When I connected with Patti on the phone a few months ago, I was so impressed with her knowledge, passion and commitment to empowering teens to lead financially stable and prosperous lives. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and has spent over 20 years in the financial sector in banking and mortgage – the last 7 of which she spent as a Senior Mortgage Advisor. Patti holds a California Real Estate Brokers License and is a CTA Certified Life Coach.
Not o
nly does Patti have a fabulous book that she has made available both in print and electronic but she has also founded the National Association of Prosperous Teens, has money school curriculum and is now featuring LIVE money and business classes for teens.
I interviewed her just a few days ago and she reminded me that she has 4 sessions of her “Money School” cirriculum availiable for FREE when people register for her site!
Here is her interview and you can download the MP3 from the audio section for members:
Sarah - Well, hello I’m Sarah Cook from Raising CEO kids and today I’m here with Patti Handy who is a cash coach for teens and she is amazing. Amazing what she’s done already with her previous career experience and now her passion and her desire to educate teens and to really help kids to make a difference in what they know what with money as well as what they’re going to do with it in the future. So Patti, why don’t you go ahead and tell us where to find you on the web and a little bit of how you got started.
Patti - Oh sure. Thank you for having me. Well, my website is teens, it’s plural, teenscashcoach.com. That’s where you can find out a lot of about me and also sign up for some cool free stuff. So again, teenscashcoach.com. And I’m on Facebook as just Patti Handy. It’s Patti with an I and Handy with a Y. And twitter, same thing it’s Patti Handy. Linked in and I’ve got a YouTube channel as well. So if you just Google Patti Handy, you’ll find me pretty much everywhere which I guess is good. As far as how I got started, I know you asked me earlier about how I got from all this banking and finance background to doing this business. And what really inspired me was my son. He’s 13 years old and I wrote the book that I’ve shared with the world at this point to him. I actually started writing the book with the desire to share my information that I typically will share with him on a daily basis. But I wanted to put it in something tangible that he could have and read whenever he wanted it any course of his life. And then of course share with his friends and someday and his family. And I wanted it to be sort of a hardcore tangible item versus just me yapping all day long.
So it started with the book and then it kind of grew from there into the DVD program and the membership site and coaching and whatnot, the workshop or the boot camp that I’m holding. And it’s just involved into a beautiful thing. I think what’s really inspired me to do this in addition to my son who is my inspiration if you will is although I have lots and lots of experience in terms of academic experience with my just formal education and work experience, I truly truly give credit to my money smart to my parents. I learned at a very young age how to manage money and how to be smart with it and respect it and make it. We didn’t have a lot of money; I come from a very large family of five kids and we had to buy what we wanted if it was anything other than what they supplied to us. So I learned at a very young age how to be very savvy with money.
And I didn’t really truly not appreciate I guess is the best word. I didn’t totally appreciate it until later in life when I went through a divorce that completely rocked my world. I was, my son was 18 months old at the time and it was during that time where I realized in the middle of this madness of emotional and physical and just complete chaos, I had a sense of peace knowing that I had in my mind and my abilities to manage my own money and to know that I would be okay. Financially, it was a struggle when you have assets split in half and you have no job because I left work for about a year to have my son and I wanted to be at home with him. So I’d gone through a period where I was unemployed and you incur debt and there’s all kinds of madness. So it was at that point where although I incurred lots of debt because of that circumstance, I knew I had what it took to get out of that. And I just so embrace that today and I want to share that with kids. Because life happens. We don’t know what’s going to happen. And the more we can prepare our kids and get them ready, not only just to deal with whatever happens but just to have a peaceful life and know that you got the sense and the smarts to deal with things, especially financially. Because that’s a core for many people stress of today and I want to try and take that away. So that’s kind of inspired me. That’s a long answer to your question.
Sarah - No, I just love the history behind it. I think sometimes people will look at your resume and they’ll think, oh you have it all together, you’ve always had it all together and that’s good for you. But when you hear the history on people’s stories, you think, no wonder, no wonder they’re so passionate about what they’re doing and it’s because of x, y and z. So thank you for sharing that. So you’ve had – what do you think are some of the top money issues that teens face right now? You know, obviously there’s a lot of stuff with divorce happening in families or with people losing jobs and things like that that are really concerning I’m sure for a lot of kids. I know my own kids, we talk about different issues that are affecting our family as well as their own kids. I know my youngest son came home the other day and his best friend’s parents are getting divorced and he’s just so torn up about it that he’s going to lose his best friend over this. And because they might move and things like that. So what do you think the top five money issues are that teens face right now and what can they do about educating themselves or helping, what can we do about helping to educate them?
Patti - Yeah. Well, I think that there is a lot obviously with the economic situation that we’re in, the climate that we’re in today. There’s a lot of discussions happening now at home, which is good. It’s a great opportunity really to bring the kids into the conversation. And given like you said the job losses and I personally have witnessed people losing their homes, which is just very, very hard to watch. I mean, it’s just a tragedy. I’ve witnessed friends going through very difficult times and money creates issues in relationships. Unfortunately divorce sometimes is a result of that. And it’s very hard to watch that. And especially like with your kids who are watching their friends do it. It’s, oh, gosh, it’s a horrible thing. But this economic climate is something that we should take advantage of and show our kids how important it is to manage our credit, to not spend frivolously.
