I have young kids, and so with the rise to of like video games and social media, where they already kind of are training them to be addicted to these things, and then on top of that making gambling accessible, I'm just like, I have one of my sons, I'm like, I pray you never find gambling, because you know he kind of has that addictive personality already with gaming, and so it's just something that we should be aware of, as like parents and people who are guiding youth, because this is gonna, I think, be a big thing,

Beth Kobliner 32:46

100% If I were, we, I don't have gambling in my book, you know, make your kid a money genius, even if you're not. That didn't come out all that long ago. This is a new phenomenon that's so addictive, and so this one really is, you know, you're basically almost guaranteeing you're going to lose, and yet young people, and people of all ages, but young people are the ones who are doing it the most, but people of all ages are really falling prey to this, and it's going to be, I mean, it's really, really concerning, and I'd say if you have a kid of any age, like when our kids were really little, we told them, like, this is maybe controversial, but they're like, don't, don't ride a motorcycle, because the people who donate organs are often people who ride motorcycles. We were nervous about them riding motorcycles, and so the other thing we should tell young kids is, don't gamble, you're gonna lose your money, you know, it's not a smart thing to do, and it, and I think part of it also is the fact that how buying a first time home right now people hear how it's so difficult, and the typical age for a first time homebuyer now is close to 40 years old, whereas back in the day, 30 years ago, it was 28 years old, so it's a really different environment when it comes to buying a home, and I think young people know that, and there's a sense of, like, well, what else can I do? I'm going to give up on a home, but maybe I can, you know, win a lot of money on some bet, or, you know, and they're fads, they're things that come and go, cryptocurrency, and I think that you want to be logical and rational about it, and it doesn't sound exciting, but the idea of putting money into something like a stock index fund, ETF, slow and steady is the idea, because yes, you could sort of hit it big and make money in cryptocurrency, but you could then lose a lot, and it's, it's sort of this idea of, do you want to bet everything on one thing and something that is not highly regulated or really even understood, so I think it's very important for. Young people, it's natural, I get it, and you hear, you know, 70% of young people get their information on social media, and you give out great information on social media, so there's a lot of really good information on social media, but there's also a lot of, like, basically commercials that people are influencers, and they're very much specifically paid to pitch a product, and yeah, it's, and it's kind of tricky. You have to be careful and know what you're doing, and pay attention to sort of the bigger question of what's going to be smart for me. How am I going to live a good financial life by doing, you know, in my book I have solid, tried and true strategies and advice that have helped people get a financial life for 30 years, and hopefully 30 years more. I don't know if I'll be around when that next 30 year chunk of time happens, but I think it's really, really important now more than ever to pay attention to the basics.

Jamila Souffrant 36:00

I agree, and we, I mean, we didn't even touch on AI, and how that's changing the landscape of career and managing money, and all, and just what people are seeing online, but I do want to talk a little bit about just like your work in the schools and curriculum, because I think that's really important. If you can share about like what you're working on and what you're doing there, I think it would be interesting to hear a little bit about,

Beth Kobliner 36:22

oh, great, yeah. Well, my total passion right now is going into New York City public schools, and we have close to 50 schools signed up, high schools, mostly 11th and 12th graders, to learn a 10 lesson curriculum on Get a Financial Life NYC, it's, it's for New York City students, and it's in these public schools. And it started off this organization called the Heckscher Foundation. It's a not for profit organization. They give away money for lower income kids in New York City, and they said, we think the city needs a very straightforward, simple kind of like get a financial life, but for teenagers to learn about money in high school before they graduate, before they go to college, or go to get jobs, or wherever they're going after high school, and so we started with a pilot program of 14 schools, teachers, really great teachers from all five boroughs, and I interviewed hundreds of students, teachers, principals, after-school people, people who offer college help programs, and said, What do kids need to know about money, and what do they want to know about money? And it's very New York City specific, and we talk about things. If you get money from the summer youth employment program, MAIT, which is the largest employer of high school of teenagers in New York City. Make sure you get direct deposit, because if you're not getting direct deposit, you're being handed basically a gift card that you could spend, and you know very quickly run through the money that you earned for a full summer's worth of work. So that type of advice. And this morning I went to Francis Lewis High School in Queens, and watched an amazing array of teachers teach personal finance from a math perspective, from a business perspective, from a social studies perspective, and I was really heartened to see that now New York State, first of all, starting 2026 27 school year, schools have to teach personal finance, and there's a list of items they have to teach, so we made sure that our curriculum, we're making sure that it hits all those milestones, and we're seeing high schools very eager to adopt it, as well as other many great other financial programs out there, and curriculums out there to give kids a fighting chance that they won't get into credit card debt, they won't fall for gambling, they won't, you know, all the things that they are likely to be exposed to to educate high school students, and I have to say I have been blown away by how much kids embrace this topic, and how eager they are to learn about it, and like I said from the beginning, I think there's some basic things that you need to know, and if you could learn those basic things in high school, you're so ahead of the game.

