(music playing) - Hello, and welcome to Generation Grit , our exciting new series discussing solutions to issues impacting our community through the eyes of Gen Z. I'm your host, Brenton Weyi.

Tonight, we're discussing what financial literacy means and how it can encourage growth in our communities.

We have an amazing panel of guests with us tonight.

Joining me in the studio is Stephanie Paz-Peña.

She's a senior at the University of Colorado Denver where she's a biology major and is involved with the local nonprofit Boys Hope Girls Hope.

Thank you for being with us.

- Thank you for having me.

- Also joining us is Loara Morales from the University of Colorado Boulder.

She's a graduate of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, with a bachelor of arts in Spanish and a minor in business.

She's also involved with Boys Hope Girls Hope.

Thank you for being here, Loara.

- Thanks for having me.

- Joining us on the phone is Amy Bertle.

Amy is a financial advisor, a Boys Hope Girls Hope volunteer who teaches financial literacy classes to Aurora Central High School students.

Amy, thank you for your time.

- Hi.

Thank you for having me.

- Before we get started, we have a quick video about what Boys Hope Girls Hope does in our communities.

Let's take a look.

(music playing) - I'm very grateful for Boys Hope Girls Hope.

It's a lifechanging experience.

They're really paving the future for kids like me.

- We're committed to helping our students reach new heights and their full potential.

- Boys Hope Girls Hope of Colorado works with scholars to prepare them for college and to get them to and through college.

- I'd say it's a program of opportunity.

They're always there meeting the individual needs of every scholar and providing them with the necessities they need to be successful in life.

- We serve 60 students who are currently in high school and 40 collegians.

We really want someone who's academically motivated and who wants to go to college.

- They have provided me with tutors and a lot of help when I'm struggling in school with homework.

They've also introduced me to programs like MC Squared.

If I weren't a part of the program, I probably wouldn't have heard of it.

Through it, we go to Children's Hospital.

We shadow people of all different fields, like cardiology, neurology, radiology.

- That support is academic.

It's extracurricular.

It's a lot of summer activities that we introduce them to.

It's service work.

Community service helps us all become better community members.

- I went to Guatemala in 2018.

We helped kids learn English and we also laid the foundation for a new school.

- The service trip was actually through Boys Hope Girls Hope.

- A lot of our students will be the first in their families to attend college.

Things like financial aid and scholarship applications can be super daunting when you're the first student in your family to go down that path.

We're there to provide that assistance and help them make a plan, and make that whole process more manageable.

- I hope to one day be able to help others the way that Boys Hope Girls Hope has helped me.

- It means a lot to me to be the one who gets to work with such bright, talented, capable kids, and to be the one who gets to introduce them to more possibilities.

- After from graduating from high school, I'm planning to study medicine and going on to medical school and studying to be a surgeon.

I always dreamt about being a doctor, but now, having Boys Hope Girls Hope in my life, I think that it's something that could be accomplished.

(music playing) - What a fantastic organization, really doing crucial and critical work in the community.

To get this discussion started, Amy, I would love to start with you.

I think it's always good to make sure that we have our definition set.

In your experience, how would you define what exactly financial literacy is?

- That's a great place to start, is trying to come up with common ground on financial literacy.

And to me, financial literacy is trying to help people with earning money, or when money's coming in, how to save and invest money, and then how to eventually spend it, whether that's spending in the short term, like the day-to-day budgeting, or the long term, most ambitious goals.

Usually, retirement is the first one out.

But trying to make sure, from start to finish, people know what is happening with their money and trying to eliminate those question marks we see with something that we use every single day.

- And Amy, as a follow-up to that, I feel like there's a sort of narrative that I have to have a lot of money in order to learn about financial literacy.

Would you say that it's something that's important no matter what your income or financial background is?

- Yes.

That, I think, is a common misconception, is you have to have money in order to know about money.

And usually, it's the people who have some of the lower income or lower means that need to know the most, because they don't have the luxury of being inefficient or making mistakes.

And something minor can end up being major when money is tight or you don't have as much money to not be as efficient with.

It runs a spectrum, as well as you can have money, and that might be a different way to use it, as well as when you're building your own net worth and accumulating money, that's a different way to use it, as well.

It runs the spectrum of, the haves and have-nots still need to know about financial literacy.

- Thank you so much for that.

And yeah, it sounds like it's really critical for members of Generation Z, Zoomers, as some say, to have that financial literacy.

