THE Cambridge Connection - Episode 12

It really is a labor of love from the sponsor Cambridge Credit Counseling to get this kind of information out and into the community so that people know they have a place to turn to learn about dealing with financial issues or even the skills that it takes to be financially well. So Junior Achievement, tell the listeners what Junior Achievement does. Junior Achievement, as I said, it was actually founded here in Western Massachusetts. It’s a worldwide and there’s 104 JA areas in the United States, but it all started here just like everything else great in the world, like basketball and volleyball and all that wonderful stuff. But it was founded back when the world was really just coming into manufacturing.

And so they, Horace Moses, Theodore Vail, and Senator Murray Crane from Crane Paper got together and they decided that they wanted to have something that helped young people make the transition from a farming-based community and jobs in farming to be able to fit into the changing workforce. And back then it was changing from farming to manufacturing. So they formed Junior Achievement. Students were brought, they came together, they actually made products. My claim to fame is I did it too, and I had to use saws and everything else and came out with all my fingers.

Congratulations. For me, that’s a prize. But today we have kind of changed. We morph with all the challenges that come around. And today we include programming from kindergarten to grade 12.

We have online programming. We have interactive games. We have live events. We have in-classroom volunteers, virtual volunteers. So we’ve been able to bring programming for all ages K-12 that cover financial literacy, personal finance, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial thinking, and career readiness and workforce readiness and kind of exploring the different careers opportunities that are here in Western Massachusetts.

Because our goal of being a local area JA is to have students that grow up and make a contribution to the community and financially having good finances and also having going to school here and coming out and having careers here. So incredible. We pour hours into this show every week crafting information to help adults that are dealing with financial issues. And our parent company, Cambridge Credit Counseling, sees people that have debt problems all the time. So even while junior achievement is so incredible and you’re helping K-12 to try to learn these skills and how important that is, our sponsor Cambridge Credit Counseling still sees people that do not have skills like budgeting, didn’t know how a furniture loan that has 0% interest all of a sudden if they don’t pay it off in 12 months, all that interest gets added back onto the account.

Family money talks by age group

So the simplest things that get people into trouble to try and do it with our youth is just so incredibly important. Well, thank you. We know that it’s important for really families to talk about their finances. I think sometimes if some people grow up in a house where nobody talks about the bills, they’d say, can I have these new sneakers? And they’ll just say, no, not now.

And they don’t understand no, not now because the water heater just broke, or the car needs new tires, or this month this variable expense is due and we have to pay the whole year’s worth of car insurance or something. So being able to sit them down and talk with them, even going through the grocery store and talking about budgeting, how much they have for food and why you shouldn’t throw that extra box of cereal in the cart or something, that’s really where it starts. So talking about savings, talking about, we do a program in the first grade called Wants Our Families, but it deals with wants and needs. I’ve had parents ask me if we could do it in high school again before they go to college so they understand the difference between what’s a want and what’s a need. So it’s just very simple.

It’s talking about money and talking about putting some for savings and putting some for understanding where your expenses go. Absolutely. And if you’re just joining us, this is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection right here on WHMP with special guest Jennifer Connelly, the president of Junior Achievement of Western Mass. So K through 12, can we break down the age groups and what approach we take? Because if it’s a kindergartner thinking about money at that point, obviously there’s a maturity that goes from K through 12 to be able to learn and understand this.

Absolutely. If you think of them as concentric circles, you start in the middle and in kindergarten we just teach about ourselves and how do we interact with money? What is money? Where do you get money? You might get it from a birthday present.

You might do a chore around the house. Then you go into the family in first grade and jobs within a family and even jobs outside the house or inside the house. I help by feeding the dog. That’s my job. Then community, it gets larger.

You begin to look with businesses. We actually introduced taxes in second grade and that’s funny because we get some really cool stories. One volunteer that you have to be the taxman and you pay all the people that work at the donut place and you give them all five $1 bills, but then you have to go and take a dollar away from each person for the taxes and explaining that the tax money goes to pay the government workers, the army, the teachers, the librarian, and one of the gentlemen went to one of the lie. He went to the line to take the money from this little boy and he ran under the table and was. Screaming, no, my daddy says taxes are bad.

