Hello and welcome to Arkansas Week I'm Chris Cain.

This week our focus is on finance and specifically how to be financially confident.

Later in the program will discuss how Arkansans can protect themselves from financial scams and fraud before looking at how we prepare the next generation to make smart financial decisions.

First, we're talking about building a strong financial foundation.

Whether you're beginning your career, raising a family, or maybe you're thinking about retirement right now, today's financial decisions can have a lasting impact.

Joining us to break it all down, our guest today, Michelle Underwood, gas registered life planner and certified financial planner with Paradigm Advisors, Rockland Rock cinnamon certified Financial planner with Fiduciary Wealth Management.

And doctor Laura Hendricks, associate professor of personal finance and consumer economics with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service.

Welcome to you all.

Thanks so much for joining us.

We talk about financial planning.

I'm sure right now some of our audience is feeling excited.

Some of them are feeling anxious depending on where they are in life.

So Michelle, let's start first with just financial planning.

I feel like some folks feel like that is an investment thought first, right?

Where they're just thinking about, okay, what investments do I need to make?

But really, you say it's about planning the life you want to live.

What do you mean by that?

What I mean by that is money really just our tool.

And people get caught up in all the lingo and what's going on with with financial planning and with investing.

But at the end of the day, it's aligning your money with your time and your values.

And so what we like to do is say, here's what I have to work with.

Here's where I want to go.

Let's put it together and get to the life that we want to live and enjoy the journey.

And it's something that you want to start early, because if you don't start early, it may be too late.

It's never too, too late, but it is something you want to get ahead of.

Laura, let's talk about that starting process and financial habits in terms of foundation.

What do people need to be mindful of as they lay that plan out for success?

So I think there are a couple of things.

One is that that some of the practices we'll talk about today, those spending habits and saving habits and investing, those are all things we know are proven to help people build financial stability and build wealth.

But sometimes it's not always easy to do the things we know we should do, like saving more and spending less.

So what Michelle mentioned about using all of the resources in your life to create the life you want, and that's where we get the motivation to do the things that we know we need to do.

So the rest of that is just knowledge.

But but tapping into that motivation, and I think that's for people to take the time to explore what they really want out of life, because many and all of those other resources serve the purpose of helping us build the life we want.

And if someone is beginning that process, if they don't have much to invest, or if they feel like they don't have enough.

What do you guide them through in that process of helping them understand the beginning and laying that foundation?

Yeah.

So it's very important to start with that foundation.

I'm glad our guests mentioned that the financial plan is basically a roadmap to your financial future, and the financial plan will help dictate what the investments look like in the portfolio.

So when we talk about financial planning, it's really easy to get a little bit overwhelmed.

Right.

So you know, are we tax planning, are we doing our investments etc.. When really it all boils down to what are my goals?

What is my time frame?

What are we investing for?

And once we answer those questions, it's pretty easy to put together an investment plan, which is fairly simple.

It's not too complicated.

Well, think about this.

Someone.

Let's say they are just now exiting college.

They're into the workforce.

How valuable is it to say those things out loud?

Because really, you're thinking, okay, I just want to get started.

Where do I start?

And if you don't verbalize or write down those goals, it can be tough to achieve them one day, right?

Absolutely.

You want to have that that plan so you know where you're going.

And it serves as that roadmap.

So, you know, for those that are just getting out of college or maybe getting their first job, work retirement plans are a great place to start.

You know, that's where I got my start in investing and I remember it to this day.

So definitely follow the plan and use the resources that are available to you.

Michelle, let's talk about some of the hiccups that folks might experience, some financial mistakes, early things that if anyone watching right now made any of these, hopefully they can be remedied.

But what are things to watch out for?

To maybe avoid some early mistakes?

What are what would you recommend?

Well, like Rock said, start now and really with with your first job.

Remember, for those of us that wherever you came from before, you probably with your first real job, you're making a little more money than you did.

Remember what it was like before you had that.

And take your savings.

As long as you can take up to 20% of your money and put it in savings first, just automate it.

Get it off the table.

You have a sign at of mine, you'll spend whatever's there.

Yeah, so get that off the table.

But to rock's point, start with your employer plan.

Because so many of these employer plans, they have great incentives where a lot of them will match dollar for dollar.

Like if I put a dollar in, the company will put a dollar in.

So you're getting 100% return.

Day one, it's part of your paycheck.

Take advantage of that and really use it to your benefit.

And there's a lot of other employee benefit options that are out there, whether it's health savings accounts, some of the things like that.

So don't be intimidated by the terminology and the lingo.

Find somebody who, in your boss or whoever they can help you navigate through that and just start putting it aside.

If it's only $10, hopefully it's more than $10.

But if it's only $10 a paycheck, then bump it up over time.

But don't say I can't afford to save yet, so I'm not saving any.

Just get started.

And Laura, budgeting can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially early on.

Maybe for a young family, someone who's bringing a child into the world where all of a sudden that could that could make a budget go upside down quickly.

So how can families create the budget and then stick with it?