And just for our audience, Stephanie and Loara, could you talk a little bit about maybe, what is your background, just maybe your financial journey, your personal journey?

And how did you end up getting involved with Boys Hope Girls Hope.

- Well, at least in my case, I got involved with Boys Hope Girls Hope early on.

They came to visit the middle school that I was attending, Aurora West, at the time.

And it was their first year in their non-residential program, academic program based at Aurora Central High School, which is where I graduated in 2018.

I've been involved with them since 2014.

And basically, through them, I've been able to just understand personally how to understand my own finances, how to prep financially, academically, emotionally, psychologically for college, for life after high school.

They've just been a very helpful clutch and very helpful advisors, and I'd say friends and almost family at this point, after being involved for so long.

- That's amazing.

That's quite a testament.

- I was fortunate enough to be part of their residential program.

I got involved around 2011, 2012.

I grew up not having a lot of money, and so that's kind of how I got introduced to them.

I wanted to attend a prestigious school, and they enabled me to--Through a scholarship, they allowed me to attend Regis Jesuit High School, and then after that, helped me land good scholarships to attend CU Boulder.

And then, as far as my financial background goes, I've always worked in retail.

I've been exposed to seeing how people spend their money.

Then, from there, I proceeded to becoming a financial advisor and then a paralegal.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you.

- That's an amazing journey.

- Stephanie, for you, why is understanding your personal finances and having financial literacy, why is that important to you?

- Just going off of what Loara said, it's basically just coming from a background of not having much, being a first-generation student.

Both my brother and I were the first to graduate high school.

My brother's only a few years older than I.

Our parents are immigrants, so our native language is Spanish, and just not coming from a background of a lot of financial literacy and money.

I found it, from a young age, just incredibly important, or at least a big concern in my life, thinking, I know I want to go to school.

How am I going to get there with the lack--at the time--the lack of advice and financial literacy classes that I had had?

Definitely meeting with Boys Hope Girls Hope and learning about not only the scholarship program that came along with it, but their advice, their acting as your own financial advisor, your academic advisor, definitely was just...

It was almost like a... How do you say?

It was an easy decision.

I knew that it was something that was incredibly important to me, to my family that, as Loara said, not having the luxury to mess up, especially in something so serious.

- Yeah, I can relate.

I am also the son of immigrants.

And when your family is arriving to a country for a first time, there are a lot of different elements to juggle.

And I think that can be hard as a young person navigating all of these very chaotic systems that are very unfamiliar to you and to your parents, as well.

Amy, I'd love to ask you a question.

Where do you see the biggest holes or gaps in teaching young people about their finances?

- I think some of the biggest gaps would be that there's little to no financial literacy courses, period.

There's not really a hole, necessarily, because there's nothing really in place in the first place.

And then, whatever literacy programs there are for any type of finance or personal finance or money, in general, it has to speak to more of the major investing or something that is really not necessarily the day-to-day personal finances of someone, of...

I know how a paycheck comes in.

Usually, people see FICA and they don't even know who FICA is, and why is he taking half of your money?

Going through step by step, versus trying to create a giant investment portfolio as your introduction to finance.

It needs to be sooner, especially before college, because a lot of 18-year-olds are making massive decisions with student loans.

And a simple learning how a loan amortization schedule would work could help avoid these massive student loan debts that we're seeing.

And it comes back to the schools having those basic or personal finance classes, not these giant overall finance classes.

- I definitely want to loop back to that idea of debt in a little bit.

But going back to Loara and Stephanie, what do you think are maybe the biggest fears or hesitations in members of Generation Z around managing their finances or just understanding their own financial picture?

- My personal fear, overspending.

- Overspending?

- Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Debt is scary to me only because I went to the University of Boulder.

It's expensive.

And I had to deal with student loans.

Thankfully, I've completely paid them off, actually.

And I want to keep it that way.

I don't like having debt because I don't like having things that aren't mine.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, we find ourselves in situations where a lot of people don't really own what they have, credit cards left and right.

And it's scary.

It's a lot of responsibility.

And I personally don't want to...

Sorry, I'm spacing here.

- Oh, no, you're OK. - I just want--Sorry.

I'm losing it.

- No, no, no, it's OK, it's OK. - Yeah, I'd love to talk a little bit more about this idea of debt.

Stephanie, I know you're a numbers person, a math person.

I think at one point in school, you probably learned about e, about Euler's number, the logarithmic increase, logarithmic growth.