I’m not gonna pay taxes. And I said to the volunteer, what’d you do? He goes, so I crawled under the table and kind of sat there and talked to him about why we need taxes and things like that. So yeah, it’s an interesting opportunity. We get into the city and starting businesses.

Then we go to the country and how different regions have different resources. It’s like, we don’t grow oranges here, so we have to get our oranges from someplace else. So if I was gonna open an orange juice business, I don’t think the West New England would be the place to do it. But a fishery and selling fish and seafood might be a good thing. Or this time of year, Christmas trees.

They’re not gonna decorate palm trees down in Florida. They want a nice Christmas tree. And then we get into global. And then as they get into high school, they become more defined, personal finance, talking about their careers, talking about building their brand, even to a full semester economics course, a full semester marketing and principles and things like that. So really very diverse.

Student loan debt and education costs

I think when I started in 1999, there were maybe eight or 10 programs. And now we offer over 34 programs. It’s interesting. One of the biggest problems that we face in the adult realm is student loan debt. So in teaching our youth, I find that when I talk to young people that are in college or even people that are out of college, student loans are really a problem that they didn’t necessarily know they were getting into because the buildup is always finish school, graduate, go to college, be successful, get a career with these financial life skills.

If an educator is listening right now, we’ll give you a chance to give contact information because what I have found and even going into speak about financial literacy in high schools and financial literacy classes, they have curriculums that they have to follow. They don’t necessarily have all the time to be able to teach like Junior Achievement teaches this all the way up the line until they graduate high school. So is there a component that talks about some of the debts like credit cards, student loans? Absolutely, we just had, I think it’s one of the best things we offer. We offer two programs.

We do like a credit for life or teen reality fair where it’s actually in person. And then we offer a virtual event with the same thing where the students get to be 25 years old. They pick their career. And then when they get their career, they get a budget that they have to build. And so in that budget, if they say they’re a programming engineer, there’s a student loan debt there, okay?

So they have to go to student loan debt. They have to go understand that I’m a doctor. I’m making 7,000 a month, but I’m also paying $1,200 a month in student loans. And that comes right off. That’s the first item on the line when the budget, it’s like you have this, but this is not your money.

You’ve got this education and you’ve got this income and you have to pay for it. So that’s kind of eye opening to the students. We also have what we call the education and training booth where we show students different options for training, whether they go into a trade and a trade school, post-graduate, whether they become an apprentice, whether they, and then what the continuing education costs are for all of those. What’s the cost of a two-year program, a community college, a four-year, can you mix? So we really try to bring together education and learning as well as showing them the impact that it has on their life moving forward.

Because everybody thinks I want to be a doctor. Well, okay. And as they build their budget, some of them find out that they have to go get a part-time job because the income that they’re earning in their chosen career isn’t enough to live by. Absolutely. And now it’s a good time to celebrate junior achievement of Western Mass and its president and our good friend, Jennifer Connolly.

Family engagement and reality fairs

You may not know that junior achievement was actually born in Springfield back in 1919. Since then, their mission has been the same, to provide financial literacy and career exploration opportunities to young people, helping them make the link between what they learn in school and real life. Thanks to Jennifer Connolly and her staff and crew of volunteers, JA of Western Mass now reaches more than 13,000 students every year. org or call 747-7670. Welcome back, this is Gordon Oliver, the host of the Cambridge Connection here with Jennifer Connolly, president of junior achievement.

And we’re really digging into financial literacy here today and the amazing work that junior achievement does from K through 12 to teach children about money, finances, managing it, being financially well. So Jennifer, when you teach and you go into a school, you do a credit fair, children are learning that day about these skills through practical practices, engagements, exercises, et cetera. How important is it for families to be engaged in this with their children? I think it really means everything. It’s reinforcing what they’re learning in school and saying that what you’re learning is valuable.

And sometimes the conversation actually goes the other way. They might come home and talk about, well, this is what I learned about a 401k or this is what I learned today about credit cards. It might be where students and families don’t have credit cards because they just don’t know how to use them correctly. And so, or why they need the credit card to build up their credit score, how good credit can lower their rates on car loans, on home loans and help them be more successful in life. So one of the things we do is we make sure that students always bring home something.

And it might be with the younger students, they run home and they show their parents what it is. Oh, look what I brought home. Look what I did. A lady came in from junior achievement today. With the older students, it might be you find it in their backpack where they did it.

And that starts a conversation about, well, what do you think, what is this about? And being able to see it and being able to get the students to post it. We do a lot with Facebook and things like that. So we try to reach out to parents in different ways with the Credit for Life Fair, the Teen Reality Fair. We actually send home a parent flyer, letting them know that they were gonna have it that day and to be on the lookout.

So I think always being open to a conversation. It might be riding in the car. It might be around dinner. Just having a time where you talk to your children about finances, about choices. Did you have student loans?

How long did it take you to pay them off? Those type of things. It’s so important because again, Cambridge Credit Counseling, the sponsor of the show, they help people with problems. And a lot of those problems are mortgage problems, can’t afford the mortgage. So a basic skill, you shouldn’t be spending more than 30% of the money that you bring in on housing.

But yet people make choices and sometimes they don’t even know that that’s a guideline and they don’t even have a benchmark or a goal. So teaching these skills at such an early age and having the family be involved, it’s almost a generational exercise that will then eventually get passed down, where we know, last 10, 20 years, we’ve recognized that financial literacy needs as much energy as we can put into it for people to live a financially prosperous life. Absolutely, it’s becoming, like the housing market was a big bubble, the student loan market is going to be the next big challenge. And what we found out with the pandemic is 80 something percent of the families in America didn’t have $400 in emergency funds. Saving is important and sometimes if you just have it withdrawn from your check, you never know you have it.

Savings habits and financial curveball stories

That’s the best part of that. And being able to know that there’s gonna be rainy days and explaining to the kids, hey, let’s sit down, what do you think could happen? And you’re gonna get a lot of different opinions and maybe say, we’ve got some extra money, how are we going to spend it? That’s a great activity for the kids. Oh, look, we got this tax refund or you got a birthday check.

How are you gonna do it? Let’s put some money in savings. Well, they even recommend you put out pots or little cans and they can put the money in different cans. I’m gonna put some in savings, I’m gonna do this with the money now and then I’m gonna save this for longer term. We talked before the show about 401ks as a perfect example.

We had a guest on several weeks ago, Catherine Freeman, where they go into companies to help the employees learn and understand how to find 3%, because if you’re getting 3% matched, you’re making 100% of your money, yet there are so many people that are not taking advantage of such an investment because they didn’t learn about it early enough so that when they actually got the employment that they got and it became a benefit, they should be raring and exciting to get involved in their retirement plan, where if they don’t understand it and don’t know it, they shy away from it. We actually had one of our volunteers taught in the 6th or 7th grade economics for success at a school, and later, she’s a college professor. In college, one of the students came up to her and said, Miss, I had you in junior achievement and you told us about a Roth IRA and said, if you start saving when you start working at 16 and put like $2,000 a year away to, you know, you’re in 22 and then never touch it. I started with my Roth IRA, I want you to know. Professor and the volunteer was like calling us saying, this kid just came in and said, I did what you said all those years ago.

So, you know, it can make a difference. Just hear the energy in your voice. So people that actually have debt problems also have emotional problems because debt can be a huge burden. And just the way you’re talking about how exciting that is, that’s what we’re trying to build in our youth up the line so that they can make decisions that will help them be financially stable so that it doesn’t impact quality of life. You have the best laid plans and life throws you curveballs.

Of course. And you get overrun with medical expenses or, you know, something happens and one of yours, somebody in the house isn’t able to work. And so no reason that you brought on, not by not being educated, not by not trying to plan, you end up in an economic and a financial crunch. Something like Cambridge Credit Counseling is definitely a place that can help you out. And we offer these things.

And that’s why we have people come in and volunteer because they can share their stories. That’s the biggest impact for our students. We have one where we talk about the teenage boy, always the boy always goes and gets spends his money on a big car and fancy clothes. But then he chooses to live at home. Okay.

And we kind of laugh at him. And when I was teaching it, one volunteer, a college student goes, I did that. I’m like, what? I thought I needed the big car. I got a Caddy Escalade.

And he goes, but I don’t have a good driving record. And my insurance is $6,000 a year. And the kids were eyes just, you know, popped out of their heads, their mouth, tongues open. And it was what a great teaching moment, you know, that that’s, that’s life. So, you know, you make decisions, but you have places like Cambridge Credit Counseling that can pull you out.

So we have what we call at the, at the fair we had yesterday at Smith Vocational and, and we had some Cambridge Credit volunteers always do a great job. We have what we call the reality wheel and you spin it like the wheel, you know, and so they spin it and things were like, Oh, car crash, $400 deduction. Oh, you broke your cell phones. Bought it, buy a new one, 600. But then once in a while there’s like, grandma sent you a check for your birthday, $100.

So and they’re, they’re afraid to spin the wheel. They’re like, I don’t want to, what if something bad happens? And I just kept saying to him, that’s life. That’s what it is. You go out every day and you take your chances.

Teen spending surveys and budgeting exercises

Absolutely. Thank you for just joining us. This is Gordon Oliver, the host of the Cambridge Connection here with Jennifer Connelly, the president of Junior Achievement. So you have done some surveys recently. Is that with some of the youth?

Is that correct? Yes, we have. Junior Achievement did. Yes. Can you share some of that information with us?

Certainly. They surveyed over a thousand something teenagers about the upcoming holidays and spending. And so they, what they found out was that 49% of the students know that it’s going to cost them more. And 55% of the students are like, yeah, I might not be able to find it. There’s a shortage.

So that’s great. But the good news, I guess, for the stores is that 78% of them feel they’re going to have to spend more to get the same number of presents that they did the last year. So at least the teens are aware that they see what’s going on in life, that there’s a shortage of goods, that everything is costing more. So, but even with 49% saying that the prices are going to be higher, that means 51% of them don’t have a clue. Absolutely.

And you have to look at financial wellness and financial wisdom. You’re going to learn some things, as you’ve mentioned, because some life curveballs come. But having a plan in place and having no plan is a huge difference because at least you’re trying to continue yourself by the skills that you’ve learned to be well financially. We’re all going to have these things that happen in life that you don’t plan on. But having an actual plan, having a budget, learning your spending, I’m sure in your, in your curriculums, you teach about journalizing.

Yes, we absolutely do. We sent all of the students home yesterday with a budget that they could try and keep. We said, keep a budget just of what you spend over a week. How many times did you go to Starbucks and get a latte and how much that would be? And if you were talking about saving money for somebody, a Christmas present, think of where that money could go if you made a latte or something at home.

Or you said, okay, today I’ll just get water or something. But one of the things we tell them is you swipe a debit card much faster than the bank can track how much you spend. So it’s like, make sure you keep the receipts. You look and you notice what’s going on because we’re good at spending money. Well, there’s a reason that casinos use clay chips instead of cash, because cash in your hand, you really know what it means.

When it’s clay chips, it doesn’t feel the same. It’s just like swiping a debit or a credit card. If you don’t recognize what you’re spending, and I will tell you for the budgets that I’ve done over the years with people, we mentioned that most people don’t have a budget in place. They know what the car payment is because that’s a fixed expense. But groceries, gas, look at gas.

Gas has gone up recently, so people are spending more on gas. But is that showing up on the budget and what adjustments are being made as a result of it? Even the cost of goods in a lot of areas are going up now. So if you have a budget in place, you have to pay attention to what that means. Because if your income isn’t changing and expenses are going up, something that must be paid attention to.

We have a program. We put the students in groups. There get to be a family and they get 29 cards of different expenses in a budget. And you get to pick your top 18. So they have to have, you know, what’s important to this family.

And it can be anything from federal income tax to, oh, you’re getting a haircut, to I want to go to the movies. And so they get their top 18. Once they do, they put the other 11 away. And then I pull out cards and based on points, like, oh, who had federal income tax in their budget? You get five points.

Oh, who had a haircut in their budget? You get one point. So to see, because the kids love competition. So being able to, you know, set it up as a competition, who can get the most points, you get good discussions going around what’s important. But we also have a booth called Fun Fun Fun.

And we have a bullhorn and we announced that there’s a big sale on cell phones or a vacation. One event, we had this young girl who came and she came to the food and nutrition booth and she said, I don’t have enough money to get any food. And the volunteer who was a college kid goes, well, go get a part time job. She goes, well, I have a part time job. He goes, well, what did you spend your money on?

