March 16, 2020 • 50 mins
“ The most important thought, is the idea of paying yourself first or spending less than you earn, however you like to look at it. It’s an important idea that anyone can take action on.” - Sam Renick
In this episode, I spoke with Sam X. Renick, founder of the “It’s a Habit!” Company and co-creator of Sammy Rabbit about the importance of financial literacy. We discussed how advisors and companies can be be active in promoting financial literacy. We also discussed the importance of financial literacy for children and how to talk with children about money.
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Bio:
Sam Renick is an internationally recognized leader and pioneer in financial literacy. In 2001, Sam founded the “It’s a Habit!” Company and co-created children's storybook character Sammy Rabbit to make it easy for anyone to talk to and teach young children about great money habits! Since then Sam has produced one of the largest libraries in the world of financial literacy resources. It includes stories and songs like Sammy’s Big Dream, Get in the Habit, S.A.V.E. Rainy Day, Lemonade Stand, Anyone Can Be Rich, Show Your Family the Way and more. Sam has also received numerous awards for his innovative work including National Financial Educators Council Financial Educator of the Year (2016), NJ Coalition for Financial Education Lifetime Achievement Award (2015), Excellence in Financial Literacy Education Program.
The Get Ready Money Podcast and its guests do not provide investment advice. All content is for educational purposes. Guest opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Get Ready Money Podcast and Tony Steuer.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome to the get ready with Tony Stewart podcast
in partnership with insurancenerds.
I'm pleased to be joined todayby Sam Renick, Sam.
Good morning.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey, good morning, Tony.
Thank you for having me.
I'm doing Sammy[inaudible] as welike to say.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Fantastic.
Well, I'm glad to have you.
Uh, so in this episode, we'll bediscussing how it's never too
early for financial education.
Sam is the internationallyrecognized leader and pioneer in
financial literacy in 2001, Samfounded the it's a habit company
and co-created children'sstorybook character, Sammy
(00:49):
rabbit to make it easy foranyone to talk to you and teach
young children about great moneyhabits.
Since then, Sam has introduced,produced one of the largest
libraries in the world offinancial literacy resources,
including stories and songs likeSammy's big dream.
Get in the habit, save rainy daylemonade, stand and more, uh,
(01:10):
and all of these links andinformation will be on the show
notes a little bit more aboutSam before we dive in, um, for
nearly two decades, Sam hasdelivered his innovative and
infectious brand of financialeducation to more than a quarter
million children in eightcountries in 40 States.
Sam has also received numerousawards for his innovative work.
(01:33):
Uh, so Sam let's let's getstarted.
Um, how did you get started withwhat you're doing?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Well, it was all, uh, quite accidental.
Uh, Tony, this is actually mythird quarter path.
I spent about 12 years inaerospace on the business side.
It was just a great experiencefor me.
And it's really where I learnedto develop and take ideas out of
our head and turn them into realthings like books and characters
and stuff like that.
(02:00):
I went from finance, uh, from,uh, the aerospace industry into
financial services, uh, mainlyselling mutual funds related to
retirement, some related tocollege saving.
And then I was doing a littlebit of, uh, insurance as well.
And the firm I was with was asmall boutique independent firm.
And they'd have these weeklytraining sessions on Fridays
(02:22):
where they'd bring inprofessionals from the industry
who, you know, wanted us torepresent their products.
And they lead a sales training.
And, you know, I had been doingthis for a few years and one day
a gentleman shows up with, uh,an Etch-a-Sketch and a bubble
blower and I'm like, okay, what,what is he up to?
What's he going to be teachingus today?
(02:44):
And essentially he was sharingwith us that he thought it was a
great idea.
First open up college savingsaccounts and start trying to
establish these long termrelationships with, uh, with,
with families.
And that just really got me tothinking, you know, why did I
(03:04):
get into saving and investingright out of college with my
first, uh, professional job?
So that was one of the thingsthat prompted me to start
investigating and what peoplenow call financial literacy,
financial education, financialcapability that, and now I had
(03:24):
had some experience as afinancial services professional,
and I had several hundredconversations under my belt with
the people just like us.
And at that time I was in mythirties and I had mainly what I
would describe as a, uh, afamily practice where people are
essentially about my age andsome, a little older, but there
(03:45):
was a theme that was developingin all these conversations.
And that theme was essentiallypeople sharing with me, their
regret and despair for notsaving earlier in their lives or
having their parents taught themabout the importance of saving
and or in investing.
And so that combined with thecells, uh, uh, he was a
(04:08):
wholesaler during hispresentation just made me really
start to reflect on while it wasquite unusual that I, I think I
started working professionallyat 21 and I started putting like
maybe a third or 40% of what Iwas making into various saving
and investment programs,including the four Oh one K and
not surprisingly enough.
(04:30):
After about 12 years of doingthis repetitively, making a
habit of it, you know, my pileof, uh, savings and investment.
It grew.
And I thought everybody did thisbecause of the way my father
raised me.
I was born and raised in LosAngeles, but he was from the
Midwest.
So he used to talk a lot aboutsomething called Midwest common
(04:51):
sense and had a part of Midwestcommon sense was you earn here,
you spend here.
Yeah, that was the essence ofit.
And one of the other things thathe really ingrained in us was
this idea that, uh, you know,you can have anything you want,
(05:13):
if you were willing to work hardenough for it.
Now we had very little, Ilearned in college, we were
essentially, you know, hoveringaround the, the, the, the
poverty line.
It's a little misleading in thesense that we never, we had
everything we needed, like onepair of jeans for life.
We always had food.
We always had food and a placeto, to sleep.
(05:33):
And so, uh, my father thought,you know, you get that good work
ethic, you get an education, uh,you'll be able to do what you
want if you want to.
And so, you know, that allkicked in, I was not really
enthralled with financialservices itself was somewhat of
a disappointing experience forme.
(05:54):
But what I found was, uh,thinking about and wanting to
educate and share messages withparents and kids, you know,
about the importance of abuilding, a nest day, uh, saving
and investing.
So you can make dreams cometrue.
That was something that reallyresonates with me.
So one day I asked myself aquestion.
(06:16):
I said, Tony, I said to myself,you know, if I could only teach
a child or an adult, one thingrelated to finances, what would
it be?
And I thought about that for,you know, maybe a month or two
months.
And I thought, you know, themost important thought that had
helped me gain some independenceand some security at 34 35, was
(06:43):
this idea of paying yourselffirst.
And so, or spending less thanyou earn, however you like to,
to look it.
I thought, you know what?
I think that's an idea.
It's an important idea.
And it's one that anyone cantake action on.
So the kids, even if they're,you know, poor quote unquote,
(07:04):
they could start saving penniesat something they can do.
You know, they can put them intoa savings bank, a savings jar,
an envelope, whatever, whateverit is.
And I thought, you know what,this and that was my
translation.
Really?
I was like, well, how do youcommunicate this idea to young
kids?
Because I think I wasconcluding, it's important to
(07:25):
start early, particularly in theenvironment we were living in
back in say 1998, even more sotoday where kids are being
bombarded with messages, fromfamily, from friends, from
television, from computersessentially to spend, spend,
(07:46):
spend, and not only spend whatyou have spend more than what
you have, not only do it now doit right now.
And so I thought, you know, whatif advertisers think it's
important to start shaping kids,not only their thinking, but
their feelings essentially frombirth, we need to have those
(08:09):
type of messages related to whatI would call wealth, building
security, building things ofthat nature.
For me, I like to put more ofthat slant on what people might
quote a call, quote, unquote,financial literacy, then just
doing banking functions andthings of that nature.
(08:29):
So I think you want to get thoseviews in your head.
And so two big questions was howdo you translate that message in
a way that kids will understandand then to what should be a, a
good vehicle for communicatingthat message.
And that's how we kind of cameup across the message saving is
a great habit and, uh, Sammyrabbit.
(08:52):
And then from there, we just, wejust developing that message,
wanting to bring it to kids andto parents in a variety of ways,
we started with storybooks andthe book, it's a habit, Sammy
rabbit.
And then we put it into messageand more stories and then
activities and experiences andthings of that nature.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Well, that's, I mean, you hit on so many great points,
but I think the most importanttakeaway of course, is to spend
less than you earn.
And, you know, it's such asimple concept that, you know,
so many of us have a strugglewith, uh, you know, don't don't
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, yes, but it is okay.
You hit the nail on the head.
It's a simple idea.
This is not rocket science.
So it's very simple.
That is the cornerstone.
That is the foundation.
So if you master that, there's agood chance you're going to do
well.
And then it's just a question ofhow well, and the other
(09:53):
component to it is is, is, youknow, making it a routine ma we
like to say, make it a habit.
And then it was an idea I wish Ihad come up with, but I surely
didn't championing for it is theone David Bach came up with and
that's to make it automatic.
So look, I'm not any differentthan anyone.
If you put cash in my hands,there's a good chance I'm going
(10:16):
to spend it.
You know, one thing we are greatas Americans is marketing, you
know, so there's a lot ofopportunities every day to, to,
uh, spend on a lot of great, uh,things.
So if you can make your, what Iwould call wealth, building
security, building, some peoplecall your financial health and
(10:37):
wellness.
Uh, if you can make that a habitand make it automatic, get the
money out of your hands orminimize the amount of cash you
have access immediate access tocash in pocket being maybe the
most immediate of all.
I think the better off you'regoing, you're going to do
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Well.
That's great.
Uh, you know, I know one of thethings, um, as an advisor, when
I worked with clients, I, youknow, I oftentimes was, uh,
partnering with advisors onworking with our clients is that
people oftentimes made thingsmore complicated than they
needed it to be.
And they expected theirfinancial services, uh, and
(11:20):
products to be complicated.
Do you think that maybe that'spart of it is that we have a
psychological expectation thatsomething's not good unless
there's some complexity to it?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
I think, you know, that is a, what I'd call, I
guess, a contributing factor.