What are some of the tools and resources you like to point them to, to be able to follow that kind of plan?

And I think that's a great point that you mentioned.

Things happen in life that can once you have a budget or a spending plan in place, things happen.

We like to think it's always going to be a stroll through the park, but it's not.

So some of the things that happen that can upset a budget or a spending plan are good things, but then also just unexpected things.

So planning ahead for those unexpected things.

We've talked a lot about goals, planning ahead for goals, but also kind of having a little safety there for an expected expenses.

So the purpose of a spending plan or a budget is really to help people match income and expenses so that they're living within their income.

So that's that's a good financial place to start for building financial stability.

That may sound like a no brainer, but a lot of people have trouble making ends meet month to month.

So just writing out all expenses and all income and making sure that that that household budget matches those and then trying to put a little bit of money away, not just for saving and investing, but also for an emergency savings fund just in anticipation of unexpected things, whether they be good or bad.

So you have a little money there for that.

So they'll search some really good kind of ground rules for starting a household budget.

We were just mentioning a moment ago, Michelle talked about the employee match plans and how valuable that could be, but it also can be a challenge for younger individuals to see that value.

How do you help younger individuals who maybe are in their early 20s or even younger than that, they're working.

See, that is something you you have the opportunity to use.

You can take advantage of this.

And it's really, as Michelle mentioned, if it's dollar for dollar, like some employment places offer, that's money you don't want to leave on the table.

So you got to get over.

You have to overcome that mentality of, oh, well, that's taking money out of my paycheck now, but later on it will be extremely valuable.

Absolutely.

You just have to educate and encourage, you know, the younger generation to invest, right.

So it is, you know, impactful when you see money coming out of your paycheck.

But ultimately down the road, it's going to lead to long term financial success.

And I've seen so many instances where I've encouraged, you know, younger investors to start saving.

And boy, 2 or 3 years later, they're calling me going, wow, I can't believe how much I have it now in my retirement account.

And it's it's really a good feeling when you push someone to, to do something they're uncomfortable to do with investments, and then they see the reward and it's very impactful.

Michelle, how do you help people balance the enjoyment of life with also the planning for the future, especially in today's environment where it feels like everything now can be bought with a click of a button anywhere in the world as long as you have service.

Absolutely, absolutely.

The main thing is to get it out.

So it's it's automated and it never is part of your spending.

So to the budgeting 50, 30, 20 as a rule that comes out a lot.

If you save 20% of your whatever your net pay is, you never have to worry about it anymore.

The other 80% you can spend on all those needs and wants and desires, and as long as they're aligned with what matters to you, that's great.

Some people like, you know, nice dinner.

Some people like to go to the lake, some people want to get apartment.

So whatever it is, whatever matters most to you, that's when you take the other 80% and you align it with your values.

One thing to think about with money, it is your tool.

But you can do one of four things.

You can spend it.

You can save it for an emergency fund.

You can invest it or you can give it.

And really, what is the job of every dollar I make?

What's its job?

And if you think of it more that way, that it has a job to do, and how can it best serve me?

Sometimes it takes some of that pressure off of I've got to have it all now, I see.

I love the way you plan it all out like that, when you can put it in percentages and set that as the goal.

And Laura, I know that's what you all talk about to help people set those good habits early, because the value of setting the good habits hopefully will be something that lasts for a long time and continue to pay off over and over again.

So I think I would add to that as well.

Going back to sometimes we know what we need to do, but it's hard to do.

You know, we come to financial management with our unique set of values and life experiences.

So those are influencing our spending and our buying.

So just being aware of that.

And then sometimes if we're co-mingling finances with someone could be a spouse or someone else, we're bringing to the table their whole background and life experiences in attitudes about many management too.

So there are places in life where it's not always a cost benefit analysis decision, but we have to be aware of all of those other things that are influencing money management.

And for anyone nearing retirement, we've talked a lot about the early stages, right, getting setting those good foundations.

What about those folks who have made those plans, who have done the the homework, so to speak, required to get to a certain point of life where you want to see that payoff.

What should they be thinking about to make sure they're prepared to make that jump?

Yeah.

So it's very rewarding for me to to meet with clients that have done the work and they've saved appropriately for retirement.

I think as you approach retirement, it is very important to refresh the plan, right, to take a look at the data, run some updated projections on the retirement plan, and, you know, kind of get your arms around all of your accounts.

So you might have different accounts at different firms, which could be burdensome in retirement.

So I think it's a good time to maybe consolidate accounts which can be helpful at tax time.

And, you know, take a look at the projections to see, you know, am I going to be okay through retirement?

Michelle.

Inflation can quietly, as Brock mentioned, important to reassess.

Right.

And where you probably started planning at one point it the markets change.

So how important is that to sit down with someone and make sure they understand before making that move to retire that the current marketplace aligns with whatever their financial goals were when they set them maybe 20, 30, 40 plus years ago.

Yeah.

Well, and really, life's life changes.

It's not linear.

So you're you're constantly changing what matters most.

I'm the, the base of it's the same.

But but how do you plan for that.