And I think that a lot of people don't understand, when you're swiping that card at retail store, every time you get that credit card bill or whatever, they're adding interest every single day.

And the more frequently interest is charged, no matter the rate, the more debt you're going to end up paying at the end of the day.

But I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about how easy it is to sign a paper to get a loan or to swipe a card.

And so, what would you say maybe to your peers around maybe trying to help them understand the sort of risks in that?

- I think it sounds like a very, I think, simple answer, but I think it's just doing your own personal research.

At least when it came to me and having to take out a student loan, or when it came to opening a credit card for the first time, of course, it's not something that I decided upon from one day to another, like, "Oh, I'm going to think about this."

24 hours passes, and I'm going to decide to go through with it.

It's something that I definitely thought about for a long time, not only that I went to personal--Not only Boys Hope Girls Hope as advice from them, but financial advisors on campus, just advice from family members, friends, associates who have already graduated.

Basically, overall, I would recommend doing your own research and actually thoroughly investigating.

Because at the end of the day, you are signing your name on something, and you want to make sure that it's nothing that is going to be out of your control, something that you're not going to be able to afford, and, at the end of the day, will put you more in debt, especially as an 18-year-old going into the world and thinking... You don't want to go in with thousands and thousands of dollars of debt going into your 20s.

- Are there any learnings or tips or takeaways that either of you have taken from your time with Boys Hope Girls Hope, whether it's a strategy, a mindset, that you could pass along to our viewers and/or the peers in your life?

In any of the programs that you did or...?

- Again, at least for me, it might sound very simple or very basic, but when going through each semester, we build a... budget, basically, on a spreadsheet, which sounds--When we started out, at least during my freshman year, it was a very basic thing, like cellphone bills, tuition and fees, books, miscellaneous fees of your own spending.

And I definitely found a lot of use in using at least that, their template of a budget, to help my own budgeting.

It's something that I definitely use today when budgeting my own personal bills, my own tuition and fees, and now after four years in college.

It's definitely having that and having just the constant... Budget your money.

At least, basically, what I'm trying to say is, maybe physically having something and, at least--Like I said, for me, I'm a big numbers person--having those numbers laid out and things like that.

It helps visualize what I have, what I don't have, what's necessary.

It keeps me in check, I should say.

- I remember when I was part of the residential program, something that they instilled within us was this idea of saving.

From us earning...

While I was working, I remember I was a caddy at the time.

And from every check, their goal was for us to save 20% of it.

Well, being ambitious and coming from this background of not having money, I remember I'm like, "Well, if I ever find myself in an emergency, I would like to have more money in those situations."

So, I set the goal of saving 50% in those cases.

And that's still something that I carry with me to this day.

From every check, I save 50% of it.

- Wow.

That is really impressive.

I should be taking lessons from you.

That's amazing.

Amy, you had mentioned earlier that there aren't really many financial literacy programs that exist for young people.

And so, I'm curious, what can the community and the state do better?

Or what programs do you think should be in place in order to teach young people how to manage their finances?

- In place, I think it's up to school administrators, or whoever comes up with curriculum, to reach out to the financial advising community to see what they see from their clients and how to educate young folks in other to make the correct moves or avoid some of the mistakes that actual people in the industry have seen other people do.

If this is sitting down with financial advisors or CPAs or hopefully CFPs, certified financial planners, to come up with some more fundamental type of financial literacy, and bring it back to the day-to-day type of personal finance, and stop having these big, audacious investment portfolio seminars or something like that for kids, because then they see money is only that.

Versus saving 20% or 50% as a savings goal, that's a great piece of financial literacy that, if a lot of folks just heard that as a kid, that becomes the cornerstone of their finances, versus in their 40s, realizing, "Oh, crap, I should have been saving."

It's coming up with what can the industry professionals help kids today, and then having open communication with school boards or administrators to have that education.

- Based on what Amy was just saying, it really, like you were saying earlier, Stephanie, a couple of times, that it's really these simple things that really appear to make a really profound difference in the lives of young people.

And following up on that, I'm a little curious.

Money is a very emotional topic.

And I think for a lot of people, especially those who didn't grow up having much of it, it can cause shame or fear or feel intimidating.

So, what would you say to young people out there who just don't know where to start and maybe feel scared about their money or they feel overwhelmed because they may already be in debt?

What would you say to them?

- I would advise assessing where you stand emotion-wise with money.

Because I feel like what you lack, you repel.

