AOA 011: Financial Education in the Schools and at Home

With Jump$tart Coalition Executive Director Laura Levine

In this episode, I talk with Laura Levine. Laura is the Executive Director of the Jump$tart Coalition. We are a partner with this terrific non-profit that advocates for more financial literacy learning in schools as well as aggregates resources for families and teachers on its comprehensive and namesake Clearinghouse. I’ve known Laura for some time, as she’s originally from SoCal, where I live now.  However, she currently lives and works in Washington, DC. She’s a wonderful woman who has dedicated much of her life to driving the financial literacy needle forward, and she shares what’s going on in the schools, the overall state of financial literacy and her personal experiences with her son.

 Laura Levine, Jumpstart Coalition Executive Director

“Parenting is […] an experiment in real time.”
— Laura Levine

Here are some of the topics we discuss in this episode:
  • What parents need to know about the state of financial education standards nationwide
  • Project Groundswell, a new opportunity created by Jump$tart for parents to help their schools improve financial literacy from the ground up
  • The Jump$tart Clearinghouse resource for parents
  • The Jump$tart Coalition’s 12 principles of financial literacy
  • The importance of not giving up your strategy for raising money-smart kids just because a particular tactic fails (Think of failure as practice.)
  • Incorporating a growth mindset into your program
  • Parents should focus on what their children do well rather than what they don’t.
  • Parents should be wary of the phrase “We can’t afford it.”
  • Dispelling the myth that you must be a money expert to talk to your kids (The job is less about teaching and more about opening up a discussion.)
  • You can be your child’s money advocate.
  • How her family’s Christmas travel helped de-commercialize the holidays
  • Thoughts on how to deal with a child who may seem overly generous without mitigating his charitable spirit
  • Laura’s payment plan: Pay yourself first, pay down your debt and pay attention!
  • Check out the Jump$tart Coalition’s Facebook account’s live presentations on the second Tuesday of every month.
  • Jump$tart Coalition Twitter feed

I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Art of Allowance Podcast. If you liked this episode, you might also enjoy my conversation with Elizabeth Odders-White as we delve into the available research regarding kids and money smarts.

Please subscribe to our show to allow me to have additional conversations with parents and discover new ideas to help us all raise money-smart, money-empowered kids. You can find out more about our movement at themoneymammals.com/aoa as well as download a sample or get a copy of my new book, The Art of Allowance. You might also want to check out The Money Mammals, our program to get your children excited about money smarts when they’re young. Until next time, I wish you and your family well as you journey forth. Thanks for listening.