[Applause]
why is it that 300 million Americans
have basic questions about personal
finances my first big financial question
came when the clicker didn’t work the
clicker networks my question is answered
my first question came when I applied to
the University of Michigan and while you
might have be while you might be
assuming I was trying to figure out how
to pay for tuition my question was
actually much simpler how do I pay for
the $40 application fee at the time I
didn’t have the money and so I had to
borrow $40 from a neighbor that was
willing to help me out by the time I got
to my senior year I couldn’t afford a
place to stay so I slept in the back of
my car so I could stay in school and it
got me thinking why does the quick
clicker still not work
it’s gonna be the theme of the TED talk
just kidding it got me thinking
one finances are really tough and two I
considered myself lucky while I was
still in school the economy was
collapsing around us and what we now
know was a Great Recession people were
losing their jobs they were losing their
homes retirement accounts built over
decades were shrinking and savings
accounts were vanishing I really started
to think about it and my question was
you know why do we not equip people with
the ability to learn about personal
finances why do we not equip people to
adapt and change to the economy which
shifts all the time in school we teach
the chambers of the heart and yes
biology is important we spend a great
deal of time talking about chemistry
reading Shakespeare and learning world
history as we should but if these are
deemed of vital importance would it not
stand to reason that a subject that is
as ubiquitous as it is essential is not
worth teaching to the average American
has eight thousand dollars in credit
card debt which costs over a thousand
dollars in interest each year just have
a piece of plastic in their wallet when
I graduated our commencement speaker
President Obama delivered a resounding
message of hope which is now so absent
in her country
but he really did he delivered a message
of hope and while it was inspiring I was
sitting there acutely aware of the fact
that I had four thousand dollars in
credit card debt from buying both
textbooks and beer throughout college
and I promise I promise it was mostly
textbooks lest we think this is a
millennial issue with student loan debt
topping a trillion dollars financial
instability is hurting all Americans
with 76% of us well there’s a actual
slide with 76% of us living paycheck to
paycheck and 85% of people admitting
that they’re financially stressed
anxious and concerned we’ve got a pretty
big issue and yes
ouch it does hurt after college I did
AmeriCorps and I worked at a nonprofit
that helped low income individuals start
businesses and while we were teaching
business courses I quickly realized that
they needed personal finances first
since this was foundational to business
success and once we started teaching the
personal finance courses it was like
opening the floodgates people loved
being able to ask and get their
questions answered some of which they
had for years Wow after that I worked at
Google with some of the most brilliant
people I’ve ever met and what was truly
mind-blowing was that in AmeriCorps the
people’s questions were the exact same
as the people who were getting 4.0 at
places like Stanford Harvard and the
best universities around the world
including obviously the University of
Michigan the bottom line is this that it
doesn’t matter where you’re at on the
socio-economic spectrum whether you’re
black white low-income high income no
matter who you are
everyone wants to know am i doing it
right
so after all that I’ve experienced and
gone through I decided to leave Google
and start a company that was dedicated
to helping people improve their
financial health and wellness so that
they could reach their financial
financial goals and dreams at this point
I’ve worked with thousands of
individuals companies and organizations
across the country
and tonight I want to share an idea with
you that I think can reshape the way we
approach personal finances in America
one that will make our country more
equitable and hopefully and just maybe
make people a little less stressed
it’s called financial justice and
financial justice is the equal and fair
ability for all individuals in society
to pursue a financially independent
secure and healthy life we’re the
richest country in the world and nearly
70 percent of us have little mini
supercomputers tucked into our pockets
and yet we have a long way to go to weed
out the financial injustice that
cripples our security and health maybe
somebody will magically come from the
back and give me a new clicker but until
then we’ll talk about the three keys to
increasing the level of financial
justice in our country
number one information we’ve got a major
information issue that really needs to
be addressed let me show you what I mean
you should be
into savings every month as much as you
can
10% of your paycheck right there’s only
20% of every check I thought was more
like 10
what’s 10 I think it’s 10 percent yeah
what’s a FICO score it stands for
federal Isaac company financial I don’t
actually remember I don’t know that’s it
yeah it gets me every time they’re there
chuckles and they’re nervous laughs
barely concealed the fact that they just
realized they don’t know something
really important right when we don’t
have good information or we have too