And the taxes to the retirement is the biggest thing.

There's so much opportunity.

If I'm paying I get a dollar, or that dollar either goes to me in one way or another or goes to Uncle Sam.

If I can reduce legally what I say, I'm over my lifetime.

That's more money in my pocket.

I think that's one thing so many people forget.

They look at investment returns and what can I do with my money investing?

They forget about after tax after fees, what actually stays in my pocket and and how do I control that?

The net.

Right.

The net.

Exactly, exactly.

And rock is markets change over time.

How do you, you know, help clients stay focused and stay in the game, so to speak, and not get worried about market volatility is something that happens over the course of of any country.

Right.

And it's going to become and so how do you get them to stay focused and stay on their goals requires discipline.

Right.

And my job is to help clients with that discipline.

And it goes back to the saving as well.

When early on in your investing career, when you start saving, it's hard.

But if you're disciplined, you will get used to it and build a portfolio.

So as far as volatility in the markets and how do we stay disciplined with our investments.

It's it's part of it's part of investing right.

So a diversified portfolio which everyone should have right is not going to eliminate market risk.

But it will make the returns a lot smoother.

And Laura tell me about the Cooperative Extension Service programs that you all offer.

This is something that I know you're very proud of.

To be able to provide resources to, to folks out there at any stage of life, to be able to help meet their financial goals.

The extension service is part of the University of Arkansas system.

It's been around for over 100 years, and in family and consumer sciences, we have offices in all 75 counties and county, family and consumer sciences agents who do non-formal community education.

So taking this reliable, non-biased financial information out into communities around the state to help improve quality of life for Arkansans.

And Michelle, when should someone start working with a financial planner?

You know, probably not 12 or 16 maybe, but at what point would you encourage someone to step into an office and really start to lay out the plan?

I guess it depends, is the answer people always give, but there's a lot of resources out there and I would think through the state there's resources.

Even if you don't need to go hire a financial planner today, there's other resources you can rely on and podcasts and books and just educating yourself and removing the stigma and the intimidation of it.

Once you get more financially confident that it's just like anything else.

And to Laura's point, a lot of our money habits we learned as kids and maybe it was 5 to 7 years old, or parents didn't realize what they were teaching us by what they watched, but they saw how we handled money.

And that lives with you.

And so money creates a lot of angst for a lot of people and emotion.

It should just be a thing.

But it's a very emotional concept.

So the more you can get in touch with yourself and understand why am I behaving the way I'm behaving and do a little introspective?

It's not really hiring an advisor.

Sometimes you can get an advisor that's a one time hourly.

Other times through these big companies, I'm sure they have resources that you can go talk to someone and get some input from them, which will be very helpful.

You don't have to actually hire an advisor to do that, but anytime you've got big life changes, most of our clients are mid-career, so they're starting to make a lot more money than they did when they started.

They don't want to screw it up.

Maybe they've got young children.

They know that they've got this beautiful opportunity, but how do I do it and do it right?

I don't know what I don't know.

And so a lot of times that's when it really makes sense to step in and have somebody else to be your coach and help you navigate through that as your income is going up and and as you've got more options available.

Speaking of options, I want to touch on just the different options available in investing now.

I mean, and we mentioned buying things at your fingertips, investing now at your fingertips.

And there's just so much now that gets it can be overwhelming I think for anyone who is interested in investing in their future, whether they collaborate with a financial planner or do it themselves, how do you help guide people through the current process or the current landscape that we are all in?

With so many different options now in the marketplace, and how do you guide them through that?

It can be overwhelming, right?

But it's it really boils down to saving.

And in what type of account do I want to save.

Right.

Is it a taxable account?

Is it a retirement account or maybe even a Roth account?

So most can do the research and learn what may be the best fit for them.

Or a financial professional can help, certainly.

But then, you know, once you decide what type of account do I need, what's the amount we're going to save?

Where do we put it?

And that's where a financial professional can really help.

And it's really not that complicated.

You know, just building a well diversified portfolio using different instruments like ETFs or mutual funds, which are just diversified baskets of investments, can really help simplify things and make it easier.

Laura, I imagine and maybe I'm speaking for myself here, but I imagine there's others out there watching that feel this.

Anytime a budget meeting is called in the household, it can bring on a little stress and anxiety maybe.

So how do you all at the Cooperative Extension Service help build financial confidence?

So when those budget meetings happen, however, often there's not an anxious wait for that meeting to start with your significant other where it's more like, okay, this is we just need to update our plan instead of worrying about whatever has been happening.

I like the term spending plan.

I think it's a little a little friendlier than the word budget.

And I think households should have a regular kind of a regular date with their spending plan, maybe a little coffee date with their spending regular basis to talk about money.

So it's not something that you just talk about when there's a crisis.

And and speaking of financial crisis, that can be so stressful.

So I think both Rock and Michelle have mentioned that one of the things they do is help guide the people they work with through some of these big life financial decisions.

Those are going to come up.

So having a regular time that you talk together about finances and how you're going to address those things is is really, really helpful.