And so, if you're in this constant state of wanting money because you don't have any, you're kind of pushing it away.

And so, just accepting your situation, accepting where you are with grace, and just being like, "OK, this is what I have to work with.

How can I make the most out of it?"

And like my partner here was saying earlier, not having a lot of money, it's very important to be able to manage it, just doing your research, like she was saying, and just finding out what ways can you work with what you have.

There are a lot of resources.

Especially for the young, something that I would encourage them to do is opening up a Roth IRA.

That's something huge because it's something that they can start off really young, and over the course of 10, 20 years, their money is growing for them.

And that's really important because you want your money working for you.

- What is a Roth IRA, Loara, for those who may not know?

Maybe just a short.

- It's a form of investment.

You're able to--I think the max you can put in a year is about $6,000.

And it's better than your money sitting in a bank as a form of savings.

- Amazing.

What would you like to see happen in the future maybe to better prepare young people?

Would you like to see financial literacy in schools as part of a school curriculum, integrating after-school programs?

What would you like to see?

- I think, of course, having actual financial literacy classes or budgeting classes or finance classes, and having them be a core requirement and curriculum in high school, in middle school and high school, I think it's just such a critical time, and especially an important time for everyone to learn about something like that.

It would be an incredibly--I feel hopeful if the younger generations were able to have that as an opportunity.

And maybe by the time they're ending their educational career, at least high school, they don't feel a little lost or feel short on time or on figuring things out before graduating.

- Amy, I have a question for you.

What would you say to young people who--I'm especially curious about diversity, those who are perhaps neurodiverse, people who are not good at math, like Stephanie here, who don't like numbers like Loara, how would you engage individuals who just feel overwhelmed by the sense of managing their finances?

And maybe what resources would you point them to?

- With that, there's a ton of online resources, as far as trying to figure out a quick Google search on certain topics.

And I hear the math a lot, especially being a female in finance.

I don't have a lot of female counterparts because of the math angle of finance.

And it really is basic adding and subtracting.

There are hardly any larger equations out there.

And if there are, you should be working with a financial advisor instead.

But as far as your own monies, it should be some plus-minus type of system.

There are online calculators for loan amortization where you just need to put in what you know about the loan, and it will spit out the formula in order to figure out the payment schedule and things like that.

The internet has knocked down the barrier of information for financial literacy, as well as name any other topic you want.

There's a great way to either listen to podcasts, go on the internet.

And if there starts to be really big financial decisions, seek out a professional.

Even though you use money every single day, you also interact with the law every single day, but you still approach a lawyer if you have a very specific question about a legal matter in your life.

Same is true for finance.

Just because you use money every single day doesn't mean there's not a professional out there who can step in and help you make a lot bigger decisions.

- Thank you so much, Amy.

that's really great advice.

And maybe young people can seek out Boys Hope Girls Hope because it sounds like there are some really great resources there for people who might feel a little lost.

Any final words for your Gen Z peers from either of you?

- At least for my part, I know it's easy to feel overwhelmed, for sure, with all the information that's out there.

And sometimes you don't know where to start.

And I would also definitely say, don't feel ashamed if you feel like you're not where you're supposed to be.

Because at the end of the day, if you're Gen Z, you're young.

No matter what, you're young.

So, we have time and we have the resources to get to where we want to be.

It's just about tweaking maybe some things about our own personal life, and, as Loara said, accepting where we're at.

And then, from there, just heading to the finish line.

- Any final words from you?

- Adding on to that, I think, living below your means, for sure, and trying not to keep up with everybody else.

Everyone has their own path.

And so, just because the person next to you has the flashy car and the red-bottom heels doesn't mean that you need that, too.

Just accept where you're at, and work at your own pace.

Like she was saying, we're young.

We've got time.

It's not a race.

- There's the message, Gen Z.

You're young, you have time.

If you want to learn about Roth IRAs or logarithmic growth or amortization, there are resources out there like Boys Hope Girls Hope and even the "Googs" to help you.

Hopefully, you find your way into a new chapter of financial literacy.

That's all the time we have for tonight.

Thank you so much for watching.

We're so excited to have a series like this one, allowing young people to speak their truth and highlight all the great work being done in our community.

You can find us here every Friday night or watch online at www.pbs12.org.

If you have a question or comment, you can reach out to us at grit@pbs12.org or on any of PBS12's social media channels.

I'm Brenton Weyi.

And for all of us here at PBS12, thank you for watching.

And have a fantastic night.

(music playing)