much of it that isn’t easily digestible
it becomes way harder to make good
decisions
I’ve had people break down in tears in
front of me because of their financial
concerns and after 30 minutes of just a
couple of good pieces of information
they’re able to walk away empowered
educated and able to act good
information is powerful and it is truly
a key to raising our level of financial
justice in our country
number two financial equality we have to
work towards a greater sense of equality
in our country by a quick show of hands
how many of you have heard of the wage
gap pretty much everyone here the wage
gap results in women making five hundred
thousand dollars less than men over the
course of their lifetimes and it’s even
more drastic for minorities now here’s
something you might not have heard of
that’s lurking right beneath the surface
I call it the expense gap the expense
gap is the difference in expenses that
one group faces compared to another and
while there are many examples out there
let’s again think about men and women
women have to buy feminine hygiene
products like tampons over the in
decades for their lives right
and if the couple of people that did not
snap if you’re a little squeamish
because I just said tampons wait until
you hear this I’ve actually calculated
that the cost of tampons over the course
of a woman’s lifetime will add up to
another eighty thousand three hundred
and ninety one dollars now it now adds
up to six hundred thousand dollars in
lifetime difference that women are set
back compared to men and hopefully by
uncovering these areas of inequality we
can start to work towards better
solutions key number three transparency
and access we have to increase the
amount of transparency and access in the
financial arena so people don’t continue
to get exploited by financial companies
I’ll share a quick story with you I’ll
share a longer story with you
Kylie is 35 years old and she’s got a
great financial foundation already she’s
got no debt she’s got a couple of
fantastic kids and she’s well on her way
to retirement but when we looked at her
retirement account we realized as she
was getting charged a ridiculously high
fee that was going to cost her over ten
thousand dollars throughout her life now
fortunately we were able to make a
couple of changes real quickly and so
she was able to avoid this but even the
1% fee which sounds small but is really
high compared to what else is out there
can add up to a lifetime difference in
three hundred thousand dollars in
lifetime lost wealth let’s do another
quick poll how many of you have heard of
the term food desert alright we got a
pretty enlightened crowd here
nice work food deserts are places all
over America that both urban and rural
where it’s difficult to access
high-quality food there are also
financial deserts all around us that
nearly overlap on top of food deserts
and what I mean by this is where you
find the Whole Foods you’re gonna find
the bank of
Ericka’s in the JPMorgan’s and where you
find the corner store selling the sugary
food and drink is where you’re going to
find the predatory payday lenders and
check cashers that are waiting to
exploit the next people that walk
through their doors this lack of access
continues to perpetuate the level of
financial injustice in our country so
the big question is what can we do about
it and the obvious answer is we play
soccer when I was growing up I was the
goalie and at one point I had a really
cool t-shirt it said last line of
defense first line of offense and while
this mindset served me well on the field
I think it’s the analogy that can help
us move forward financially so let’s
look first at offense we have to
proactively seek information we can’t
sit back on our heels and let the world
happen to us we have to look forward and
I would challenge you to go home tonight
and start to identify a couple of goals
that seem important to you and narrow it
down to just one and I want you to
develop a game plan and a strategy on
how you think you’re going to get there
and it can take months years and even
decades to reach various financial
milestones but by starting now and being
intentional and playing offense you can
start to score one financial goal at a
time defensively we have to be defensive
consumers the financial the financial
industry is trying to score goals on you
by getting you to sign up for and buy
their stuff so how do we play defense we
ask questions we ask why when I was a
middle school math teacher on the west
side of Chicago and my students would
give me an answer I would ask them why
and then they would give me another
answer and I would ask them why over and
over again until they would throw their
hands up and say ok we get it keep
asking why
well why did the screen go blank that’s
the question so in in sort of conclusion
by taking a stand both defensively and
offensively I believe that we can become
more financially healthy both
individually and as a country and by
focusing on these three keys information
equality and transparency I am confident
that we can improve we’ve got a
multi-million multi trillion dollar
opportunity to take a stand for
financial justice that makes our country
more financially healthy less stressed
and I think it can improve the lives of
all Americans but if we take a stand for
nothing then I think we will fall for
everything
thank you
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
why is it that 300 million Americans