And another thing that I would mention to, we've talked a lot about investing, but kind of some other pieces of that are spending and credit and debt management.

So why is spending and wise use of credit and management of debt free up more money for saving and investing?

So that's part of that big picture.

Yes.

You mentioned budget may be a scary word.

Debt, another one for some.

So how do you take away some of the stigma on that.

Right.

Is that what you guys help people understand how there's actually opportunities with that as opposed to thinking it's all negative?

Absolutely.

So there are smart ways to use credit and to manage debt.

All right.

Before we go, I want to ask all all of you to answer this, please, one piece of financial advice from this conversation we've had today to our viewers, Michelle, start with you.

What is something you want viewers to really take home today as whether they're at any stage in life, starting out, maybe just starting a family or they're thinking, hey, in the next five years I'm looking to retire.

What is one piece of advice you would have for them is they kind of navigate the financial landscape of life.

Well, I guess the first thing is no shame, no blame.

We are where we are and we make the best use of where we are at this stage in time.

And you can't look back if you look back and beat yourself up for spending or anything that's going on.

You're really going to get in your head.

So it is what it is.

Just make the best of it and make the best decisions you can moving forward with those resources that are out there.

Rock.

The earlier the better.

You know, if if someone's watching today and hasn't started a plan or started saving, do it.

You know, start next week.

Because once you make that decision in that step, it's probably one of the best decisions of your life.

Laura and I, I would say take that time to envision the life that you want for yourself and use money and all of the resources available to achieve that goal.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate all of you.

Michelle, Rock and Laura, thank you so much for your wisdom, your time, and certainly hope that it helps alleviate some stress out there from any household who is going through a spending plan, as we are now doubling it.

No more budget meetings.

Yes.

So thank you guys so much.

Again, we appreciate you.

We'll see you next time.

Thank you so much.

All right.

After the break we're going to focus on protecting your money from investment fraud to romance scams and identity theft.

There's a lot out there.

We're going to discuss practical ways to recognize all the red flags before you become a victim.

Stay with us.

Building wealth is important, but protecting it is just as critical.

Financial scams continue to evolve, making education and awareness more important than ever.

Well, joining us to talk about it all is Campbell McLaurin.

He is deputy security commissioner with the Arkansas Securities Department.

And Campbell, thanks for joining us.

We appreciate the time.

And this is important information.

I'll start with just this.

Tell us about the department you work.

You've been there 16 years, which is incredible.

I know you've seen a lot of changes over the time, but when people see department or deputy securities commissioner, what does that mean exactly?

Well, it's a good question.

We do a lot of things at the securities department.

I'll start with the securities industry.

So we are the state regulator of the securities industry in Arkansas.

And what that means is we register the firms and the individuals that sell securities and provide investment advice in the state.

So we register those individuals and those firms by checking their background, making sure they have all the requisite exams, that firms have the net worth in place, if they have the proper bonds in place to do business, so that safety and soundness measures are met before they ever enter the state and perform business.

And then we also examine our registrants and firms.

So we go in and and look at their practices.

And we also register the securities and investments that are sold in the state.

So we check those for proper disclosure to make sure that any investor in Arkansas who opts to buy that security would have all the necessary information that they need to to make a good financial decision.

We have an enforcement section in our office that brings cases for and brings investigations for potential violations of the securities laws, and we have an investor education section that goes out and attempts to educate the public on financial literacy matters and also on anti-fraud education.

So we do quite a bit of things at the security department, and it's in some ways it's a bit of a misnomer because it's not a comprehensive name for everything that we do.

So we have two other industries within our department that we regulate.

So we regulate non depository mortgage lenders.

And we also so if you think of private companies that aren't attached to a bank that provide mortgage services to the public.

So some of your larger names would be your rocket mortgage, your loan depot, that type of thing.

And we also regulate the money services industry in Arkansas.

So that business model being one where one person goes into a business, they tender money over to send it to a third party.

So the sort of the traditional model would be your Western Union, where you walk into a branch with cash and you wire it.

That's evolved in modern times to a lot of the peer to peer services that are out there now.

Your cash apps, your PayPal's, your Venmo all fall under our jurisdiction.

And and even more recently, a lot of your digital asset companies that where you're purchasing digital assets, moving them into wallets, those exchanges fall under our jurisdiction as well.

So when we say securities department on its face, it doesn't quite describe everything that we do.

But that's in a nutshell what we do.

And consumer protection, investor protection are the Polestar considerations for everything that we do as a department.

And so that's that's our guiding principle.

So for all the regulations that we have ultimately they're designed to build stable financial markets, help promote responsible finance, responsible capital formation and protect consumers and investors from, you know, potential harm.

Let's talk about some of those financial scams that you're seeing in your office today.

Like you said, they have changed a lot over time, becoming unfortunately more sophisticated.

So what are some of the things that folks need to watch out for right now is they're probably being bombarded with spam call after spam call every evening these days?

Yeah, I think everyone can relate to those.

And financial fraud is rampant.

And, you know, I can start by just throwing a few numbers out there, that sort of paint part of the picture of what we're looking at with financial fraud.