So I think, look, the basicswork.
So they're going to take you,let's say if, if a hundred
percent is the finish line,they're going to take you 70 to
80% of the way there.
Once you master the basics andnothing is more basic than
(11:55):
spending less than you earn andsaving.
I think those are what I'll callleading behaviors that they
often will lead you toinvesting.
And then to the, let's say leveltwo or level three, where maybe
some more sophistication, adifferent level of complexity
doesn't necessarily have to beoverly complex, you know, then
(12:18):
that that's where you may wantto jump into that.
And probably largely you'reprepared and ready for that.
But if you start with that tobegin with, you know, uh, it's,
it's probably going to beoverwhelming.
You may not be able to sustainit.
A lot of factors, you know, comein and you want to, uh, I think,
you know, here's another very,this is a simple idea, but this
(12:40):
is slightly harder maybe to exexecute is we're all going to be
doing spending.
I think the idea is in my mind,spend smart and spend, this is
what's a little tricky trying toalign your spending with what it
is you really value.
What makes that tricky.
And this is where I thinkfinancial advisors can be really
(13:02):
helpful is for people to figureout what it is.
They really value often themoney has gone before they
figured out, Oh, what I reallyvalued was a home or, or
whatever it is.
Maybe it was a nice experience,but not a lot of chocolate or,
you know, what, whatever,whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Well, what is some of the concepts, uh, maybe that,
you know, that you integrate inthe Sammy rabbit program, that
financial advisors and insuranceagents and the rest of the
community could integrate intotheir working with clients?
Uh, what do you see as somecommonalities?
Um,
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Okay, well, uh, you know, all the things we're
teaching young kids are all thethings you would teach, uh,
adults to begin with.
Uh, we just try and do it in aslightly different way that
engages the kids.
Uh, everybody today has a veryshort attention span.
So the four basic behaviors I'llcall say saving is number one,
(14:04):
that's our top priority.
Two would be, uh, earning,spending smart, and then giving
wisely.
Those would be the, for the, for, uh, the foundation, then I'd
layer on top of that settinggoals and making plans.
Boy, if you can figure out whatit is you really want, you're
(14:28):
going to have a great chance of,of getting it.
It may really influence andinform your, your behavior and
how you use your, your, your,your money.
That's a little tougher withkids because they want
everything.
And so that's why w this is oneof the reasons why we think
start with saving because savingis one of these behaviors that
transcends money.
(14:49):
When you start about saving indepth, what you realize is part
of what you're teaching kids ishow to delay gratification.
All right, that's a transferableskill you can use in all, all
areas of life.
You learn about, uh, goalsetting.
Uh, you, it, it does help you tospend smarter because you're
(15:12):
delaying some of your spending.
So it buys you time to thinkabout what you really want.
So there's a lot of benefits,uh, you know, to saving.
And then I think, you know,those other, those other four.
Yeah, sure.
You should, uh, you know, youneed to earn, you want to have a
great earning, uh, ethic.
And so one of our simple Sammymessages earning money is fun to
(15:35):
do.
All right.
Yeah.
It's work.
Try and find work that youreally enjoy that that pays.
That's going to make work evenmore fun.
And when you spend, don't justspend, spend smart spend with
the, uh, you know, a purpose,and then you can th that's the
beginning message.
I mean, there's a lot ofbuilding and layering when it
(15:55):
comes to, uh, spending, uh, youknow, in the next level of my
mind, you know, you want tothink a little bit into me
thinking means comparing andcontrasting things.
That's a great, uh, behavior.
And then, you know, give, butnot only give, but give, give
wisely, put some thought in intothat.
That's something, I think youneed to acquire some skills that
(16:18):
in particularly in today'senvironment, there's a lot of
giving opportunities.
Some are better.
Again, if you can align them forwhat's important to you, you're
probably going to generate more,uh, satisfaction.
If you're aligning, if you havegoals and you make plans, you're
probably going to, uh, uh, leada life with more purpose, which
(16:40):
is going to be more fulfillingand gratifying to you.
So I think these are all ideas,little seeds.
You can start planting intokids' minds, maybe as early as
birth, but certainly somewherearound three or, or four years
old.
And the thing is one of the bigthings, uh, Tony, I think
(17:01):
people, adults would be, uh,smart to assume is that if we
can explain the ideas, kids cangrasp them.
So don't underestimate kids'abilities to learn.
On the other hand, don't expecttoo much.
Okay.
They're not, they're notfinancial advisers, but do
(17:23):
expect that maybe they can startmaking associations and having
feelings like saving is a funthing, just like spending.
And it's really fun when youhave coins in your, your savings
jar and you put it next to yourear and you shake it.
That's what saving sounds likeTony.
And that's what building afuture, uh, feels like, you
know, it's like, Hey, I'm, I'mgoing somewhere.
You know what?
(17:44):
It's, this is such a strong sublimital message to send kids, uh
, to have them make a habit ofsaving, because it says that you
value their future.
Their future is so important.
We're saving for it so we canhave a great future, you know?
And so when you start talking tokids and that of math, wow.
Maybe I'll, I'll say for a day,now, boy, you've got to build
(18:06):
in, you gotta be diligent.
You've got to build intremendous redundancy because
the forces, the voices that areout there, chalk, Slurpee, big
Mac, Chuckie cheese, thosemessages, and walls up, you know
, they're, they're just doingtheir jobs.
(18:27):
All right.
Our jobs, as you know, theguardians of, of children, if we
think, and I, I'm a person whothinks this, that learning how
to use money wisely is importantto having, uh, health, wealth
and success in life.
You know, we, we need to getsome of our own messages in the
(18:48):
kids' heads and not only themessages, but we need to bring
feeling to it as well.
I'm sure you've seen thestudies, you know, uh, and this
probably is true across theboard.
It doesn't just apply to money,but, uh, people don't often
people don't make decisionsbased on what's in their
financial best interest.
They took based on what they,what they fit on.
(19:11):
So you've got to have acombination of, you know,
thinking and feelings, and thisis where habits and making
things automatic.
You can turn those into bigadvantage advantages and things
about the thing about habits isthis Tony, they don't
discriminate.
All right, the end, they're verypredictable.
So we know this.
(19:31):
If you read a lot, yourknowledge and brain are going to
grow.
If you exercise daily, we knowin advance, your health is going
to improve.
We know if you save, you'regoing to start building security
and wealth that is predictable,and anyone can do it.
Now.
They may start in differentplaces.
You know, some people may startin penny.
Some people may start indollars.
(19:53):
It doesn't matter.
You know, I would contend this,that a person who starts with
panties eventually, they'regoing to grow to Nichols.
If they're, if they're making ita habit, which is going to grow
to dimes.
And if you're saving pennies andnickels and dimes, that's
probably going to affect the wayyou think about how you spend
this, uh, you know, compounding,uh, effect.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Well, you know, I mean, I know your messages
targeted to children, but, youknow, I keep hearing, uh, that
this is exactly the same issuethat so many adults experience.
And I think, uh, you know, I, I,do you feel that your work with
Sammy rabid is going to changehow adults interact and break
(20:41):
down some of the taboos aboutmoney and how money is this
crazy thing that I can'tunderstand and I can't grasp.
And so I don't want to deal withit.
I mean, is that going to helpchange that mindset?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Absolutely.
Let me just say, uh, we get, uh,emails and letters from parents
all the time saying, you know,uh, this is something I need to
learn myself, or because mychild is now, uh, talking about
this or, or doing it, I'm doingmore of it.
Or I need to seek out a, aplanner or CPA or, or whatever
(21:18):
it is.
Uh, that was the exact one ofthe exact point that, uh, was,
uh, a compelling idea at thetime to the, uh, an organization
called the air force aidsociety.
It's one of the first big andimportant organizations.
Uh, we worked with, I wastalking to their, uh, I believe
(21:40):
he's their COO.
This was at a conference.
And I shared with them.
I says, you know, I think, Ithink at that time, one of the
things you're going to findabout our program is if we can
get the kids energized aboutmoney and saving, they'll start
talking to their parents and itwill have a whole impact, uh, on
(22:01):
the family dynamic and ColonelDelaney, James Delaney, uh,
said, you know, I, I think youmay be right.
We want to test this idea outwith you.
And at that time, this was backaround 2003, we were just
getting started.
We had basically what I woulddescribe as a service based
business model.
(22:22):
And so what that means is I wasgoing around reading our books,
conducting a, an experience, aone hour experience for kids.
At that time, we had developed acostume or a character Sammy the
rabbit.
And so I would read the kids, uh, we would sing the kids and
then Sammy the rabbit.
And I would do skits with kidsreinforcing these messages.
(22:44):
And after we did a few of those,uh, experiences for the air
force aid society, they approveda essentially what was a, a
contract or a commitment to haveus do that for four years.
And we went to air force basesall over the, uh, all over the
world, primarily in the us, butto England, to Italy, to Turkey,
(23:05):
to Japan.
And then unbeknownst to me whilewe were doing this every
quarter, Colonel Delaney wasbriefing the Pentagon on our
work and the vacuum was gettingfrom the, the basis and about,
Oh, I don't know, a year and ahalf or two years into this.
I got a call from the Pentagon,uh, Colonel Delaney didn't tell
(23:25):
me or anything.
So this was just totally out ofthe blue.
And they said, is this Sammy therabbit?
I said, yes,
Speaker 1 (23:33):
This is the
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Pants that got on what the Pentagon and they were
going to be doing what theycalled financial readiness
campaign and financial readinessdays on all military basis, army
Navy, Marines air force.
And it's going to be a whole dayof workshops.
Most of them are geared for theadult members, but they were
(23:56):
going to have programs for thehigh school students, the middle
school students.
And they said, and for theelementary students, we're going
to have Sammy the rabbit isn'tthat right?
And I said, and you know, a lotof, uh, great people.