Jamila Souffrant 39:16

Oh my gosh, I agree. So, if there's a teacher listening to this, or principal, I do have a lot of educators who listen. How would they get to understand or learn more about your program and bring it into their schools?

Beth Kobliner 39:27

You can go on Get A Financial Life NYC. I have to make sure that's the exact right website. It's, or you can email me, beth@codeliner.com to get the website, but it is, if you, if you Google Get a financial life NYC, it'll come up, it's open source. Oh, it's free, it's open source, and it basically is everything you need to know, because we wanted to make it very plug and play. It's like the points that the educator needs to know, and then their slides for the students, and my goal was. Is to make it very much something that any teacher can teach, that you don't have to have a deep financial background, you don't need to be an economics teacher, you can learn about personal finance while you're teaching personal finance, because it's very straightforward, and I feel like to me that's the most important point about personal finance, that it, it is made sometimes very complicated by companies that are selling you products, but the truth is, if you get out of debt, if you save automatically and regularly, and you invest in, like, 401 ks and index funds and index ETFs and IRAs, you will be so far ahead of the game that you will really help yourself out a lot, and tough economic times come and go, and there's always like ups and downs, and I've seen a lot of them when you, when you were asking me, when I started working for Sylvia Porter back in 1986 that was her. I was writing her column during the market crash of 1987 and she thankfully rushed in to help with that one, because it was like I had.. I didn't know what happened. I was like, did I cause this? I hope I didn't, but it was, you know, once you see those ups and downs in the market, and you really kind of get a sense of the economy and interest rates, you realize, okay, just their basic things you have to do and stick with those things, and that really at the end of the day is what matters.

Jamila Souffrant 41:32

Yes. Oh my gosh, Beth, this was amazing. Can you please tell everyone more about the book, the new edition, and where they can find it? And we'll link all of it in the show notes.

Beth Kobliner 41:41

Right, it just came out. Get a financial life, personal finance in your 20s and 30s, the brand new edition for young people, and it's available in every bookstore, anywhere books are sold online or actually in bookstores. So, I hope people pick up a copy. It's a great graduation gift, that's what a lot of people are telling me they're doing with it. A lot of parents are buying it for their kids or friends' kids.

Jamila Souffrant 42:05

Yes. Well, we will link where to get that, and in the show notes. And thank you so much, Beth, for coming on the show.

Beth Kobliner 42:11

Thank you. Thanks for all you do. You're giving out great information. You're doing it in such an accessible way, making it really clear, and that is hugely important. And I admire you, and I admire the work you're doing. So, thank you,

Jamila Souffrant 42:25

thank you. Don't forget, you can get the episode show notes for this episode by going to Journey to launch.com or click the description of wherever you're listening to this, and you can still grab your Jumpstart guide for free to help you on your journey to financial freedom by going to Journey to launch.com/jump start, if you want to support me and the podcast, and love the free content and information that you get here. Here are four ways that you can support me in the show. One, make sure you're subscribed to the podcast wherever you listen, whether that's Apple Podcasts, that purple app on your phone, your Android device, YouTube, Spotify, wherever it is that you happen to listen, just subscribe, so you are not missing an episode. And if you're happening to listen to this in Apple Podcasts, rate, review, and subscribe there. I appreciate and read every single review. Number two, follow me on my social media accounts, I'm at Journey to launch on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and I love, love, love interacting with journeyers there. Three support and check out the sponsors of this show. If you hear something that interests you, sponsors are the main ways we keep the podcast lights on here, so show them some love for supporting your girl. Four, and last but not least, share this episode, this podcast with a friend or family member or coworker, so that we can spread the message of Journey to Launch. All right, that's it until next week. Keep on journeying, journeyers.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai