Unlocking Financial Literacy: Essential Skills for Success

Drew Thomas  0:03  
Fast fact, according to the Financial Educators Council, Americans lost over $1,506 in 2023 due to financial illiteracy. Losing money to fraud, overspending and unnecessary fees. I'm Drew Thomas, and you're listening to Bank Chats.

Drew Thomas  0:44  
So, on today's episode of Bank Chats, you know, I always say today's episode, but quite frankly, you could be listening at night or in the morning, or maybe, I don't know wherever you happen to be. But I am of course your host Drew Thomas, with me is my producer, Jeff Matevish, and co-host, and 2 Cents partner, and I don't know, you wear so many hats, Jeff, I don't know.

Jeff Matevish  1:04  
Hey, Drew.

Drew Thomas  1:05  
I wear one hat, he wears like seven. So, we're going to talk a little bit today about financial literacy. And really, the whole point of the podcast, really, is financial education and financial literacy, right? We want to try to provide everybody that's listening to the show, some general information and education about banking and financial health, right? That's the whole point of Bank Chats. And we at AmeriServ, we actually have a fantastic partner that we have worked with now for, I think it's been about two years or so, and it is Banzai Incorporated. They do a fantastic job of working, not only with online education, so there's articles and coaching sessions and things like that on the web, but also with school districts teaching children and doing financial education through scholastic and teaching and so forth. So, it's, they're a really fantastic company. And with that in mind, our guest today is from Banzai. Her name is Emma King, hi, Emma. How are you?

Emma King  2:04  
Hey, how's it going? Happy to be here.

Drew Thomas  2:05  
We're doing fantastic. And it's, it's a very hot day here. I gotta tell you, it's like, it's like in the 90s, and that is really unusual for us. I don't know what it's like where you are, but.

Emma King  2:14  
I'm in Utah, and it, we're having some freak windstorms right now. So, it's a, it's a little weird. I wish it was warmer. I'm from Texas, so I'm ready for like 100 degrees. But here I am.

Drew Thomas  2:29  
Yeah, 100 degrees around here, we're from Pennsylvania, so 100 degrees here is like living in a swamp.

Jeff Matevish  2:34  
Yeah, we'll switch, you.

Emma King  2:35  
Oh, that's fair. It's humid, huh?

Drew Thomas  2:38  
Yeah, it's, it's very humid. 100 degrees and 15% humidity, I'll take over even 90 degrees and 60% humidity. It's, It's terrible. It's terrible.

Emma King  2:48  
That's fair. Humidity is not a good match.

Drew Thomas  2:51  
Yeah, so anyway, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you, how you got working with Banzai, and what it is that you do.

Emma King  2:59  
Yeah, of course. So, I've been with Banzai for about two years now. At the time of the airing of this, you know, depending on when you're watching it, it might vary. Maybe it'll be 10 years at this point. It's actually kind of crazy how I ended up here. I was in the medical field before I came over to Banzai, and I was just looking around, you know, and I ran into Banzai, looked up its mission, which is sharing financial literacy. You know, we want to make financial resources or tools accessible to everyone. You know whether you're eight years old or you're 80 years old, there's something to learn. And so, I heard the mission, and I just related to it. I think financial literacy is something that's so easy to be passionate about, because it affects every single one of us, you know, in one way or another. So, I started here, and I loved it.

Drew Thomas  3:50  
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that I make the joke often, it's one of my staples that, you know, people go through high school and they, they take calculus, and there's like, one out of 100 people that go on after high school to use calculus, but nobody teaches financial literacy, and everybody has to learn how to budget, right? So, the focus is sometimes a little, a little off.

Emma King  4:11  
Yeah, no, it's crazy. I remember in high school we watched financial literacy just videos, and we would like take notes on what we learned. And I learned great stuff, but I can't say too much of it stuck.

Jeff Matevish  4:23  
You had more exposure than we did, yeah.

Drew Thomas  4:25  
That's true. I was, I was doing some reading here prior to us having this discussion, and I was reading that data from 2024 index, this is according to the World Economic Forum, financial literacy in the United States has hovered around 50% for the last eight consecutive years and a 2% drop in the last two years. So, right now, statistically, less than half of the country is what would, would be considered financially literate. Does that sound about right to you, based on what you guys see at Banzai?

Emma King  4:54  
Yeah, I'd say that's, that's beyond, right. It's, it's insane, you know, the number of people, you know, myself included for a while, that didn't even know, you know how to open a credit card, how credit works, how these simple things that affect your everyday life, you know, affect you. And so, we really just want to make resources free, and, you know, partnering with AmeriServ, you have it right there on your website, like, just go check it out. Go learn. You know, we, we want people to be able to know, you know, these things that are going to affect their life.

Drew Thomas  5:25  
Absolutely. So how would you define financial literacy? I think that maybe that's kind of a broad term that gets sort of thrown around. But how would you define being financially literate? Does that mean knowing the difference between a 20 [bill] and a 10 [bill], or is there more to it than that?

Emma King  5:41  
No, that's a great question. I think it involves, you know, a few things. It's having skills, you know, it's having knowledge on financial topics, you know, understanding what a budget is or what investing is. And it's hard to say that anyone's financially literate, because there's always more to learn, you know, and things are changing. You know, a budget 20 years ago wouldn't work today, so we've got to adapt. So, I feel like financial literacy is just learning about these topics and making informed decisions based on that.

Drew Thomas  6:17  
So, Banzai has a number of different ways that you guys go about doing that. So, let's talk a little bit, since we already sort of touched on the subject of not getting educated in schools whenever we were younger, let's talk a little bit about the scholastic aspect of Banzai. How does that work? You work with teachers, right? You work with school districts?

Emma King  6:36  
Yeah, yeah. The school aspect is really cool because teachers are able to go to banzai.org, they can decide, okay, I want to offer these courses to my students. And the courses are gamified versions of life, you know, where students can be running a lemonade stand, saving, you know, money to buy a hoverboard or a bike, or it can be they're saving up for college. You know, learning soft skills, there's a wide range, but the teachers go in and decide, you know, okay, I want to offer this. I want to give this to my students, something that maybe they didn't have. And I think another big thing is state standards are changing. It's becoming more necessary in every state. I don't remember where it's at in Pennsylvania right now, but I'm sure you know it's becoming more necessary there.

Drew Thomas  7:25  
Yeah, absolutely. In the state of Pennsylvania right now, there's an, there's a recommendation to offer financial literacy in our school districts. But I believe that starting in the 2026 school year, it's going to be mandatory that there be a dedicated financial education part of the curriculum, not just something that you throw in at the last minute on, on day 179 out of 180.

Emma King  7:53  
Funny, that's when we saw a lot of peak in Banzai in the past, was the end of the year, because teachers are like, oh yeah, that's really good stuff. Yeah, let me put that in there.

Drew Thomas  8:03  
And I'm out of a lesson plan. So, you know what? It's really...

Jeff Matevish  8:05  
That filler, yeah.

Emma King  8:06  
They're like, here, do this game.

Drew Thomas  8:10  
I do like the idea that it's gamified, though. I think that's very interactive. Yeah.

Emma King  8:14  
Yeah, no, I love that. I went through when I started at Banzai, and even doing, we have one for elementary age. It was so fun running the lemonade stand. And I was like, oh, yeah, I forgot that that's the definition, you know, whatever word it was. I was like, oh, it's good to relearn these things.

Drew and Jeff  8:32  
Yeah, absolutely. Jeff and I were out and about last week at an event, and we saw you said you saw two lemonade stands, yeah? Like, out in the neighborhood, yeah, yeah. So, it's nice to know kids are still doing that, which is great, but yeah, I mean...

Jeff Matevish  8:45  
Times have changed. They're not taking cash anymore. They're taking Venmo, that peer-to-peer payment.

Emma King  8:53  
...and the girl is selling her cup with the lemonade, and so you're mainly paying for a cup. Like, oh, that's a new take on lemonade stands.

Drew Thomas  9:03  
I like the idea that not only are you learning about financial literacy, in a way, you're learning how to make change and do the basics, like when you're a kid, like that, but you're also learning sales, yeah, a little bit. You're learning how to sell yourself.

Jeff Matevish  9:16  
People skills.

Drew Thomas  9:16  
Yeah, you know how to be confident. And I think that's a big part of financial literacy too, is, I think a lot of people are, and it's really, in some ways, no fault of their own, or little fault of their own, that they're not quote, unquote, financially literate, but they feel embarrassed to admit that, and so they don't seek out ways to try to learn. And I think that that's another reason why the other aspect of Banzai, which is the online component, being able to do self-paced education, read articles, do coaching sessions. I think that's also really nice, because you can do it in the privacy of your own home. Nobody has to know that you're doing it. You don't have to, you know, walk into a classroom somewhere and admit that you don't know how to do the interest rate on your account or something like that. Mm, hmm. So, talk a little bit Emma about that aspect. When did banzai start offering the online component of financial literacy?

Emma King  10:08  
Yeah, we started, so we started with schools back in, I think it was '07 and so we were just mainly focused on offering it to students, you know, people that are just barely getting into finances. But I want to say, about five years back, we started this community wellness because we realized, you know, the students need it, the youth need it, but us adults, we're, we're planning for retirement, you know, we, we need to learn these topics as well. And so, we came out with, like you said, a plethora of resources. You know, we have articles that range from NFTs and cryptocurrency to the basics of budgeting. One of my favorite resources is actually our coaching sessions, which I think you'd mentioned, and that's just because it allows users to go in and say, this is where I'm at. And the coaching session will give you some recommendations. You know, let's say you're doing the budgeting coach, they'll say, hey, based off of what you told me, you know, here are some recommendations that might help you. Or here's your graph of your budget. And with the Banzai resources, we never try to tell you, you know, this is exactly what you have to do, because everyone's going to be a little different. You know, we just try to give those resources for you to make the best decision for yourself. You know, to have all this knowledge.

Jeff Matevish  11:37  
Right, right. Hey, Emma, so in these courses and these coaching sessions, what, what are some of the more popular topics that students are learning about with your platform?

Emma King  11:49  
Yeah, no, great question. I'd say the most popular ones are probably the budgeting ones, because that's, you know, a great place to get started for anyone is learning how to budget. Another really popular thing right now is digital wellness. You know how to be safe online right now, there are a lot of scams going around that you've got to be safe about, and so we have tons of articles and coaching sessions on that.

Drew Thomas  12:15  
Yeah, that totally makes sense. And I think that too, we're starting to become less and less of a cash-based society. So much of this stuff is done electronically. You make your payments to your bills electronically, you get direct deposit into your account. There are times when you never have to touch a $1 bill for an entire month if you didn't want to, because you could pay with a debit card or a credit card. So, you know, knowing how those things work and how to use them safely has to be a key component as well, I would think.

Emma King  12:45  
Exactly, and cash, for me personally, cash is dangerous. I'm a victim of girl math and I'm like, cash is free. I can't mess with cash.

Jeff Matevish  12:54  
We're opposite, then. I'm only cash.

Emma King  12:58  
That works. You know, I love that, that's what's so cool about it. But for me, I just be like, man, I have 1000s of dollars that I can go spend on whatever.

Drew Thomas  13:08  
It's already out of my account I can spend whatever.

Emma King  13:11  
It's so bad my husband hates it.

Drew Thomas  13:13  
So, I guess one of the things that is important to note too about this is that financial literacy is not just about saying that you, I guess the point of being financial literate is, it has real life impact on you, right? If you don't understand how to create a budget, you could end up in bankruptcy, which really affects your life. It could affect your housing. It could affect your ability to buy a car. It could be it can sometimes even affect your ability to get hired, uh, from certain organizations. I know that as a bank, like we, we do credit checks, right, because we want to make sure that people are financially stable before we put them around a bunch of cash, right? That doesn't belong to them, right? So, you know. So, I think that Banzai is performing a fantastic service, not only just because financial literacy itself is a, an important thing, but it has real life impact on people, right?

Emma King  14:11  
Yeah, 1,000%. I mean, there are so many things that I had no idea about, you know, until recently, you know. We were buying a house, and we had to know our DTI, you know, our debt-to-income ratio. And I was like, I had no idea that these things impacted, you know, how much money I make and whether I have a car loan, whether I have a house loan, you know, I, you just think, I have money in the bank. Okay, I can, I can do whatever I want, but it doesn't work that way. You know, there's so many different aspects, and so we really just try to provide all of that information so you can know, okay, what is DTI? All of those out, all of those out there that don't know, I highly recommend looking into it. But going and just knowing how to prepare for your future and for your children's future. I mean, there are a lot of things you can do now to help your kids out.

Drew Thomas  15:08  
And I guess that leads to another question that Jeff and I were talking about ahead of time, because you were asking about what age?

Jeff Matevish  15:15  
Yeah, what's a common age for a student to start learning about financial literacy through your platform? Is it set up for, like, middle school students or high school students? Is there something for both age groups?

Emma King  15:28  
Yeah, we have something for all age groups. You know, starting in elementary. I'd say kindergarten and first grade it's not too popular yet. You know, they're still learning basic math. They're not quite ready to run a lemonade stand, but the most popular age group, I'd probably say, is high school, just because they, it's getting real for them, you know, they're about to go to college, you know, preparing for opening their first credit cards. But, you know, we also want to cater to the elementary age where they're just opening their first checking account, you know, because that's going to set you up for your life and your future too.

Jeff Matevish  16:05  
And I'm sure the parents are benefiting too. I'm sure they're, you know, these students are going home and telling their parents what they learned today. So that's a, that's a plus.

Emma King  16:12  
Yeah, exactly. And that's one of the big reasons we came out with the Community Wellness Center, is because the kids were going home and saying, hey, like I went through this course, I learned these amazing topics, and the parents want to learn too, you know, they want to learn for themselves as well as to know, what is my child learning? You know, what, what do they know?

Drew Thomas  16:34  
Yeah, that, that totally makes sense to me, even whenever you said you see, probably your largest dedicated group being high school students, you know, I think that high school students, they sometimes are put in a position, especially with things like college loans, their first credit cards, their first car loan, maybe things like that. Where they are, I don't want to say blindly, but they're, they're naive to how much money they're actually borrowing, and they're naive to how much that's going to impact their life, to pay it back in the long term. And so, I think understanding that more particularly with a generation now that is almost expected to go to college, and almost expected to go to college in a time when college is the most expensive it has ever been, I think that understanding how that financially, financially impacts them is important.

Emma King  17:23  
Yeah, and we have resources on getting scholarships, you know, you mentioned it's the most expensive, and so we've got to learn, you know, it might be the most expensive, but how can I work with that? You know, with what I'm given, maybe filling up FAFSA, you know, is the best bet. You know getting scholarships. There’re so many ways to make it more accessible and to set yourself up or your child up for their future.

Drew Thomas  17:49  
Absolutely. So, whenever it comes to the coaching sessions that Banzai has, is that sort of like the lemonade stand for adults? Is that a fair comparison, or are they different?

Emma King  17:59  
I love that analogy. I'm going to start using that. You know, the coaching sessions, unfortunately, I wish they were as fun as the courses. You know, the, the lemonade stand, it's a picture, you know, that pops up and you run your lemonade stand, the coaches are more so like, it's similar to AI, I would say, where you go in and you're like, chatting with somebody. Okay, so you go in, and it'll say, hey, I'm going to start with the financial wellness one, because it's my favorite. And this is one that any listeners out there go check out the financial wellness assessment. But you get started and it'll say, hey, like, let's know your strengths and weaknesses and take a step towards your financial wellness. And so, it'll ask you questions like, how old are you? You know, are you married? Do you have any kids? Do you have any debt? You know, maybe of credit debt or college debt. What's your credit score? You know, it'll take all of this information in, and then at the end, you can download a sheet that'll say, like, hey, you're doing good here, but maybe we can improve a bit on your credit score, or let's pay down your debts a little bit, just by paying 10 more dollars, you know, a month, you can pay it down faster. And then it'll work for you. To some articles that are based on, you know, what you put in there. So, if you had a low credit score, it'll say, hey, here's an article on improving that. So, it's very much a conversation with, you know, Banzai, or with the coach.

Drew Thomas  19:37  
That, I mean, that totally makes sense to me. I think that that's fantastic, and we can put a link directly to that, even in the description of the show, you know, so that people can get right to that one, and then they can, they can find other stuff there too. We'll put the links down there. We always, we always tell people don't click on links, but you can click on these, that's fine.

Emma King  19:57  
You can trust these links. We promise.

Drew Thomas  19:59  
Yeah, if they're in the episode description, you're, you're pretty much, you're pretty much good for the most part. I would, I would think, I don't, I don't, although you know what that'll be, the next thing somebody hacks is being able to, like, mess with an episode description of a podcast and start like, yeah, oh don't say that. Yeah, don't, yeah. Please don't do that. Seriously.

Emma King  20:18  
Any hackers listening right now, right?

Drew Thomas  20:21  
We're gonna, we're gonna be listened to by the one person that's like, that's a fantastic idea. And then it's gonna be my fault.

Emma King  20:27  
He's like, consider it done.

Drew Thomas  20:28  
Yeah really. So, in your experience, you said you've been with Banzai, how long about you? Said about five?

Emma King  20:35  
Two years.

Drew Thomas  20:36  
Two years. I'm sorry. So, in that time, have you, have you heard any sort of stories, or any, any, gotten any feedback from either a school or a teacher or maybe a partner that you've worked with that has resonated with you as like something that you, you know, where Banzai really helped somebody to identify an issue and maybe, maybe get better at it?

Emma King  20:56  
Yeah, no, that's a great question. I actually recently, I've been taking on a project where I'm working with teachers directly, and so I've been reaching out to teachers and asking them, you know, how has Banzai helped you? You know, how have, how has this actually impacted your students? And the feedback has just been, you know, phenomenal. Hearing that they, you know, are able to go through, you know, we've been focusing on the lemonade stand, so we'll take it there, you know, they'll go through it with their students, and they'll say, hey, like as a class, what decision should we make? And so, it's just very memorable. You know, I love it when teachers are able to make it, not just hey, you know, do this good luck, right? It's interactive, you know. And I think that's something that's so huge about these topics, is making it fun, interactive, and not just okay, this is something to get done.

Drew Thomas  21:51  
I would agree with you. I think that, and that's why I said, I really, you know, earlier I said, I really appreciate the gamified, uh, aspects of, of this, because, you know, any more people are, I swear they are born with a smartphone or a tablet in their hand. I mean, they're, they're constantly looking at screens. Gamified stuff is everywhere, and so it captures your attention. I think, more than just watching a video or listening to, we've all done those sort of virtual training sessions where you just listen to a video for 45 minutes and then you're given a quiz.

Jeff Matevish  22:26  
And attention spans are lower than they've ever been. You know.

Drew Thomas  22:30  
They have to be, yeah. I mean, you know, we even know that from a marketing perspective. I mean, you know, if you don't catch somebody in the first two or three seconds, they're gone because there's something else that they could go focus on. So, being able to hold a student's attention is very important and relating it to something also makes it stick in their mind I think better.

Emma King  22:52  
Yeah, no, that's, that's so huge. We actually just came out with a new game where the students are buying a headphone, a new pair of headphones, and so in the game, they're going through, and they go to their mom and asking for money, you know, which all of us did, and we asked for $300 and your mom says, no, you know, not yet. I'm not gonna give you $300, I wish. And so, in this game, they're able to go through, and, you know, they control the budget, and so every week, if you save $50 in the grocery budget, you know, you're able to take that home with you, and you're able to save that towards your headphones. And so, it's a cool way to make it applicable to youth's life of, hey, I, I also want the new Apple Air Pods. You know, here's how you can get there. And so, it's some cool ideas as well, which not to say it'll work with everyone's parents, but it's some options.

Drew Thomas  23:53  
I do like the fact that you're teaching them to save the money for the thing and not just throw it on a credit card, get the thing and pay it later. Yeah, I think that's, that is something that has been lost on people, I think a lot, uh, compared to, say, my grandfather or grandmother's generation, where, you know, they had the coffee can and they'd put a few dollars in it, and, you know, eventually, you know, over time, they would say, okay, well, we've saved up enough, and we're gonna go buy our new couch, or we're gonna go buy our TV. Where now, we're just so accustomed to throwing it on a credit card and paying high interest. And, you know, there's something a little more satisfying, I think about saving up that money ahead of time and then buying it out, right? It's yours. You don't have a bill; you can just enjoy it. I think that's really cool.

Emma King  24:36  
Yeah, no, I completely agree. I mean, there are so many things nowadays where you can pay something off over a few months, which I think is awesome, but it's so hard not to get in the habit of, you know, everything you buy, just putting it on credit or paying it off over time. And I think that's where a lot of us do get trapped, because we, you know, we can pay it off later. But learning to budget, you know, going back to those basics is how we're going to be able to control that and set ourselves up and get those headphones, you know, straight forward and just buy them.

Drew Thomas  25:12  
Absolutely. Well, I mean, Emma, I mean, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us about all of this and to tell us a little bit about Banzai and how it is, it has impacted people, not only from the students, but also the teachers and the adults, quite honestly, that are using it and just being able to understand that. I mean, we have, how many articles are there now?

Jeff Matevish  25:34  
Oh, between articles and coaches, yeah, there's over 200.

Drew Thomas  25:37  
Yeah. I mean, there's something for everybody out there, you know, yeah. And that's a credit to you and your, and Banzai's team of people that have come up with that. I mean, there's, yeah, that's a lot of, that's a lot of article writing. 

Jeff Matevish  25:49  
Yeah. And they let, they let us share it with, with whoever, I mean, on our website, yeah.

Drew Thomas  25:53  
Yeah, absolutely. So, Emma, congratulations on, on moving from the medical field to this. That's good, you're still helping people. Yep, yep, a good fit for you.

Emma King  26:03  
That's what I loved about it. I was like, I'm if life is going to be not satisfying, if I'm not in the medical field. But coming here, I was like, oh, life still can be satisfying. You know, what we're putting out there really does help. You know, we've reached millions of people at this point, and it's awesome hearing the feedback. You know, if anyone has anything they'd like to say or an article they want, please let us know. You know, we'd love to hear what you have to say.

Drew Thomas  26:29  
Yeah, absolutely. And we can also pass that along as well, like the, in the, in the episode description, you can find links to either you can either send us a text message, give us some feedback through the link in the in the description for text message feedback, there's also a link in the description for sending us feedback through the website. We always appreciate feedback on the show and on our things that we can pass along to our guests, our experts on the show as well. If you haven't subscribed to the show yet, why not? I mean seriously, we're awesome. You should do that. Emma's gonna subscribe, right?

Emma King  27:03  
Yeah, of course. Double thumbs up.

Drew Thomas  27:04  
Absolutely, see, we just put her on the spot right there. She couldn't say no. Emma, thank you so much.

Emma King  27:11  
Safe links, everyone, that's right, yes.

Drew and Jeff  27:16  
All right. Well, with that, Jeff, I think I will turn the show over to your capable editing hands. Okay, sounds great. Thank you so much again, Emma.

Emma King  27:28  
Yeah, of course, thanks for having me.

Jeff Matevish  27:30  
Thanks, Emma, bye.

Drew Thomas  27:39  
This podcast focuses on having valuable conversations on various topics related to banking and financial health. The podcast is grounded in having open conversations with professionals and experts with the goal of helping to take some of the mystery out of financial and related topics, as learning about financial products and services can help you make more informed financial decisions. Please keep in mind that the information contained within this podcast and any resources available for download from our website or other resources relating to Bank Chats is not intended and should not be understood or interpreted to be financial advice. The host, guests, and production staff of Bank Chats expressly recommend that you seek advice from a trusted financial professional before making financial decisions. The host of Bank Chats is not an attorney, accountant, or financial advisor, and the program is simply intended as one source of information. The podcast is not a substitute for a financial professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation.

Drew Thomas  28:46  
Being financially literate really just means knowing how to navigate the financial landscape. Setting budgets, managing bank accounts, understanding the pros and cons of taking on debt and planning for the future. The more you know, the better you can handle life's financial challenges. When only 64% of Americans can pass a basic financial literacy quiz, that's not an ideal situation for our society. We'd like to thank Emma King from Banzai for joining us today to talk about how they help make raising that percentage easier. You can find Banzai-created coaching sessions, articles and calculators, at ameriserv.com. As always, my thanks to our producer and sometimes co-host, Jeff Matevish, for his hard work and contributions to the show. If you haven't subscribed yet, please consider doing so. AmeriServ Presents: Bank Chats is produced and distributed by AmeriServ Financial Incorporated. Music by Rattlesnake, Millo, and Andrey Kalitkin. You can find all of our episodes at ameriserv.com/bankchats, or by searching for us on your favorite podcast app. For now, I'm Drew Thomas. So long.