She goes, well, they just had a sale on a vacation. He goes, seriously? You went on vacation and didn’t get your groceries. OK. He goes.

And then after she left, he goes, go get another job. So she went and got another part time job and he leans over to his friend. He goes, if I was a teacher, I’d flunk her. That’s not good money management. He learned as much as she did.

Holiday spending and closing remarks

Right. Welcome back again. This is Gordon Oliver, the host of the Cambridge Connection here with Jennifer Connelly from Junior Achievement President. Amazing career. Amazing success.

Amazing work that you do. Thank you. Now, we’re in the holiday season. So what advice do you give our youth when it comes to holiday spending? I would definitely do a holiday budget.

I mean, because you know it’s going to be extra expenses. But how do you how do you budget for that? So maybe you’ve saved up some money or you can pare down your list. or maybe make some items for people, for gifts. So definitely watching what you’re spending.

Don’t go overboard because really the old adage, the thought that counts is really the important thing. So sharing with them and not how expensive a gift is. Absolutely, and when it comes to a person that’s struggling on the adult side, it’s okay to say to family members, I just cannot do it this year, I just can’t. Or be a little bit more creative, like they have where each person puts a gift and you pick a name out of a hat and you only have to buy one gift so you’re still participating and you feel like you’re involved just like everybody else is. But the key component here is, right now is really the time to start preparing for 2022 holiday season and putting something in the budget to start saving now so that it could either be an emergency fund if something bad happens and you have to go into it or at minimum, you’re feeling much less stressed next year when you do your holiday shopping.

I can remember growing up and doing the Christmas clubs. That was a good way to save the money. It’s just like a savings account but it came out early enough for you to do shopping. My kids thought Santa stopped at the store and picked up the layaway, so, you know? Well, again, as far as Thanksgiving is concerned, I can’t tell you how thankful I am to have you on the show and to provide this great information.

If you’re an educator, if you’re a principal, if you’re a parent, junior achievement’s work needs to be in schools as soon as humanly possible because these are skills that our youth needs each and every day when they become an adult. And the more that we can help children and the more we can make them understand how to be financially well, the better off they’re going to be in their life. Thank you. And we appreciate all the work and the partnership that we have that you take their expertise and are able to share it with our students. And, you know, you taught them yesterday why they shouldn’t take their car payment out of their savings account, which is a great thing to learn.

Absolutely. So if someone was trying to get involved with junior achievement, how can they reach your organization? J-A-W-M dot O-R-G is our website. And you go there, you can find our phones, you can find our emails to connect to us. So I think that’s the best way.

Might be fun for a future show to maybe bring in one of the teenagers that you’re teaching that have gone through the curriculum and maybe have them talk about what they’ve learned. And that would help people see what great value that your program does. I think we could do that. I know we have some students that we’ve worked with for quite a few years who would be happy to talk about that. Can’t wait.

A big thank you, Jennifer, for joining us on the show and providing this great information of the great work that you do at Junior Achievement. Thank you. And a big thank you to our listeners. It does take a team to collect all of the information we bring you each week, just like the team at Cambridge Credit Counseling who is there to answer your questions, whether it’s budgeting, life, money skills, or even debt problems. It’s a free call and there’s no obligation.

Just call 1-800-CAMBRIDGE. Again, a big thank you to Jennifer Connelly, President of Junior Achievement at Western Mass. Thank you and Junior Achievement for helping direct the youth of today towards a better financial understanding and success. m. m.

com, SoundCloud, or anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts. org. We’d love to hear from you, and who knows, your question might get featured here on the program with our Real People, Real Problems segment. And remember, friends, it’s always free to call. ♪ 1-800-CAMBRIDGE ♪ Hi, I’m Jennifer Connelly, President of Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts, a local nonprofit that works with students in grades K through 12.

Junior Achievement gives young people the skills they need to own their economic success, to plan their future, and to make smart academic choices. In today’s ever-changing world, JA empowers students to strive for innovation and leadership and to build communities defined by passion and purpose. This is all possible thanks to our many volunteers, teachers, and community partners who help students with financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship, bringing the real world to life in the classroom. To learn more about Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts, please visit J-A-W-M dot O-R-G.