have basic questions about personal
finances my first big financial question
came when the clicker didn’t work the
clicker networks my question is answered
my first question came when I applied to
the University of Michigan and while you
might have be while you might be
assuming I was trying to figure out how
to pay for tuition my question was
actually much simpler how do I pay for
the $40 application fee at the time I
didn’t have the money and so I had to
borrow $40 from a neighbor that was
willing to help me out by the time I got
to my senior year I couldn’t afford a
place to stay so I slept in the back of
my car so I could stay in school and it
got me thinking why does the quick
clicker still not work
it’s gonna be the theme of the TED talk
just kidding it got me thinking
one finances are really tough and two I
considered myself lucky while I was
still in school the economy was
collapsing around us and what we now
know was a Great Recession people were
losing their jobs they were losing their
homes retirement accounts built over
decades were shrinking and savings
accounts were vanishing I really started
to think about it and my question was
you know why do we not equip people with
the ability to learn about personal
finances why do we not equip people to
adapt and change to the economy which
shifts all the time in school we teach
the chambers of the heart and yes
biology is important we spend a great
deal of time talking about chemistry
reading Shakespeare and learning world
history as we should but if these are
deemed of vital importance would it not
stand to reason that a subject that is
as ubiquitous as it is essential is not
worth teaching to the average American
has eight thousand dollars in credit
card debt which costs over a thousand
dollars in interest each year just have
a piece of plastic in their wallet when
I graduated our commencement speaker
President Obama delivered a resounding
message of hope which is now so absent
in her country
but he really did he delivered a message
of hope and while it was inspiring I was
sitting there acutely aware of the fact
that I had four thousand dollars in
credit card debt from buying both
textbooks and beer throughout college
and I promise I promise it was mostly
textbooks lest we think this is a
millennial issue with student loan debt
topping a trillion dollars financial
instability is hurting all Americans
with 76% of us well there’s a actual
slide with 76% of us living paycheck to
paycheck and 85% of people admitting
that they’re financially stressed
anxious and concerned we’ve got a pretty
big issue and yes
ouch it does hurt after college I did
AmeriCorps and I worked at a nonprofit
that helped low income individuals start
businesses and while we were teaching
business courses I quickly realized that
they needed personal finances first
since this was foundational to business
success and once we started teaching the
personal finance courses it was like
opening the floodgates people loved
being able to ask and get their
questions answered some of which they
had for years Wow after that I worked at
Google with some of the most brilliant
people I’ve ever met and what was truly
mind-blowing was that in AmeriCorps the
people’s questions were the exact same
as the people who were getting 4.0 at
places like Stanford Harvard and the
best universities around the world
including obviously the University of
Michigan the bottom line is this that it
doesn’t matter where you’re at on the
socio-economic spectrum whether you’re
black white low-income high income no
matter who you are
everyone wants to know am i doing it
right
so after all that I’ve experienced and
gone through I decided to leave Google
and start a company that was dedicated
to helping people improve their
financial health and wellness so that
they could reach their financial
financial goals and dreams at this point
I’ve worked with thousands of
individuals companies and organizations
across the country
and tonight I want to share an idea with
you that I think can reshape the way we
approach personal finances in America
one that will make our country more
equitable and hopefully and just maybe
make people a little less stressed
it’s called financial justice and
financial justice is the equal and fair
ability for all individuals in society
to pursue a financially independent
secure and healthy life we’re the
richest country in the world and nearly
70 percent of us have little mini
supercomputers tucked into our pockets
and yet we have a long way to go to weed
out the financial injustice that
cripples our security and health maybe
somebody will magically come from the
back and give me a new clicker but until
then we’ll talk about the three keys to
increasing the level of financial
justice in our country
number one information we’ve got a major
information issue that really needs to
be addressed let me show you what I mean
you should be
into savings every month as much as you
can
10% of your paycheck right there’s only
20% of every check I thought was more
like 10
what’s 10 I think it’s 10 percent yeah
what’s a FICO score it stands for
federal Isaac company financial I don’t
actually remember I don’t know that’s it
yeah it gets me every time they’re there
chuckles and they’re nervous laughs
barely concealed the fact that they just
realized they don’t know something
really important right when we don’t
have good information or we have too
much of it that isn’t easily digestible