They had people like, uh, uh,uh, uh, Susie Orman, uh, Dave
Ramsey and, and, and variouspeople, you know, based on
(24:19):
whoever was available leadingsome of these workshops for our
military service members.
But we did all of theprogramming for the young kids.
It's probably, you know, uh, oneof the greatest things that's
happened to me in my entirelife.
Being able to be of service tothe people who are protecting
(24:40):
and serving our freedom andtheir children who have, you
know, very different lives, youknow, they're very mobile moving
from place to place, you know,um, many of them.
And so, uh, yeah, that's, uh,you know, that's that, uh, story
and that, that was the idea.
And then since then, uh, what hawhat happens is, what I've
(25:01):
shared with you is we get these,you know, emails and letters, or
maybe it's, uh, havingconversations that confirm that
getting the kids energized inmany cases has an impact on the
whole family.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Definitely.
Well, I can see that.
And it's so exciting just as anaside to hear, uh, the military
doing something like that isbecause unfortunately service
members are so often targeted byfinancial predators.
Uh, so it's great that they'regetting some, helping build some
financial wellness.
I mean, it's young people and,you know, so many military
(25:39):
members are kids still.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yeah.
Yes.
You, you, you hit the nail righton the head.
This is why they had thoseprograms.
They've advanced them now andare almost, uh, I think in fact,
probably on every military base,they have these, uh, family
centers and a part of thesefamily readiness centers.
Uh, they offer various services,financial counseling, and
(26:05):
coaching being one of them.
They also have, you know, uh,how to get jobs.
Uh post-military things likethat.
And one of the reasons they havethem is the very point you made,
uh, military members in generalare young and they aren't preyed
upon prey preyed upon.
And, you know, it's kind offunny, one of the things we
(26:26):
noticed, uh, being in a lot ofthese military Terri towns,
excuse me, you almost know rightaway when you're in the house,
because there's the, you know,there's always certain things
there.
And like for payday lenders,it's usually one side, Oh, we
must be in a military military.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Yeah.
Well, you know, Alameda is, uh,we're, we're, you know, as an
old Naval town and there's stilla huge coast guard presence, so
we definitely get that vibehere.
Uh, so I definitely see w youknow, definitely see the same
thing.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah.
They're, they're, uh, you know,kudos and congratulations to
them.
I think they were, uh, maybe oneof the first enterprises or
entities that really embraced,uh, financial education for its
members, you know, early Istarted roughly around 1999.
I'm not sure when the movementstarted.
(27:21):
Exactly.
But maybe in the late eighties,nineties, you had organizations
like, uh, you know, Nephi, andmaybe there were a few others.
So was still at the forefrontrelative to where, what I'll
call the movement has developed,uh, you know, today.
And, uh, they were, they werealready executing programs and,
and realizing that this was a,an issue and they were
(27:45):
addressing it.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
That's great.
You know, so, you know, aquestion for you, how has, um,
you know, the internet anddigital technology impacted how
you're able to spread the wordof Sammy rabbit and how do you
think it's changing thefinancial literacy conversation?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Well, it's, it's changing a lot.
I mean, that fin FinTech is awhole big, uh, movement.
It is the thing that is, that ishappening and it's financial
literacy is a part of that, but,uh, FinTech is much broader than
that.
It applies to the bankingsystems, you know, mortgage
lending, everything, it cutsacross, you know, uh, everything
(28:25):
and it, what it's done.
Uh, we're we we've changed ourbusiness model.
We're trying to be more of a, uh, of an internet online type of
a company, a S a, a provider ofresources, more than of
services.
We're still happy to go out anddo experiences if people want us
to.
But what we're really trying todo now more is, is, you know,
(28:48):
provide schools after schoolprograms, military
organizations, financial, uh,service professionals with
resources and strategies, sothey can disperse those or lead
their own experiences.
And the internet has made thatpossible.
I've made, you know, hundreds,if not thousands of
(29:09):
relationships, just like ours,you were commenting.
This is our first well not inperson, but first visual, uh,
meeting.
We've done all of our connectionvia LinkedIn and emails.
And I have to tell you it's beena boom for me, and it's really
helped us, uh, spread ourmessage and get our resources
(29:30):
out to more people, you know,then I would have at man, it
would have imagined, uh, youknow, trying to do all of that
just in, and it's opened upenormous doors in terms of, uh,
the, the types of people you can, uh, access.
We've met a lot of, uh,wonderful people, CEOs, you
(29:52):
know, of companies like aSchwab.
And what I mean met, I mean,digitally, not necessarily video
chats, but through emails orLinkedIn connections or
Facebook.
And, uh, you know, they taken aninterest in our, our, our, our
work and they're, they'reaccessible.
So, uh, you know, it's been abig, uh, Boone, and then it's
(30:12):
also been a big, I think Boonemostly in a good way.
It's like everything comes withpositives and negatives, but
there's been an explosion with,uh, within financial literacy of
people every day, somebody newand maybe multiple people, new
are offering new ideas, newproducts, they all seem to be
getting better.
(30:33):
There isn't any reason todaythat anyone anywhere, almost
anywhere, if you have access tothe internet, that you cannot
have access to good financialliteracy, all you have to do is
click it.
It's there.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Definitely.
Well, I think though, sometimesone of the dangers is separating
that get information from thebad information.
I mean, people talk it up.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Let me just say, and I think that is basic.
What am I called?
This is where you have to bebuilding these basic financial
literacy skills.
To me, this would come undersmart spending, comparing and
contrasting, you know, productsor services.
It's something everyone needs tobe able, capable of doing
whether you're buying groceriesor trying to sort out financial
(31:24):
literacy.
Having said that there's a lotof good financial, solid
financial literacy, uh, outthere.
And so one of the things, Ithink if you're probably young
kids or young kids, and when I'msaying young, I don't mean 13.
I mean, like three to 10.
Okay.
Wow.
So, so somewhere, let's sayaround eight or nine years old,
(31:47):
but definitely by 13, what youcan start doing is asking your
parents, all right.
They, they're probably yournumber one for better or worse.
They're probably your number onefinancial coach.
So you, what, what you want tobe trained to do, I think is to,
(32:07):
I like to say, compare,contrast, and ask.
So you could ask your parents,Hey, is this good information or
not?
And they may or may not know.
And if they don't know, maybethey'll ask their advisor.
If they have one, or maybethey'll ask their neighbor, you
know, there's a lot of meetupclubs now.
So it, it, I think it, you canget cha you could ask your
teacher, you can get channeledinto the right financial
(32:30):
literacy fairly quickly.
You don't have to be on thewrong path too long, but even if
you're on the wrong path, I likethe idea that you're, you're
looking to sort it out.
And, uh, at that age, you reallycan't make too many significant
mistakes that aren't re re rereversible, uh, you know, while
(32:53):
you're trying to sort out ifyou're on the right path or not,
but I think there's a goodchance you're going to get onto
the right path fairly, uh,quickly.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Well, that's great.
You know, um, one of the thingsthat, uh, you know, I have, um,
written about is the suggestionof with advisors and financial
service professionals is havingfamily financial meetings.
Uh, is that a way that advisorsand other members of the
(33:26):
financial services communitiescould promote the concept of CME
rapid is through familyfinancial meetings?
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Absolutely.
I think that's a great idea.
There's a lot of ways to do it,and that would be one, uh, you
know, they can give out theresources to their clients, to
their prospects.
They can go out into thecommunity to schools that have
the, uh, school programs, theboys and girls clubs to YMCAs,
they can get involved as theywant.
(33:56):
And I think what they're goingto find, this has been the
general feedback as it relatesto the Sammy, the rabbit Sammy,
the rabbit is very timeefficient.
So it sent me the rabbit.
Uh, there's different ways tojump into Sammy the rabbit.
But one we often recommend isthrough one of his stories or
one of his workbooks.
So we have resources for kids.
(34:17):
Let's say three to five ingeneral, parents and teachers
need to determine, you know,where their kids are, are at.
So some kids are ahead.
Some are behind, some are right,maybe where they should be
developmentally, but for thethree to five-year-olds, we have
color and trace books.
We're very wealth buildingoriented and very language
(34:39):
oriented.
We're all, you know, we, welike, we want kids to be aware
of the terminology in the words.
So we have the saving alphabet.
So you have all 26 letters inthe alphabet.
And then we've tried to mix in,you know, various financial
words, uh, on all of the 26pages.
Kids can trace them.
So they're working on theirwriting skills and they can call
(35:00):
around.
So they're learning the words.
This is one of the first seeds.
So we have, we have, we had thesaving alphabet.
We have a book just on Sabey andthen in the saving book, the
words come with the sentence.
So you might have something likesaving is fun or saving is a
great habit.
So it starts now planting anidea.
We have one on earning, one onspending smart and one on giving
(35:24):
wisely.
Then when you get into the fiveto seven year olds, we have a
book and a workbook called it'sa habit, Sammy rabbit.
It's a book you can read, it's abook you can call her.
And then there's various otheractivities that you can do along
with it.
When you get into seven yearsand older or six, if you're
reading that age, we have acall, a book called Sammy's big
(35:47):
dream.
And in Sammy's big dream, he,his big dream is to write.
He has ILA must be dream.
He wants to ride on the world'sfirst daughter's space
rollercoaster.
And so in order to do it, this,his opportunity is through a
class field project.
He's going to need$300 toparticipate.
So his parents say, Sammy, ifwe'll give you 150 a fair, but
(36:11):
to earn and save the other 150we'll we'll you, you can do it.
You can go.
And so Sammy does that.
In fact, he earns and saves alittle bit more.
And so one of his friends comesup a little bit short, so he
gives money to his friends so hecan participate also.
So there's a giving message inthere also, and it turns out
(36:32):
Sammy doesn't need to quite earn$150 because, Hey, guess what,
Tony he's already been saving.
So, you know, it's a littleeasier to reach your goals or to
take advantage of opportunitiesif you're, if you're prepared.