The Federal Trade Commission in 2025 issued a report that said, you know, $75 billion was lost in the United States nationwide to various types of financial fraud.

So that's a big figure, $21 million of of that or $21 billion of that, 75 billion was lost by people 60 aged 60 and over.

So we're talking substantial figures.

The FBI has an internet Crime Complaint center, which also known as IC3, that also produces a report which is based on internet promoted frauds, internet crimes.

And they estimated that about $21 billion were lost in internet promoted frauds in 2025, and $75 million of that was lost right here in Arkansas.

Those numbers tell a pretty strong story, but the real story is that experts believe that only about 25% of frauds are actually reported to some agency, so.

Or some law enforcement.

So what you're really looking at is just a piece.

Those reports just tell a piece of the overall story.

And there's a reason why those why frauds are underreported.

And one primary reason is there's a significant psychological barrier to doing so.

You know, not only when a fraud is committed does it hurt a pocketbook, but it also hurts a person.

And they may be ashamed to come forward and tell someone about it.

Maybe they lost money that's going to affect their fixed income or affect their financial future, and they don't want anyone to know about it.

Maybe they lost an inheritance, maybe they're already in bereavement and we're susceptible to some sort of a fraud or a scam.

So there's a lot of reasons why those go underreported.

So the true picture, while the numbers are glaring, the real picture is even more staggering.

And you mentioned the 65 and older or 60 and older statistic.

And I know that's more awareness has been placed on that.

And how important is it for the loved ones in the anyone's life who is over that age, who may not see some of these scams and how they've changed and how good they're becoming now in terms of impersonating loved ones or impersonating the numbers or contacts of them, of getting that education out there, being upfront about it, and also making them aware that there is no shame in this because some of this, especially in the world of AI, like you guys have seen, are becoming almost indistinguishable from real life calls and emails and texts and even with video these days.

Yeah, I mean, the perpetrators are becoming more and more sophisticated and technology is allowing that to happen.

And also, you know, the world has grown to be such a smaller place just with with the internet and engagement in the internet, the barriers to social to entry on social media aren't what they once were.

You know, I think everybody's grandmother has a Facebook account.

You know, everybody's great aunt is on Facebook.

And when you post something, they're the first to give you that thumbs up, you know.

And so but what, you know, and that's great for for social engagement.

But it also means that they're in some way susceptible to being victimized by someone who may live across the globe.

And, you know, those types of things bring people together, but and in good ways, but also in ways that can be harmful.

And so I think it's important to educate the public to, to look for certain red flags that may be out there with our elders, because they are primary targets for a number of reasons.

You know, they generally are living longer, so they have a larger lump sum of money that may be there for fraudster perpetrator to, to try to get.

They may be isolated and so they may be alone and, and they tend to be more trusting and they tend to not report frauds or scams.

And so those are some of the reasons why our elders or, or more victimized trusted contact.

How is that identified?

Yeah.

So a trusted contact is is something that we recommend for, for for everyone to have on their account, on their securities accounts and what that is, that's a person who cannot make financial decisions in the account.

But let's say an older person suddenly become susceptible to some sort of dementia.

Or if there's a suspected fraud on the account, then the the advisor or the firm that's dealing with that account can contact that trusted contact and let them know of an issue of an emergency type issue, and then that trusted contact can kind of step in and try to guide that account holder through that process to avoid being victimized by a fraud.

So so it's kind of a safety net in place.

So if someone feels like it's not a scam that they're doing, someone can step in and say, no, you really need to look a little deeper into this.

And the institution that has that trusted contact can collaborate with both parties instead of just going through one.

Right?

Yeah, that's that's right.

And, you know, sometimes the person who's being scammed is adamant that they're not being scammed, right.

You know, and and what's what looks real to them may look very obvious to someone else.

And, and you know, we working in the securities industry as, as the state regulator.

And we're very fortunate to work with a group of people who do a lot of good in the community.

And often, you know, our registrants know their clients so well, especially in small town situations, that they can be one of the first to tell that something is amiss.

You know, that there's some sort of a transactional request that doesn't meet with their previous patterns of behavior.

They may know just engaging with them that something is wrong.

And so those can be red flags to them to then reach out to a trusted contact to say, hey, I think we have an issue here that may need to be dealt with.

But again, that person doesn't have power of attorney.

You know, there are all sorts of other legal documents there, but a trusted contact adds a little bit of protection, especially in the age of when things like dementia are becoming some, some much more prevalent as people grow older.

You know, dementia sort of an umbrella term for all the different types of cognitive ailments that are out there.

But, you know, they're all all types of things like early onset dementia now that hits people before 65.

You've got Alzheimer's, you know, Louis bodies issues.

So you know, there's all types.

It's on a spectrum.

And you know, I just think it's more and more important that everyone who reaches a certain age has a trusted contact on their account.

All right.

I know you guys are trying to make it interactive and educational at the same time.

