Financial Literacy Workshop

In honor of tax day we decided to do a talk with our students on the importance of being financially responsible. We introduced them to basic financial terms as well as showed them the steps they can be taking now as teens to set themselves up for success.

We started our talk with a statistic…

56% OF AMERICAN’S DON’T HAVE ENOUGH SAVINGS TO PAY FOR A $1,000 EMERGENCY.

We thought those were compelling numbers. We recognize that money doesn’t equal happiness but it can help you live comfortably and not cause stress or panic in the case of an emergency.

We want our students to not fall on the wrong side of that statistic. For them, that starts now. We walked them through some of the many paths they can take when they leave high school. We also broke down the pros and cons of each.

Choosing a career path is a scary thought for most teens. Some can’t think that far ahead or still don’t know what they’d enjoy doing as a career. We tried to keep our talk casual and fun because sometimes discussing school and future plans can be intimidating to them.

To help them see the path’s they can take from here, we profiled some of our students and showed what their lives would be like if they went down a good path and a wrong path. We called them “Boss” and “Broke” versions of themselves. Their boss version is future them—who did well in school, saved money, stayed out of trouble, and established a successful career. Their broke version is future them—who neglected school, didn’t save money, got in trouble, and couldn’t land a successful career. This was an eye-opening experience for them and it got lots of laughs.

Our talk was a success and we plan on doing this every year. We teach boxing classes to our students so they can live healthy but we also see ourselves as mentors to our students. We want to guide them to success both in and out of the ring.