And so that's what that, book'sall about.
We also, we've just developed,this is coming out any day.
Now, a program around that bookthat brings out these various
(36:57):
messages besides saving andearning or great habits, also
dives into goal setting intoplanning.
So you can start building up onthese message, building your
kids' financial knowledge andcapability.
And then on top of all that,this works for any of our
programs.
We've developed that youmentioned one of the largest
(37:18):
libraries of songs on money,like get in the habit.
Let me just give you the, wesang this song all over the
world, get in the habit.
And this is our sign for habit,something you do over it, like
Sammy rabbit, saving money allthe time, Tony, you can do it
now, get to it from everydollar, save a, save a dime.
(37:39):
So that, that is a, just aninfectious, contagious, catchy
song with just a purposefulmessage that you can build
around.
And we have a song book forthese 14 songs.
We'd actually developed 25 andhave a list of over a hundred
more.
We want to develop S a B Elemonade stand rainy day.
(38:02):
Those all, we have all thoseright now.
And then we have, uh, 10activities for each one.
They reinforce the concepts.
They reinforce the language.
You know, I was listening to, uh, an interview, Oh, about a
month ago, maybe two months agofrom a young man he's 27 or 28
saying Jeff Cruttenden, hope I'mpronouncing the last name
(38:26):
correctly, but he is thevisionary and create, or the
acorns program, which is nowCNBC, uh, invest in you
initiative.
I believe that's the, uh,initiative.
And he was being interviewed andhe was talking about his dad was
an investment banker and talkingabout being nine or 10 and
(38:49):
listening to his dad make dealson, uh, on the phone and various
things that I think his dad wasone of the founders of, uh, his
name is Walter.
Uh, uh, E-Trade he might've beenone of the, as I say, founders
behind that, but he would investin a whole variety of companies,
including like maybe cartoon orcomic companies.
(39:10):
And so that, that ground buildto, to Jeff.
So he started picking up some ofthe capillary, the language,
things like, uh, like that.
And then he was sharing one ofthe things his father did was
open up a, a small investmentaccount for him.
And he said, you know, in fourthgrade he can remember racing
(39:32):
home to find out, you know, ifthe stock went up or down, and
then he made the observation,this really resonated with me.
I mean, all of that did as well,but even more.
So he was saying when he was incollege, he was, uh, noticing
that kids, even in the financeand economics classes, that
(39:54):
didn't seem like they would have25 or$50 to in best.
And that was part of it,inspiration for, uh, creating
acorns, which is a platformwhere you can invest, you know,
with very, very little money.
But he, he said, I think you getmore value out of investing$500
(40:17):
than say a fake 25 million or 10million.
Like a lot of these games arestructured to do.
And for me that hit the nailright on the nose.
All right.
That I think they have somevalue.
So I don't want to say that theydon't have any value, but I
think that real money havingthat real statement, that is a
(40:40):
game changer.
And that's another thing that'sdifferent today is that you can
invest in fractional shares andyou can do it at a no cost to
low cost, uh, very easily.
And so that can be a veryformative learning experience
for almost any anyone.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Well, that's great.
Well, you know, to startwrapping up, um, you know, do
you have a favorite story youcan share with us?
I mean, you've had so much, somany different experiences.
What's, what's your funniestmost interesting story?
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Oh, well not.
He said funniest that throws alittle a change to it, but, you
know, I L I, I think the mostimportant what I'll call some of
the most important, I, I, I,it's hard for me to single out
one, but, uh, the work we didwith the air force that I, and
the military that are alreadywent, that, that it was just
(41:36):
unbelievable.
And the quote, I want toemphasize the quality of the
people I met there.
And in general has been, youknow, made a tremendous
impression on my mind.
And I'm very grateful of four.
We did some work with theuniversity of Maryland extension
that went over two years, uh,that was run by an adjunct
(41:57):
professor.
Uh, Megan O'Neill that won anational award.
She won the national award forthis work, but it was, uh,
around our approach related tomaking financial education
interactive and experiential and, and having music and, and
these different elements to it,which at the time was a, a game
(42:19):
changer.
And then her peers voting herthis national award that was, uh
, you know, something thatreally stands out in my mind,
participating in the, uh, uh,national book festival,
Washington, D C three years ofthe library of Congress credit
union brought us there to be apart of their, uh, their table.
(42:41):
And that, that was an extraordinary, uh, experience.
I'd recommend anybody to go tothat particular, uh, book
festival Italia I'd experiencedthat, uh, brought me to tears.
This was in a little town in SanSaba, Texas.
Uh, I think there's 1200 peoplethere.
The elementary school, themiddle school, the high school
(43:02):
are all on the same block.
I met a woman named SharonPierce in, uh, she's from
Austin, Texas.
I first met her online and sheheard our song get in the habit.
And she was the state advisorfor high school students,
primarily high school students,also some middle school
students, part of anorganization that's in public
(43:23):
school called family career andcommunity leaders of America.
And one of the things they haveto do is they have to do school
lead school projects.
They're given a menu like don'tdo drugs or stop the bullying,
whatever it might be.
And in Texas at that time, thiswas, I think, 2007, they had
something called ready, set,read, and, uh, financial
(43:45):
literacy was becoming important,but it wasn't on the menu yet
since we had a storybook and shewas interested in getting the
kids to become more financiallyliterate, she said, I think kids
are kids will respond to yourapproach to financial education.
I'm going to put the word outthere and see if any of them
(44:06):
will adopt it.
And several of them didincluding three ninth grade
girls in San Saba, Texas.
And one day I got a call fromthem and they said, Mr.
Ray, we'd like you to come toSan Saba, Texas and see what
we're doing at the elementaryschool with your resources.
(44:30):
And so then Sharon called me andshe made arrangements and San
Saba's roughly about two hoursoutside of Austin.
I remember going to Austin andwe drove out there for two
hours.
And these girls, once you doyour community service project,
the way the FCC LA is organizedis they have a, an Olympic style
competition afterward.
(44:51):
But it's all based on oralreporting.
You give a presentation on yourproject, how you impacted the
community, and you start off atthe competition, starts at the
local level.
If you win that, you goregional.
If you win that, you gostatewide.
If you win that and you gonational.
And so they brought me out justbefore they were going to go
national.
They had already won the statetitle.
(45:15):
And then they showed me whattheir present.
This was before we were going togo visit the school they were
bringing in the author.
So that was a big thing, butthat was going to be the
following day.
But the day before they said,may we show you the presentation
we're going to be doing at thenational competition?
And I said, sure.
And I started crying becausethis was something I had never
(45:39):
envisioned high school kidstaking our resources and
bringing them to life in asimilar, but different way than
how we were doing it.
And it just made me so happy andproud of the, the, you know, the
work that we were uh, doing.
So that that's a very memorableexperience.
(45:59):
And then just last year, thisexperience that you, we
participated in togethercreating something called the
first national dream, big readthat, uh, Sheryl Garrett, just,
you know, an icon in financialservices got behind and
supported as the 30 otherpeople, professionals like
(46:20):
yourself.
This was for me another, uh,just a top-notch, uh,
experience, all the people, justtop notch, people who, uh, care
about their communities, careabout kids and families, and
wanting to put them on the righttrack and, and buying into and
supporting our, our vision.
(46:42):
Uh, these are some of the top,uh, top memories.
And I'm sure there's a lot ofother ones.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Well, yeah.
I mean, the, the work you dotouches so many people on it.
And I, I think it's so importantbecause people oftentimes, you
know, you, you had a point veryearly on is to not underestimate
what kids can learn andunderstand.
And I think people miss that isthat, you know, you have to talk
(47:11):
to kids like, are people, youknow, I mean, to some degree
they're not adults.
And of course you have to, youknow, remember that, but you
also have to treat them likethey're a person who can
understand and have aconversation and make their own
decisions and your will changeso much.
And I think that's the power ofwhat you're doing with Sami
(47:33):
rapid is your working with kidsin a respectful fashion and not
talking down to them.
And,
Speaker 2 (47:41):
You know, we, we got very fortunate the first time I
went to read, and this was justa trial reading.
We hadn't produced our book yet.
Uh, the principal at theelementary school met with us
afterwards, and she is the onewho told me just what I shared
with you.
She said, Sam, one of thebiggest mistakes parents and
(48:02):
adults make is a underestimatekids' ability to grasp concepts.
She said, if you assume that ifyou're able to explain it, they
will be able to grasp it.
It will change the whole natureof your relationship with
children, your impact, and yourability to educate.
(48:22):
And you know, what, we, wefollow her advice basically.
And I think she's dead on
Speaker 1 (48:29):
That is a hundred percent spot on, well, you know,
to, to wrap up, uh, where canpeople learn more about you and
what you're doing
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Well to no surprise.
Our website is Sammy rabbit.com,Sam, your habit.com.
That's S a M M Y R a B B It.com.
We're happy to talk to you.
There's a lot of informationthere, but if you want us to
talk with you, just, uh, fillout the contact contact form and
we'll get ahold of you.
(48:58):
And, uh, you know, in additionto providing the resources and
services, we're big championsand advocates for, uh, financial
literacy and capability and, andjust education and learning in
general.
So we're happy to share our,what we've learned and we're
happy to learn, you know, whatyou, you know, and try and serve
(49:20):
kids and families.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
Yeah, well, that's great.
Uh, well, Sam, to, to wrap up is, uh, first of all, for our
listeners, uh, all, all thelinks to Sam, uh, to Sammy
rabbit's website will be on, uh,fortunately this is an easy
website to remember, and thespelling is simple is, uh, will
be in the show notes.
But the other thing is I wouldlike to say I had the honor of
(49:42):
participating and Sammy's firstbig, uh, dream read.
And I hope there's going to be asecond one.
Uh, but I would encourage allthe advisors out there to think
about participating in thesecond annual, is there going to
be a second annual,
Speaker 2 (49:58):
Uh, right.