it becomes way harder to make good
decisions
I’ve had people break down in tears in
front of me because of their financial
concerns and after 30 minutes of just a
couple of good pieces of information
they’re able to walk away empowered
educated and able to act good
information is powerful and it is truly
a key to raising our level of financial
justice in our country
number two financial equality we have to
work towards a greater sense of equality
in our country by a quick show of hands
how many of you have heard of the wage
gap pretty much everyone here the wage
gap results in women making five hundred
thousand dollars less than men over the
course of their lifetimes and it’s even
more drastic for minorities now here’s
something you might not have heard of
that’s lurking right beneath the surface
I call it the expense gap the expense
gap is the difference in expenses that
one group faces compared to another and
while there are many examples out there
let’s again think about men and women
women have to buy feminine hygiene
products like tampons over the in
decades for their lives right
and if the couple of people that did not
snap if you’re a little squeamish
because I just said tampons wait until
you hear this I’ve actually calculated
that the cost of tampons over the course
of a woman’s lifetime will add up to
another eighty thousand three hundred
and ninety one dollars now it now adds
up to six hundred thousand dollars in
lifetime difference that women are set
back compared to men and hopefully by
uncovering these areas of inequality we
can start to work towards better
solutions key number three transparency
and access we have to increase the
amount of transparency and access in the
financial arena so people don’t continue
to get exploited by financial companies
I’ll share a quick story with you I’ll
share a longer story with you
Kylie is 35 years old and she’s got a
great financial foundation already she’s
got no debt she’s got a couple of
fantastic kids and she’s well on her way
to retirement but when we looked at her
retirement account we realized as she
was getting charged a ridiculously high
fee that was going to cost her over ten
thousand dollars throughout her life now
fortunately we were able to make a
couple of changes real quickly and so
she was able to avoid this but even the
1% fee which sounds small but is really
high compared to what else is out there
can add up to a lifetime difference in
three hundred thousand dollars in
lifetime lost wealth let’s do another
quick poll how many of you have heard of
the term food desert alright we got a
pretty enlightened crowd here
nice work food deserts are places all
over America that both urban and rural
where it’s difficult to access
high-quality food there are also
financial deserts all around us that
nearly overlap on top of food deserts
and what I mean by this is where you
find the Whole Foods you’re gonna find
the bank of
Ericka’s in the JPMorgan’s and where you
find the corner store selling the sugary
food and drink is where you’re going to
find the predatory payday lenders and
check cashers that are waiting to
exploit the next people that walk
through their doors this lack of access
continues to perpetuate the level of
financial injustice in our country so
the big question is what can we do about
it and the obvious answer is we play
soccer when I was growing up I was the
goalie and at one point I had a really
cool t-shirt it said last line of
defense first line of offense and while
this mindset served me well on the field
I think it’s the analogy that can help
us move forward financially so let’s
look first at offense we have to
proactively seek information we can’t
sit back on our heels and let the world
happen to us we have to look forward and
I would challenge you to go home tonight
and start to identify a couple of goals
that seem important to you and narrow it
down to just one and I want you to
develop a game plan and a strategy on
how you think you’re going to get there
and it can take months years and even
decades to reach various financial
milestones but by starting now and being
intentional and playing offense you can
start to score one financial goal at a
time defensively we have to be defensive
consumers the financial the financial
industry is trying to score goals on you
by getting you to sign up for and buy
their stuff so how do we play defense we
ask questions we ask why when I was a
middle school math teacher on the west
side of Chicago and my students would
give me an answer I would ask them why
and then they would give me another
answer and I would ask them why over and
over again until they would throw their
hands up and say ok we get it keep
asking why
well why did the screen go blank that’s
the question so in in sort of conclusion
by taking a stand both defensively and
offensively I believe that we can become
more financially healthy both
individually and as a country and by
focusing on these three keys information
equality and transparency I am confident
that we can improve we’ve got a
multi-million multi trillion dollar
opportunity to take a stand for
financial justice that makes our country
more financially healthy less stressed
and I think it can improve the lives of
all Americans but if we take a stand for
nothing then I think we will fall for
everything
thank you
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
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