So tell me about the fraud bingo game that you created, investment fraud Bingo, and why you feel like this tool could be helpful to help educate those out there in a way that's a little more fun than just talking to them or sending them a pamphlet, right?

Yeah.

Well, everybody loves bingo, right?

You know, all ages.

And so we've got a one bingo game in particular.

It's called Fraud Bingo, where we go out into senior living centers and civic groups that are, you know, have older members, and we play Fraud Bingo with them.

And so we'll talk to them a little bit, but it's an interactive way to explain some of these frauds and scams that are going on out there.

And so as we play bingo, you know, we may have a card for, say, a romance scam, you know, and then we'll explain to them what a romance scam is after they, you know, drop their their coin on that, on that scam.

And we may talk about it, you know, social media scams, you drop a coin on that scam.

And so we've got prizes to give away.

You know as well, just little little pieces of swag here and there for, for for people to keep them interested.

But it's just a great interactive way to sort of explain and to show them the multitude of frauds that are out there.

And, you know, the the tremendous threats that exist to them.

So and we do that in schools to we've got a we've got a program that we have adapted to young people as well.

The frauds and scams are a little bit different for the younger generation.

But but again, you know it's it's it's sometimes it beats just lining people up and lecturing to them.

You know.

Absolutely.

No.

That interactive part certainly I think makes a difference.

All right.

Before we go, if you mentioned a moment ago the statistic of reported scams probably underreported.

If someone is watching this right now and has been a victim of a scam, or if they are at one point, what should they do?

What is the process of that reporting look like to make sure?

Because at some point, and I'm hopeful that folks watching this will say, if I report this, it may prevent someone else from falling victim to the same scam.

So it can be just as much preventative as it is just adding to the statistical database that you guys have.

Right?

Yeah, that's an excellent point.

And a lot of times, you know, with, with especially with digital assets now it can be very hard to trace money that's that's lost.

You know, so the idea that someone might get their money back.

Sometimes it happens.

It can be very difficult.

But there is an anti recidivist goal in reporting.

And that's to to protect other people and to stop these ongoing frauds and scams that are out there.

So contact our office if you if you feel like you're the victim of a fraud or scam, better yet, contact our office before you become a potential victim.

If you are approached in a situation that you're unsure about, you know we can tell you if if the person promoting an investment is registered with our office, we can tell you if that investments registered with our office and potentially save you from having to do the work on the back end and trying to recoup that money.

So but we're there as a state agency to help, and we can help guide people through things.

All right.

And that is the way to do it, folks.

Don't just answer a text from a number you don't know, a call from a number you don't know.

And we hear it all the time, right?

In commercials you probably hear.

Don't give away your bank information.

Anything else out there that I mean, the text messages are pretty common these days where they want you to click on a link.

Is that one that's pretty common that you're seeing right now?

Yeah, a lot of identity theft still out there.

So you know, it's it's fishing.

It's fishing and smashing.

So it's it's emails, it's voicemails and it's SMS text.

Okay.

You know, so it looks suspicious.

Yeah.

Don't go on it.

And if you really think, you know, if you really have questions, call the company itself.

And, you know, if it's someone pretending to be your bank, call your bank, call your regulator before you click on that link.

All right, Campbell, thanks so much.

Stick around.

We're going to talk with you again.

When we come back after this, we're going to look at how Arkansas is helping the next generation build financial confidence in the classroom and beyond.

Financial confidence doesn't begin in adulthood.

It starts with education, conversations at home and opportunities to practice smart decision making at an early age.

Joining us now, Doctor Laura Hendrix is back with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service.

We join Kathleen Lawson, joining us now, executive director of Economics Arkansas.

And Campbell McLaurin is back.

He's the deputy securities commissioner.

Thank you all so much for being back with us.

And welcome, Kathleen.

We'll get to you in just a moment.

But, Laura, I want to start with you, because I just mentioned how we really want to start early.

And this is something we've talked about previously on this program is lifelong skills and starting the foundation and how valuable that can be and how we don't want to make this a one time lesson, because we're continuously learning and the marketplace continuously changes to where we need to stay up on education, right?

So I think even as early as preschoolers, we know, cognitive development focusing on executive function can help children.

That's related to better money management practices and later in life.

But I work for the corporate extension service.

We have education programs for all ages.

So from preschool to older adults.

And Kathleen, we know that teachers for decades been working with Economic Economics.

Arkansas.

How valuable has that resource been for teachers and educators around the state to be able to have something to partner with and collaborate with to share this messaging?

Well, absolutely echo on the preschool part.

We have a economics curriculum, so we start that very early and very often.

And so we provide resources for teachers so that they have the confidence, the tools, everything they need to integrate economics and financial literacy into whatever they're already teaching.

And financial literacy can be so many things.

What are some of the basics of it where you start with the preschoolers in kindergarten and first grade?

What are some of the basics and the foundations of that?

So we really feel like economics is the foundation that personal finance builds on.

So really just thinking about allocation of resources and an opportunity cost and decision making really at the core, economics is the decision making.

And that plays into money so often and all the decisions that we make every day.

And so I really think that's the foundation.