It's on the board now we'll findout, uh, is it good?
Is it going to be second annualor second biennial?
That's the big decision, butwe've targeted October, which
is, I think national financialplanning month as to when we
want to pull this off,basically.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Well, I, I look forward to participating whether
it's annual or biannually and,um, I thank you so much for
joining me today.
Sam, it's been a real, Oh,
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Uh, thank you, Tony.
It's been a pleasure for me, aSammy horrific pleasure.
As we like to say, thank you forthe work.
You're the work you're doing
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Well, you as well signing off.
Thank you for listening to the,get ready with Tony Stewart
podcast in partnership withinsurance nerds, and please be
sure to subscribe.
Welcome to the get ready with Tony Stewart podcast
in partnership with insurancenerds.
I'm pleased to be joined todayby Sam Renick, Sam.
Good morning.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey, good morning, Tony.
Thank you for having me.
I'm doing Sammy[inaudible] as welike to say.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Fantastic.
Well, I'm glad to have you.
Uh, so in this episode, we'll bediscussing how it's never too
early for financial education.
Sam is the internationallyrecognized leader and pioneer in
financial literacy in 2001, Samfounded the it's a habit company
and co-created children'sstorybook character, Sammy
(00:49):
rabbit to make it easy foranyone to talk to you and teach
young children about great moneyhabits.
Since then, Sam has introduced,produced one of the largest
libraries in the world offinancial literacy resources,
including stories and songs likeSammy's big dream.
Get in the habit, save rainy daylemonade, stand and more, uh,
(01:10):
and all of these links andinformation will be on the show
notes a little bit more aboutSam before we dive in, um, for
nearly two decades, Sam hasdelivered his innovative and
infectious brand of financialeducation to more than a quarter
million children in eightcountries in 40 States.
Sam has also received numerousawards for his innovative work.
(01:33):
Uh, so Sam let's let's getstarted.
Um, how did you get started withwhat you're doing?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Well, it was all, uh, quite accidental.
Uh, Tony, this is actually mythird quarter path.
I spent about 12 years inaerospace on the business side.
It was just a great experiencefor me.
And it's really where I learnedto develop and take ideas out of
our head and turn them into realthings like books and characters
and stuff like that.
(02:00):
I went from finance, uh, from,uh, the aerospace industry into
financial services, uh, mainlyselling mutual funds related to
retirement, some related tocollege saving.
And then I was doing a littlebit of, uh, insurance as well.
And the firm I was with was asmall boutique independent firm.
And they'd have these weeklytraining sessions on Fridays
(02:22):
where they'd bring inprofessionals from the industry
who, you know, wanted us torepresent their products.
And they lead a sales training.
And, you know, I had been doingthis for a few years and one day
a gentleman shows up with, uh,an Etch-a-Sketch and a bubble
blower and I'm like, okay, what,what is he up to?
What's he going to be teachingus today?
(02:44):
And essentially he was sharingwith us that he thought it was a
great idea.
First open up college savingsaccounts and start trying to
establish these long termrelationships with, uh, with,
with families.
And that just really got me tothinking, you know, why did I
(03:04):
get into saving and investingright out of college with my
first, uh, professional job?
So that was one of the thingsthat prompted me to start
investigating and what peoplenow call financial literacy,
financial education, financialcapability that, and now I had
(03:24):
had some experience as afinancial services professional,
and I had several hundredconversations under my belt with
the people just like us.
And at that time I was in mythirties and I had mainly what I
would describe as a, uh, afamily practice where people are
essentially about my age andsome, a little older, but there
(03:45):
was a theme that was developingin all these conversations.
And that theme was essentiallypeople sharing with me, their
regret and despair for notsaving earlier in their lives or
having their parents taught themabout the importance of saving
and or in investing.
And so that combined with thecells, uh, uh, he was a
(04:08):
wholesaler during hispresentation just made me really
start to reflect on while it wasquite unusual that I, I think I
started working professionallyat 21 and I started putting like
maybe a third or 40% of what Iwas making into various saving
and investment programs,including the four Oh one K and
not surprisingly enough.
(04:30):
After about 12 years of doingthis repetitively, making a
habit of it, you know, my pileof, uh, savings and investment.
It grew.
And I thought everybody did thisbecause of the way my father
raised me.
I was born and raised in LosAngeles, but he was from the
Midwest.
So he used to talk a lot aboutsomething called Midwest common
(04:51):
sense and had a part of Midwestcommon sense was you earn here,
you spend here.
Yeah, that was the essence ofit.
And one of the other things thathe really ingrained in us was
this idea that, uh, you know,you can have anything you want,
(05:13):
if you were willing to work hardenough for it.
Now we had very little, Ilearned in college, we were
essentially, you know, hoveringaround the, the, the, the
poverty line.
It's a little misleading in thesense that we never, we had
everything we needed, like onepair of jeans for life.
We always had food.
We always had food and a placeto, to sleep.
(05:33):
And so, uh, my father thought,you know, you get that good work
ethic, you get an education, uh,you'll be able to do what you
want if you want to.
And so, you know, that allkicked in, I was not really
enthralled with financialservices itself was somewhat of
a disappointing experience forme.
(05:54):
But what I found was, uh,thinking about and wanting to
educate and share messages withparents and kids, you know,
about the importance of abuilding, a nest day, uh, saving
and investing.
So you can make dreams cometrue.
That was something that reallyresonates with me.
So one day I asked myself aquestion.
(06:16):
I said, Tony, I said to myself,you know, if I could only teach
a child or an adult, one thingrelated to finances, what would
it be?
And I thought about that for,you know, maybe a month or two
months.
And I thought, you know, themost important thought that had
helped me gain some independenceand some security at 34 35, was
(06:43):
this idea of paying yourselffirst.
And so, or spending less thanyou earn, however you like to,
to look it.
I thought, you know what?
I think that's an idea.
It's an important idea.
And it's one that anyone cantake action on.
So the kids, even if they're,you know, poor quote unquote,
(07:04):
they could start saving penniesat something they can do.
You know, they can put them intoa savings bank, a savings jar,
an envelope, whatever, whateverit is.
And I thought, you know what,this and that was my
translation.
Really?
I was like, well, how do youcommunicate this idea to young
kids?
Because I think I wasconcluding, it's important to
(07:25):
start early, particularly in theenvironment we were living in
back in say 1998, even more sotoday where kids are being
bombarded with messages, fromfamily, from friends, from
television, from computersessentially to spend, spend,
(07:46):
spend, and not only spend whatyou have spend more than what
you have, not only do it now doit right now.
And so I thought, you know, whatif advertisers think it's
important to start shaping kids,not only their thinking, but
their feelings essentially frombirth, we need to have those
(08:09):
type of messages related to whatI would call wealth, building
security, building things ofthat nature.
For me, I like to put more ofthat slant on what people might
quote a call, quote, unquote,financial literacy, then just
doing banking functions andthings of that nature.
(08:29):
So I think you want to get thoseviews in your head.
And so two big questions was howdo you translate that message in
a way that kids will understandand then to what should be a, a
good vehicle for communicatingthat message.
And that's how we kind of cameup across the message saving is
a great habit and, uh, Sammyrabbit.
(08:52):
And then from there, we just, wejust developing that message,
wanting to bring it to kids andto parents in a variety of ways,
we started with storybooks andthe book, it's a habit, Sammy
rabbit.
And then we put it into messageand more stories and then
activities and experiences andthings of that nature.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Well, that's, I mean, you hit on so many great points,
but I think the most importanttakeaway of course, is to spend
less than you earn.
And, you know, it's such asimple concept that, you know,
so many of us have a strugglewith, uh, you know, don't don't
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, yes, but it is okay.
You hit the nail on the head.
It's a simple idea.
This is not rocket science.
So it's very simple.
That is the cornerstone.
That is the foundation.
So if you master that, there's agood chance you're going to do
well.
And then it's just a question ofhow well, and the other
(09:53):
component to it is is, is, youknow, making it a routine ma we
like to say, make it a habit.
And then it was an idea I wish Ihad come up with, but I surely
didn't championing for it is theone David Bach came up with and
that's to make it automatic.
So look, I'm not any differentthan anyone.
If you put cash in my hands,there's a good chance I'm going
(10:16):
to spend it.
You know, one thing we are greatas Americans is marketing, you
know, so there's a lot ofopportunities every day to, to,
uh, spend on a lot of great, uh,things.
So if you can make your, what Iwould call wealth, building
security, building, some peoplecall your financial health and
(10:37):
wellness.
Uh, if you can make that a habitand make it automatic, get the
money out of your hands orminimize the amount of cash you
have access immediate access tocash in pocket being maybe the
most immediate of all.
I think the better off you'regoing, you're going to do
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Well.
That's great.
Uh, you know, I know one of thethings, um, as an advisor, when
I worked with clients, I, youknow, I oftentimes was, uh,
partnering with advisors onworking with our clients is that
people oftentimes made thingsmore complicated than they
needed it to be.
And they expected theirfinancial services, uh, and
(11:20):
products to be complicated.
Do you think that maybe that'spart of it is that we have a
psychological expectation thatsomething's not good unless
there's some complexity to it?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
I think, you know, that is a, what I'd call, I
guess, a contributing factor.
So I think, look, the basicswork.
So they're going to take you,let's say if, if a hundred
percent is the finish line,they're going to take you 70 to
80% of the way there.
Once you master the basics andnothing is more basic than
(11:55):
spending less than you earn andsaving.
I think those are what I'll callleading behaviors that they
often will lead you toinvesting.
And then to the, let's say leveltwo or level three, where maybe
some more sophistication, adifferent level of complexity
doesn't necessarily have to beoverly complex, you know, then
(12:18):
that that's where you may wantto jump into that.
And probably largely you'reprepared and ready for that.
But if you start with that tobegin with, you know, uh, it's,
it's probably going to beoverwhelming.
You may not be able to sustainit.
A lot of factors, you know, comein and you want to, uh, I think,
you know, here's another very,this is a simple idea, but this
(12:40):
is slightly harder maybe to exexecute is we're all going to be
doing spending.
I think the idea is in my mind,spend smart and spend, this is
what's a little tricky trying toalign your spending with what it
is you really value.
What makes that tricky.
And this is where I thinkfinancial advisors can be really
(13:02):
helpful is for people to figureout what it is.
They really value often themoney has gone before they
figured out, Oh, what I reallyvalued was a home or, or
whatever it is.
Maybe it was a nice experience,but not a lot of chocolate or,
you know, what, whatever,whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Well, what is some of the concepts, uh, maybe that,
you know, that you integrate inthe Sammy rabbit program, that
financial advisors and insuranceagents and the rest of the
community could integrate intotheir working with clients?
Uh, what do you see as somecommonalities?
Um,
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Okay, well, uh, you know, all the things we're
teaching young kids are all thethings you would teach, uh,
adults to begin with.
Uh, we just try and do it in aslightly different way that
engages the kids.
Uh, everybody today has a veryshort attention span.
So the four basic behaviors I'llcall say saving is number one,
(14:04):
that's our top priority.
Two would be, uh, earning,spending smart, and then giving
wisely.
Those would be the, for the, for, uh, the foundation, then I'd
layer on top of that settinggoals and making plans.
Boy, if you can figure out whatit is you really want, you're
(14:28):
going to have a great chance of,of getting it.
It may really influence andinform your, your behavior and
how you use your, your, your,your money.
That's a little tougher withkids because they want
everything.
And so that's why w this is oneof the reasons why we think
start with saving because savingis one of these behaviors that
transcends money.
(14:49):
When you start about saving indepth, what you realize is part
of what you're teaching kids ishow to delay gratification.
All right, that's a transferableskill you can use in all, all
areas of life.
You learn about, uh, goalsetting.
Uh, you, it, it does help you tospend smarter because you're
(15:12):
delaying some of your spending.
So it buys you time to thinkabout what you really want.
So there's a lot of benefits,uh, you know, to saving.
And then I think, you know,those other, those other four.
Yeah, sure.
You should, uh, you know, youneed to earn, you want to have a
great earning, uh, ethic.
And so one of our simple Sammymessages earning money is fun to
(15:35):
do.
All right.
Yeah.
It's work.
Try and find work that youreally enjoy that that pays.
That's going to make work evenmore fun.
And when you spend, don't justspend, spend smart spend with
the, uh, you know, a purpose,and then you can th that's the
beginning message.
I mean, there's a lot ofbuilding and layering when it
(15:55):
comes to, uh, spending, uh, youknow, in the next level of my
mind, you know, you want tothink a little bit into me
thinking means comparing andcontrasting things.
That's a great, uh, behavior.
And then, you know, give, butnot only give, but give, give
wisely, put some thought in intothat.
That's something, I think youneed to acquire some skills that
(16:18):
in particularly in today'senvironment, there's a lot of
giving opportunities.
Some are better.
Again, if you can align them forwhat's important to you, you're
probably going to generate more,uh, satisfaction.
If you're aligning, if you havegoals and you make plans, you're
probably going to, uh, uh, leada life with more purpose, which
(16:40):
is going to be more fulfillingand gratifying to you.
So I think these are all ideas,little seeds.
You can start planting intokids' minds, maybe as early as
birth, but certainly somewherearound three or, or four years
old.
And the thing is one of the bigthings, uh, Tony, I think
(17:01):
people, adults would be, uh,smart to assume is that if we
can explain the ideas, kids cangrasp them.
So don't underestimate kids'abilities to learn.
On the other hand, don't expecttoo much.
Okay.
They're not, they're notfinancial advisers, but do
(17:23):
expect that maybe they can startmaking associations and having
feelings like saving is a funthing, just like spending.
And it's really fun when youhave coins in your, your savings
jar and you put it next to yourear and you shake it.
That's what saving sounds likeTony.
And that's what building afuture, uh, feels like, you
know, it's like, Hey, I'm, I'mgoing somewhere.
You know what?
(17:44):
It's, this is such a strong sublimital message to send kids, uh
, to have them make a habit ofsaving, because it says that you
value their future.
Their future is so important.
We're saving for it so we canhave a great future, you know?
And so when you start talking tokids and that of math, wow.
Maybe I'll, I'll say for a day,now, boy, you've got to build
(18:06):
in, you gotta be diligent.
You've got to build intremendous redundancy because
the forces, the voices that areout there, chalk, Slurpee, big
Mac, Chuckie cheese, thosemessages, and walls up, you know
, they're, they're just doingtheir jobs.
(18:27):
All right.
Our jobs, as you know, theguardians of, of children, if we
think, and I, I'm a person whothinks this, that learning how
to use money wisely is importantto having, uh, health, wealth
and success in life.
You know, we, we need to getsome of our own messages in the
(18:48):
kids' heads and not only themessages, but we need to bring
feeling to it as well.
I'm sure you've seen thestudies, you know, uh, and this
probably is true across theboard.
It doesn't just apply to money,but, uh, people don't often
people don't make decisionsbased on what's in their
financial best interest.
They took based on what they,what they fit on.
(19:11):
So you've got to have acombination of, you know,
thinking and feelings, and thisis where habits and making
things automatic.
You can turn those into bigadvantage advantages and things
about the thing about habits isthis Tony, they don't
discriminate.
All right, the end, they're verypredictable.
So we know this.
(19:31):
If you read a lot, yourknowledge and brain are going to
grow.
If you exercise daily, we knowin advance, your health is going
to improve.
We know if you save, you'regoing to start building security
and wealth that is predictable,and anyone can do it.
Now.
They may start in differentplaces.
You know, some people may startin penny.
Some people may start indollars.
(19:53):
It doesn't matter.
You know, I would contend this,that a person who starts with
panties eventually, they'regoing to grow to Nichols.
If they're, if they're making ita habit, which is going to grow
to dimes.
And if you're saving pennies andnickels and dimes, that's
probably going to affect the wayyou think about how you spend
this, uh, you know, compounding,uh, effect.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Well, you know, I mean, I know your messages
targeted to children, but, youknow, I keep hearing, uh, that
this is exactly the same issuethat so many adults experience.
And I think, uh, you know, I, I,do you feel that your work with
Sammy rabid is going to changehow adults interact and break
(20:41):
down some of the taboos aboutmoney and how money is this
crazy thing that I can'tunderstand and I can't grasp.
And so I don't want to deal withit.
I mean, is that going to helpchange that mindset?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Absolutely.
Let me just say, uh, we get, uh,emails and letters from parents
all the time saying, you know,uh, this is something I need to
learn myself, or because mychild is now, uh, talking about
this or, or doing it, I'm doingmore of it.
Or I need to seek out a, aplanner or CPA or, or whatever
(21:18):
it is.
Uh, that was the exact one ofthe exact point that, uh, was,
uh, a compelling idea at thetime to the, uh, an organization
called the air force aidsociety.
It's one of the first big andimportant organizations.
Uh, we worked with, I wastalking to their, uh, I believe
(21:40):
he's their COO.
This was at a conference.
And I shared with them.
I says, you know, I think, Ithink at that time, one of the
things you're going to findabout our program is if we can
get the kids energized aboutmoney and saving, they'll start
talking to their parents and itwill have a whole impact, uh, on
(22:01):
the family dynamic and ColonelDelaney, James Delaney, uh,
said, you know, I, I think youmay be right.
We want to test this idea outwith you.
And at that time, this was backaround 2003, we were just
getting started.
We had basically what I woulddescribe as a service based
business model.
(22:22):
And so what that means is I wasgoing around reading our books,
conducting a, an experience, aone hour experience for kids.
At that time, we had developed acostume or a character Sammy the
rabbit.
And so I would read the kids, uh, we would sing the kids and
then Sammy the rabbit.
And I would do skits with kidsreinforcing these messages.
(22:44):
And after we did a few of those,uh, experiences for the air
force aid society, they approveda essentially what was a, a
contract or a commitment to haveus do that for four years.
And we went to air force basesall over the, uh, all over the
world, primarily in the us, butto England, to Italy, to Turkey,
(23:05):
to Japan.
And then unbeknownst to me whilewe were doing this every
quarter, Colonel Delaney wasbriefing the Pentagon on our
work and the vacuum was gettingfrom the, the basis and about,
Oh, I don't know, a year and ahalf or two years into this.
I got a call from the Pentagon,uh, Colonel Delaney didn't tell
(23:25):
me or anything.
So this was just totally out ofthe blue.
And they said, is this Sammy therabbit?
I said, yes,
Speaker 1 (23:33):
This is the
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Pants that got on what the Pentagon and they were
going to be doing what theycalled financial readiness
campaign and financial readinessdays on all military basis, army
Navy, Marines air force.
And it's going to be a whole dayof workshops.
Most of them are geared for theadult members, but they were
(23:56):
going to have programs for thehigh school students, the middle
school students.
And they said, and for theelementary students, we're going
to have Sammy the rabbit isn'tthat right?
And I said, and you know, a lotof, uh, great people.
They had people like, uh, uh,uh, uh, Susie Orman, uh, Dave
Ramsey and, and, and variouspeople, you know, based on
(24:19):
whoever was available leadingsome of these workshops for our
military service members.
But we did all of theprogramming for the young kids.
It's probably, you know, uh, oneof the greatest things that's
happened to me in my entirelife.
Being able to be of service tothe people who are protecting
(24:40):
and serving our freedom andtheir children who have, you
know, very different lives, youknow, they're very mobile moving
from place to place, you know,um, many of them.
And so, uh, yeah, that's, uh,you know, that's that, uh, story
and that, that was the idea.