Once you can get economics, you can build build onto that each year.

And Campbell, we talked a lot in the previous segment about scams and fraud and mostly dealing with seniors.

But really it starts at that early age, as we just mentioned, and helping students really understand the literacy, financial literacy and the foundation before they become investors down the road.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I think financial literacy at a young age is so important.

You know, financial literacy is kind of the bedrock for, you know, financial freedom and building a better future for individuals and families going forward.

So the earlier that you can sort of connect those ideas to young people, the better.

And, you know, the security department, we do a lot of work in that area.

We have a grant program that was started in 2003, and that program is funded by enforcement funds that are paid for those who violate securities laws and pay punitive funds.

The first $250,000 per fiscal year go into a grant program, which we then use to give grants to to schools and nonprofits for purposes of education, grades five through 12, financial education.

And so we we do that on an annual basis.

Part of what we do with those funds is we work with Economics Arkansas in a partnership, a public private partnership with the Walton Foundation to to fund the stock market game, which is delivered through economics, Arkansas, to any interested school or teacher throughout the state.

And that's that's an interactive program.

It gives $100,000 to participating teams and lets them make purchases on the stock market through an interactive game experience.

But what it does is it teaches, you know, knowledge about markets, knowledge about investing.

And it's really been a fantastic program in economics.

Arkansas has done a great job in driving interest in that.

And so that's something we're really proud of.

And then we also give a lot of grants for for tools and to, to purchase curriculums and to, to play the stock market game and those types of things.

So really doing our best to to get out there and provide resources to schools so that we can help educate young people.

And we also deliver educational programs in schools.

So we might do a eight week program in a school.

You know, we cover a lot of different topics and, you know, and try to make that as interactive as possible with things like like bingo, like we talked about earlier, we also use a program through the Cooperative Extension Service called Get Real.

Here's the deal.

And that's a that's a program that sort of provides students with.

Make believe I won't say make believe, but certain salary situations, housing situations, family situations and then walks them through 12 different financial stations to show them all the expenses that they will need when they reach adulthood, and to plan out the sort of lifestyle that they want to make and live based on that income in that scenario.

So, you know, we try to do what we can to be interactive and, you know, and to reach young people where they are and try to start building that, that foundation early.

And, Laura, what's been the feedback whenever you have that great collaboration and can bring something that's more interactive, you know, to the youth so that they're not just hearing about it, but they're getting to kind of play along and be a part of it.

Yeah.

So I'm so excited that you mentioned Get Real and it's a personal finance simulation.

It there's some educational lessons that come with it.

But then the actual simulation game comes in a kit.

So extension educators and teachers can kind of role that into the auditorium or the classroom.

And students are going from station to station.

So there's housing and transportation and food and clothing and utilities and all those kind of basic things that we spend money on every month.

And they the object of the game is to get through the month, make all of the regular expenses and not go in the hole.

Okay.

So what's and there is an it could happen station where they might have a car repair or miss work or something like that medical bill, those, those just rainy day things.

And it's interesting how stressed out they get.

And it's just pretend even in a simulation.

Yes, in this situation.

So it's a really popular program.

It's available through county extension offices across the state.

So any county that anyone is in, that's about a one.

So thank you for bringing that up.

We also have a grown Up You podcast that's for young adults.

So high school, early college 20s age.

And it has a lot of money lessons in it, but also other things that young people might need to learn other life skills like laundry and cooking and household management and those kinds of things.

So that's available on our website.

And there are some resources there for teachers as well.

And resources for teachers is all about what you guys provide.

Kathleen.

And I know that these games, like the stock market game, probably money, as we've mentioned in previous segments, can be stressful.

Well, it may be healthy to have some of the stress where it's in a game, not in real life, so that they know how to handle situations when that stress does come in a real life situation, right?

I would much rather someone make a risk with virtual money now than with real money later.

And so I think these in relations are a great opportunity to do that.

And really at the core of what economics Arkansas does is we provide teachers with the tools and resources.

But the stock market game is a great example of a simulation that families can do together.

It's through the foundation, and there's an opportunity over the summer, for example, for families to get together and to get to talk about things like how markets work and investments, and we call it a stock market game.

But the goal of the stock market is not you know, it's not really about winning the game, although that's certainly an incentive for students.

But it's getting students to understand about the value of time and investing and thinking about when they get out of high school, they get their first paycheck and and thinking about their long term financial investments.

And so all these games, they feel like games and they're fun, but they're really getting students to think about the long the long haul and their financial plan, investments and budgeting, all the things.

We just put it in the form of a game.

We sometimes say that our seniors are susceptible to scams and things like that.

But Campbell, I know that this is a great opportunity by partnering with these organizations to really make sure that the youth understand they are just as susceptible to some of those scams out there, and maybe even more so because their access to some of the digital technology, they're always on it.

Right?

Yeah, absolutely.

And, you know, the frauds will always be there.

The iterations and the forms of them change.

And so, you know, especially with interactive gaming and all the different platforms that that the use engage in, you know, there's always a threat of fraud out there.