And then since then, uh, what hawhat happens is, what I've
(25:01):
shared with you is we get these,you know, emails and letters, or
maybe it's, uh, havingconversations that confirm that
getting the kids energized inmany cases has an impact on the
whole family.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Definitely.
Well, I can see that.
And it's so exciting just as anaside to hear, uh, the military
doing something like that isbecause unfortunately service
members are so often targeted byfinancial predators.
Uh, so it's great that they'regetting some, helping build some
financial wellness.
I mean, it's young people and,you know, so many military
(25:39):
members are kids still.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yeah.
Yes.
You, you, you hit the nail righton the head.
This is why they had thoseprograms.
They've advanced them now andare almost, uh, I think in fact,
probably on every military base,they have these, uh, family
centers and a part of thesefamily readiness centers.
Uh, they offer various services,financial counseling, and
(26:05):
coaching being one of them.
They also have, you know, uh,how to get jobs.
Uh post-military things likethat.
And one of the reasons they havethem is the very point you made,
uh, military members in generalare young and they aren't preyed
upon prey preyed upon.
And, you know, it's kind offunny, one of the things we
(26:26):
noticed, uh, being in a lot ofthese military Terri towns,
excuse me, you almost know rightaway when you're in the house,
because there's the, you know,there's always certain things
there.
And like for payday lenders,it's usually one side, Oh, we
must be in a military military.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Yeah.
Well, you know, Alameda is, uh,we're, we're, you know, as an
old Naval town and there's stilla huge coast guard presence, so
we definitely get that vibehere.
Uh, so I definitely see w youknow, definitely see the same
thing.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah.
They're, they're, uh, you know,kudos and congratulations to
them.
I think they were, uh, maybe oneof the first enterprises or
entities that really embraced,uh, financial education for its
members, you know, early Istarted roughly around 1999.
I'm not sure when the movementstarted.
(27:21):
Exactly.
But maybe in the late eighties,nineties, you had organizations
like, uh, you know, Nephi, andmaybe there were a few others.
So was still at the forefrontrelative to where, what I'll
call the movement has developed,uh, you know, today.
And, uh, they were, they werealready executing programs and,
and realizing that this was a,an issue and they were
(27:45):
addressing it.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
That's great.
You know, so, you know, aquestion for you, how has, um,
you know, the internet anddigital technology impacted how
you're able to spread the wordof Sammy rabbit and how do you
think it's changing thefinancial literacy conversation?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Well, it's, it's changing a lot.
I mean, that fin FinTech is awhole big, uh, movement.
It is the thing that is, that ishappening and it's financial
literacy is a part of that, but,uh, FinTech is much broader than
that.
It applies to the bankingsystems, you know, mortgage
lending, everything, it cutsacross, you know, uh, everything
(28:25):
and it, what it's done.
Uh, we're we we've changed ourbusiness model.
We're trying to be more of a, uh, of an internet online type of
a company, a S a, a provider ofresources, more than of
services.
We're still happy to go out anddo experiences if people want us
to.
But what we're really trying todo now more is, is, you know,
(28:48):
provide schools after schoolprograms, military
organizations, financial, uh,service professionals with
resources and strategies, sothey can disperse those or lead
their own experiences.
And the internet has made thatpossible.
I've made, you know, hundreds,if not thousands of
(29:09):
relationships, just like ours,you were commenting.
This is our first well not inperson, but first visual, uh,
meeting.
We've done all of our connectionvia LinkedIn and emails.
And I have to tell you it's beena boom for me, and it's really
helped us, uh, spread ourmessage and get our resources
(29:30):
out to more people, you know,then I would have at man, it
would have imagined, uh, youknow, trying to do all of that
just in, and it's opened upenormous doors in terms of, uh,
the, the types of people you can, uh, access.
We've met a lot of, uh,wonderful people, CEOs, you
(29:52):
know, of companies like aSchwab.
And what I mean met, I mean,digitally, not necessarily video
chats, but through emails orLinkedIn connections or
Facebook.
And, uh, you know, they taken aninterest in our, our, our, our
work and they're, they'reaccessible.
So, uh, you know, it's been abig, uh, Boone, and then it's
(30:12):
also been a big, I think Boonemostly in a good way.
It's like everything comes withpositives and negatives, but
there's been an explosion with,uh, within financial literacy of
people every day, somebody newand maybe multiple people, new
are offering new ideas, newproducts, they all seem to be
getting better.
(30:33):
There isn't any reason todaythat anyone anywhere, almost
anywhere, if you have access tothe internet, that you cannot
have access to good financialliteracy, all you have to do is
click it.
It's there.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Definitely.
Well, I think though, sometimesone of the dangers is separating
that get information from thebad information.
I mean, people talk it up.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Let me just say, and I think that is basic.
What am I called?
This is where you have to bebuilding these basic financial
literacy skills.
To me, this would come undersmart spending, comparing and
contrasting, you know, productsor services.
It's something everyone needs tobe able, capable of doing
whether you're buying groceriesor trying to sort out financial
(31:24):
literacy.
Having said that there's a lotof good financial, solid
financial literacy, uh, outthere.
And so one of the things, Ithink if you're probably young
kids or young kids, and when I'msaying young, I don't mean 13.
I mean, like three to 10.
Okay.
Wow.
So, so somewhere, let's sayaround eight or nine years old,
(31:47):
but definitely by 13, what youcan start doing is asking your
parents, all right.
They, they're probably yournumber one for better or worse.
They're probably your number onefinancial coach.
So you, what, what you want tobe trained to do, I think is to,
(32:07):
I like to say, compare,contrast, and ask.
So you could ask your parents,Hey, is this good information or
not?
And they may or may not know.
And if they don't know, maybethey'll ask their advisor.
If they have one, or maybethey'll ask their neighbor, you
know, there's a lot of meetupclubs now.
So it, it, I think it, you canget cha you could ask your
teacher, you can get channeledinto the right financial
(32:30):
literacy fairly quickly.
You don't have to be on thewrong path too long, but even if
you're on the wrong path, I likethe idea that you're, you're
looking to sort it out.
And, uh, at that age, you reallycan't make too many significant
mistakes that aren't re re rereversible, uh, you know, while
(32:53):
you're trying to sort out ifyou're on the right path or not,
but I think there's a goodchance you're going to get onto
the right path fairly, uh,quickly.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Well, that's great.
You know, um, one of the thingsthat, uh, you know, I have, um,
written about is the suggestionof with advisors and financial
service professionals is havingfamily financial meetings.
Uh, is that a way that advisorsand other members of the
(33:26):
financial services communitiescould promote the concept of CME
rapid is through familyfinancial meetings?
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Absolutely.
I think that's a great idea.
There's a lot of ways to do it,and that would be one, uh, you
know, they can give out theresources to their clients, to
their prospects.
They can go out into thecommunity to schools that have
the, uh, school programs, theboys and girls clubs to YMCAs,
they can get involved as theywant.
(33:56):
And I think what they're goingto find, this has been the
general feedback as it relatesto the Sammy, the rabbit Sammy,
the rabbit is very timeefficient.
So it sent me the rabbit.
Uh, there's different ways tojump into Sammy the rabbit.
But one we often recommend isthrough one of his stories or
one of his workbooks.
So we have resources for kids.
(34:17):
Let's say three to five ingeneral, parents and teachers
need to determine, you know,where their kids are, are at.
So some kids are ahead.
Some are behind, some are right,maybe where they should be
developmentally, but for thethree to five-year-olds, we have
color and trace books.
We're very wealth buildingoriented and very language
(34:39):
oriented.
We're all, you know, we, welike, we want kids to be aware
of the terminology in the words.
So we have the saving alphabet.
So you have all 26 letters inthe alphabet.
And then we've tried to mix in,you know, various financial
words, uh, on all of the 26pages.
Kids can trace them.
So they're working on theirwriting skills and they can call
(35:00):
around.
So they're learning the words.
This is one of the first seeds.
So we have, we have, we had thesaving alphabet.
We have a book just on Sabey andthen in the saving book, the
words come with the sentence.
So you might have something likesaving is fun or saving is a
great habit.
So it starts now planting anidea.
We have one on earning, one onspending smart and one on giving
(35:24):
wisely.
Then when you get into the fiveto seven year olds, we have a
book and a workbook called it'sa habit, Sammy rabbit.
It's a book you can read, it's abook you can call her.
And then there's various otheractivities that you can do along
with it.
When you get into seven yearsand older or six, if you're
reading that age, we have acall, a book called Sammy's big
(35:47):
dream.
And in Sammy's big dream, he,his big dream is to write.
He has ILA must be dream.
He wants to ride on the world'sfirst daughter's space
rollercoaster.
And so in order to do it, this,his opportunity is through a
class field project.
He's going to need$300 toparticipate.
So his parents say, Sammy, ifwe'll give you 150 a fair, but
(36:11):
to earn and save the other 150we'll we'll you, you can do it.
You can go.
And so Sammy does that.
In fact, he earns and saves alittle bit more.
And so one of his friends comesup a little bit short, so he
gives money to his friends so hecan participate also.
So there's a giving message inthere also, and it turns out
(36:32):
Sammy doesn't need to quite earn$150 because, Hey, guess what,
Tony he's already been saving.
So, you know, it's a littleeasier to reach your goals or to
take advantage of opportunitiesif you're, if you're prepared.
And so that's what that, book'sall about.
We also, we've just developed,this is coming out any day.
Now, a program around that bookthat brings out these various
(36:57):
messages besides saving andearning or great habits, also
dives into goal setting intoplanning.
So you can start building up onthese message, building your
kids' financial knowledge andcapability.
And then on top of all that,this works for any of our
programs.
We've developed that youmentioned one of the largest
(37:18):
libraries of songs on money,like get in the habit.
Let me just give you the, wesang this song all over the
world, get in the habit.
And this is our sign for habit,something you do over it, like
Sammy rabbit, saving money allthe time, Tony, you can do it
now, get to it from everydollar, save a, save a dime.
(37:39):
So that, that is a, just aninfectious, contagious, catchy
song with just a purposefulmessage that you can build
around.
And we have a song book forthese 14 songs.
We'd actually developed 25 andhave a list of over a hundred
more.
We want to develop S a B Elemonade stand rainy day.
(38:02):
Those all, we have all thoseright now.
And then we have, uh, 10activities for each one.
They reinforce the concepts.
They reinforce the language.
You know, I was listening to, uh, an interview, Oh, about a
month ago, maybe two months agofrom a young man he's 27 or 28
saying Jeff Cruttenden, hope I'mpronouncing the last name
(38:26):
correctly, but he is thevisionary and create, or the
acorns program, which is nowCNBC, uh, invest in you
initiative.
I believe that's the, uh,initiative.
And he was being interviewed andhe was talking about his dad was
an investment banker and talkingabout being nine or 10 and
(38:49):
listening to his dad make dealson, uh, on the phone and various
things that I think his dad wasone of the founders of, uh, his
name is Walter.
Uh, uh, E-Trade he might've beenone of the, as I say, founders
behind that, but he would investin a whole variety of companies,
including like maybe cartoon orcomic companies.
(39:10):
And so that, that ground buildto, to Jeff.
So he started picking up some ofthe capillary, the language,
things like, uh, like that.
And then he was sharing one ofthe things his father did was
open up a, a small investmentaccount for him.
And he said, you know, in fourthgrade he can remember racing
(39:32):
home to find out, you know, ifthe stock went up or down, and
then he made the observation,this really resonated with me.
I mean, all of that did as well,but even more.
So he was saying when he was incollege, he was, uh, noticing
that kids, even in the financeand economics classes, that
(39:54):
didn't seem like they would have25 or$50 to in best.
And that was part of it,inspiration for, uh, creating
acorns, which is a platformwhere you can invest, you know,
with very, very little money.
But he, he said, I think you getmore value out of investing$500
(40:17):
than say a fake 25 million or 10million.
Like a lot of these games arestructured to do.
And for me that hit the nailright on the nose.
All right.
That I think they have somevalue.
So I don't want to say that theydon't have any value, but I
think that real money havingthat real statement, that is a
(40:40):
game changer.
And that's another thing that'sdifferent today is that you can
invest in fractional shares andyou can do it at a no cost to
low cost, uh, very easily.
And so that can be a veryformative learning experience
for almost any anyone.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Well, that's great.
Well, you know, to startwrapping up, um, you know, do
you have a favorite story youcan share with us?
I mean, you've had so much, somany different experiences.
What's, what's your funniestmost interesting story?
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Oh, well not.
He said funniest that throws alittle a change to it, but, you
know, I L I, I think the mostimportant what I'll call some of
the most important, I, I, I,it's hard for me to single out
one, but, uh, the work we didwith the air force that I, and
the military that are alreadywent, that, that it was just
(41:36):
unbelievable.
And the quote, I want toemphasize the quality of the
people I met there.
And in general has been, youknow, made a tremendous
impression on my mind.
And I'm very grateful of four.
We did some work with theuniversity of Maryland extension
that went over two years, uh,that was run by an adjunct
(41:57):
professor.
Uh, Megan O'Neill that won anational award.
She won the national award forthis work, but it was, uh,
around our approach related tomaking financial education
interactive and experiential and, and having music and, and
these different elements to it,which at the time was a, a game
(42:19):
changer.
And then her peers voting herthis national award that was, uh
, you know, something thatreally stands out in my mind,
participating in the, uh, uh,national book festival,
Washington, D C three years ofthe library of Congress credit
union brought us there to be apart of their, uh, their table.
(42:41):
And that, that was an extraordinary, uh, experience.
I'd recommend anybody to go tothat particular, uh, book
festival Italia I'd experiencedthat, uh, brought me to tears.
This was in a little town in SanSaba, Texas.
Uh, I think there's 1200 peoplethere.
The elementary school, themiddle school, the high school
(43:02):
are all on the same block.
I met a woman named SharonPierce in, uh, she's from
Austin, Texas.
I first met her online and sheheard our song get in the habit.
And she was the state advisorfor high school students,
primarily high school students,also some middle school
students, part of anorganization that's in public
(43:23):
school called family career andcommunity leaders of America.
And one of the things they haveto do is they have to do school
lead school projects.
They're given a menu like don'tdo drugs or stop the bullying,
whatever it might be.
And in Texas at that time, thiswas, I think, 2007, they had
something called ready, set,read, and, uh, financial
(43:45):
literacy was becoming important,but it wasn't on the menu yet
since we had a storybook and shewas interested in getting the
kids to become more financiallyliterate, she said, I think kids
are kids will respond to yourapproach to financial education.
I'm going to put the word outthere and see if any of them
(44:06):
will adopt it.
And several of them didincluding three ninth grade
girls in San Saba, Texas.
And one day I got a call fromthem and they said, Mr.
Ray, we'd like you to come toSan Saba, Texas and see what
we're doing at the elementaryschool with your resources.
(44:30):
And so then Sharon called me andshe made arrangements and San
Saba's roughly about two hoursoutside of Austin.
I remember going to Austin andwe drove out there for two
hours.
And these girls, once you doyour community service project,
the way the FCC LA is organizedis they have a, an Olympic style
competition afterward.
(44:51):
But it's all based on oralreporting.
You give a presentation on yourproject, how you impacted the
community, and you start off atthe competition, starts at the
local level.
If you win that, you goregional.
If you win that, you gostatewide.
If you win that and you gonational.
And so they brought me out justbefore they were going to go
national.
They had already won the statetitle.
(45:15):
And then they showed me whattheir present.
This was before we were going togo visit the school they were
bringing in the author.
So that was a big thing, butthat was going to be the
following day.
But the day before they said,may we show you the presentation
we're going to be doing at thenational competition?
And I said, sure.
And I started crying becausethis was something I had never
(45:39):
envisioned high school kidstaking our resources and
bringing them to life in asimilar, but different way than
how we were doing it.
And it just made me so happy andproud of the, the, you know, the
work that we were uh, doing.
So that that's a very memorableexperience.
(45:59):
And then just last year, thisexperience that you, we
participated in togethercreating something called the
first national dream, big readthat, uh, Sheryl Garrett, just,
you know, an icon in financialservices got behind and
supported as the 30 otherpeople, professionals like
(46:20):
yourself.
This was for me another, uh,just a top-notch, uh,
experience, all the people, justtop notch, people who, uh, care
about their communities, careabout kids and families, and
wanting to put them on the righttrack and, and buying into and
supporting our, our vision.
(46:42):
Uh, these are some of the top,uh, top memories.
And I'm sure there's a lot ofother ones.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Well, yeah.
I mean, the, the work you dotouches so many people on it.
And I, I think it's so importantbecause people oftentimes, you
know, you, you had a point veryearly on is to not underestimate
what kids can learn andunderstand.
And I think people miss that isthat, you know, you have to talk
(47:11):
to kids like, are people, youknow, I mean, to some degree
they're not adults.
And of course you have to, youknow, remember that, but you
also have to treat them likethey're a person who can
understand and have aconversation and make their own
decisions and your will changeso much.
And I think that's the power ofwhat you're doing with Sami
(47:33):
rapid is your working with kidsin a respectful fashion and not
talking down to them.
And,
Speaker 2 (47:41):
You know, we, we got very fortunate the first time I
went to read, and this was justa trial reading.
We hadn't produced our book yet.
Uh, the principal at theelementary school met with us
afterwards, and she is the onewho told me just what I shared
with you.
She said, Sam, one of thebiggest mistakes parents and
(48:02):
adults make is a underestimatekids' ability to grasp concepts.
She said, if you assume that ifyou're able to explain it, they
will be able to grasp it.
It will change the whole natureof your relationship with
children, your impact, and yourability to educate.
(48:22):
And you know, what, we, wefollow her advice basically.
And I think she's dead on
Speaker 1 (48:29):
That is a hundred percent spot on, well, you know,
to, to wrap up, uh, where canpeople learn more about you and
what you're doing
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Well to no surprise.
Our website is Sammy rabbit.com,Sam, your habit.com.
That's S a M M Y R a B B It.com.
We're happy to talk to you.
There's a lot of informationthere, but if you want us to
talk with you, just, uh, fillout the contact contact form and
we'll get ahold of you.
(48:58):
And, uh, you know, in additionto providing the resources and
services, we're big championsand advocates for, uh, financial
literacy and capability and, andjust education and learning in
general.
So we're happy to share our,what we've learned and we're
happy to learn, you know, whatyou, you know, and try and serve
(49:20):
kids and families.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
Yeah, well, that's great.
Uh, well, Sam, to, to wrap up is, uh, first of all, for our
listeners, uh, all, all thelinks to Sam, uh, to Sammy
rabbit's website will be on, uh,fortunately this is an easy
website to remember, and thespelling is simple is, uh, will
be in the show notes.
But the other thing is I wouldlike to say I had the honor of
(49:42):
participating and Sammy's firstbig, uh, dream read.
And I hope there's going to be asecond one.
Uh, but I would encourage allthe advisors out there to think
about participating in thesecond annual, is there going to
be a second annual,
Speaker 2 (49:58):
Uh, right.
It's on the board now we'll findout, uh, is it good?
Is it going to be second annualor second biennial?
That's the big decision, butwe've targeted October, which
is, I think national financialplanning month as to when we
want to pull this off,basically.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Well, I, I look forward to participating whether
it's annual or biannually and,um, I thank you so much for
joining me today.
Sam, it's been a real, Oh,
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Uh, thank you, Tony.
It's been a pleasure for me, aSammy horrific pleasure.
As we like to say, thank you forthe work.
You're the work you're doing
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Well, you as well signing off.
Thank you for listening to the,get ready with Tony Stewart
podcast in partnership withinsurance nerds, and please be
sure to subscribe.
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