And I've thrown out some of the FTC reports earlier in the federal fraud reports.

And, you know, the most defrauded age group was 30 to 39, which is a little bit older than what we're talking about here.

But it does show you that the sophistication of some of these fraudsters that are out there, you would think that you're 30 to 39 year olds would be safe from some of these frauds, but in fact, they were the most victimized.

And so young people also are under threat because of the sophistication of some of these frauds that are out there, and especially that generation.

Think we grew up with the internet, you know, so we can recognize these things.

But apparently it's it's still sophisticated enough to trick even those who grew up with dial up internet.

Kathleen, when it comes to the role of teachers and the ever changing landscape of financial literacy, how important is it that they engage with their students and make sure that they have every tool and resource available if they don't have it at home, that at least somewhere in the education system, which now there are plenty of platforms, fortunately, to be able to bring that education to them.

But their role is certainly changed in the last 20 years to be able to provide that platform for them.

Right.

Absolutely.

You know, we expect students to to know algebra, but we don't expect them to know it on their own.

And so we teach them all these subjects and we need to teach them personal finance.

We need students to be able to graduate and be smart consumers and wise investors and informed voters and contribute to society.

And so we owe students that opportunity.

And we're thankful that in Arkansas, that economics is embedded in the standards.

And recent legislation requires personal finance to be taught in high school.

And so I feel like now, more than ever in our state, there is this conversation.

We also know that there's a lot of pressure on teachers for math and literacy.

And so what we do is we try to bring them ways to to introduce these concepts into what they're already teaching.

So it's not something else, but it's something that they can weave in pretty naturally.

All right.

I'm going to ask all of you this question.

If you could teach every Arkansas student one financial lesson before graduation.

Laura, I'll start with you.

What would you say would be the one that you'd want them to take away as they make their way into the world?

I would say the, the magic of compounding and in both ways.

So the magic of compounding in how it makes your money grow and how when related to debt, it can make your money disappear.

Okay, Kathleen, it's hard to beat compound interest, but I would also say we talk about budgets.

It's not a fancy word.

Someone recently told me cash flow, but just put it on paper.

Figure out your income and expenses and and live by that after you've already set some aside for for investments of course.

And savings gamble I would say don't live too fast starting out.

You know, you build a list of the things that you think that you want and, and take time trying to build towards getting those things.

You know, maybe don't buy that big house and that nice fancy car straight out of school because that's going to Saudi with with a lot of debt that you're going to have for a good long period of time.

So, so start slow and be consistent and start saving.

Laura, before we go, tell everyone about the extension programs that are available and how folks can get in contact with you all to learn more about them, whether it's through an educational standpoint or just someone watching this from a personal family standpoint that wants to engage more with their financial goals and find out how they can utilize the programs that are available to do so well.

The Cooperative Extension Service is part of the land Grant College system, part of the University of Arkansas, and part of the Division of Agriculture.

We have offices in all 75 counties, and so people can reach out to their county extension office for any of the programs that we mentioned today and or for just the non-biased research based community, non-formal education programs, and for ages, the youth development program of the extension service.

There's a lot of different programs within the Cooperative Extension.

So, so much to offer there.

Thank you so much.

And then Kathleen, tell everybody about really the mission of economics Arkansas and how this is grown so much over the last 20 years.

Yeah.

So we have served teachers for more than 60 years, but the last 20 years we've continued to grow.

The last five years with support from the securities department.

Our stock market game has grown tremendously.

And even if you're not a teacher, you know a teacher.

All of our programs are available at no cost for teachers.

We train teachers in 86% of the public school districts last year.

We offer over 200 workshops at no cost.

So we would encourage folks to go check out Economics Arkansas, tell your teachers about it, and find programs that your your students can engage with as well.

What's the best way to reach out to you all and connect?

I would say economics, Arkansas or on social media.

We're trying to be relevant there as well.

Fantastic.

And Campbell, if anyone wanted to learn more about how to collaborate with you, I know that just in the break here, you all have been sharing contacts.

Hey, we got this great group I wanted to introduce you to to bring bingo to.

What's the best way to engage with your department?

And really for multitude of reasons, right.

Whether it's a game or to report something serious, how will we go about that?

Our website, Securities Arkansas is a great hub.

It has all the contact information on our website for employees, our main line.

It also has a multitude of resources on various investor education topics and has forms you can fill out.

Our investor education team would love to come and meet you and deliver some of these programs that that I've mentioned here today.

So let that form get in contact with us and we'd love to come out and see you.

Okay.

Fantastic.

Well, thank you all again for taking some time out, staying for an extended hour today, as we were, I think, able to share some great information from you all and our other guests about financial literacy scams to watch out for and just all the wonderful resources that we have available here in the state of Arkansas on how they continue to grow, which has been so great to see, and I know you've enjoyed that again.

So thank you guys.

Our thanks to Doctor Laura Hendricks, Kathleen Lawson, Campbell McLaurin and every guest that joined us on today's program.

And thank you for watching Arkansas Week for this week I'm Chris Kane.

We'll see you again next time.