A lot of issues that we see today are kids who have immediate gratification issues and as much as I love to teach my child this, like I said he’s 13 and he’s a I want it now kid. I mean, it’s, I mean I struggle with him still and it’s very frustrating. But it is what it is. I mean, you just deal with it. But there’s the immediate gratification issues. This is a great opportunity to talk about spending habits and what type of lifestyle will happen if you continue with these particulars spending habits. Credit cards; if you don’t use them properly, here’s what’s going to happen to you. This is what happens if you don’t watch the way you spend. And it just kind of just layers upon layers of dominos if you will. Because the spending habits affect the credit card debt. The credit card debt then affects your credit score, your credit score then affects your ability to get mortgages and credit cards and potentially jobs and insurance and many things which can cost you or save you thousands and thousands, in fact tens of thousands of dollars over time. So it’s this again domino effect. It all starts at the crux of this which is in my opinion emotional based spending often times. Now I’m not talking about the job losses and the people who are going through health issues or extreme circumstances. I’m discussing the average American who has gotten into debt or have had issues as a result of spending, and poor choices. And again, how it just dominoes into their life. So in answer to your question, the top five issues definitely timely emotional spending and getting a handle on that, having a certain lifestyle choice and a mindset. As I’ve mentioned recently on another call we often times eat emotionally. It’s not because we’re hungry but because we’re feeling nervous or anxious or worried or even happy; we eat. And we spend the same way. There’s an emotional connection to the way we spend. It’s a temporary fix, it makes us feel good of feeling nervous or happy or sad or anxious, whatnot. Going out and buying something often is a quick fix. But we get the credit card bill and then it becomes this perpetual issue.[private_trial][private_regular]
So getting a handle on that, getting a handle on the understanding of credit cards and how to use them properly and the pitfalls. Understanding the credit score and how that relates to them and how that affects them very young. I mean, 18, 19 years old when they’re trying to get a car or credit cards, they’re ability to get credit is going to be impacted by their credit. So that’s really very key. And then understanding how important it is to start saving. Many people today have withstood a job loss or withstood a financial hit so to speak because they’ve had a savings account in place, they’ve had that emergency fund in place, they’ve been able to tap into that and they didn’t lose their home. They didn’t have credit cards racked up.
So having that savings account in place I think again, kids will typically, if they’ve got a dime in their pocket it’s gone. And that’s not a generic statement. I know some amazing savers. But it’s important to understand the value of saving and saving early and how compounding interest works. I mean, I could talk for two hours about this subject but a long story short, those basic fundamentals are absolutely key. And I think it’s great that parents are talking about these things to these kids and I encourage them to talk. A great way to get started is just open the conversation.
Sarah - And I think too, gosh I wish I could just talk to some of parent friends, some of the friends that I have when they’re talking their kids. Even if they’ve made some choices not to just, not to blame everybody else, to take personal responsibility for those choices and say, this is what we chose and these are some of the things that happened because of that. And also too, that I guess what I’m saying is sometimes parents sometimes don’t take responsibility I think. So it’s important to not only take personal responsibility but also to showcase that for your kids; to tell them here’s where we did wrong, this is what we’re going to do different, this is what we did different and here’s how we can repair things if you’ve made some poor choices in the past. I don’t know if that makes any sense at all. But –
Patti - It does. And it is a great thing for parents to show that to their kids. Because we as adults aren’t, isn’t like we all have our act together 100% of the time. We make mistakes, this is where we’ve fallen. And it’s okay for our kids to see us in that vulnerable state because we’re not looking for perfection from our kids, we don’t want that from them. And if we put this up as they’ve got to make every choice to be the perfect one, its going got be a tough life for them. So if we go, hey look it, this is what we’ve done. Like you said, here’s the mistake, this is what we’re going to do now to fix this and this is what I want to show you so you don’t repeat the behavior that I’ve done. And that’s a great place to be. I hope that parents do embrace that.
Sarah - Right. So why do you think educating kids, teens about money and having their own business is so important? You’ve talked about all of the money aspects, but how to you think business can play into that with helping kids to understand money?
Patti - You means in terms of having their own business? Well, I think kids who have their own business, I just, as we’ve discussed it’s a, gosh it’s such a passion for me to watch these kids embrace entrepreneurship because it’s such a way of the world. I mean, it’s such a way of the future here. In order to have a successful business, you’ve got to know how to manage money. You can be the best at your craft, you can have the most amazing product, the most amazing service, have just a killer business and if you don’t understand how to manage money, it’s going to just not survive; it will absolutely fail. And you can bring in a team of experts. You don’t even know everything about everything in terms of money, but you’ve got to know enough that you know your team of experts is on the right path. You’ve got to understand what they’re doing.
The bottom line is nobody cares more about your money than you do. And they have to completely take that responsibility upon themselves to understand the basics as far as the money goes. The business side of it, you’ve got to understand how to allocate your money, where it’s best spent, what’s the best way to get funding. Is it tapping into a line of credit, is it tapping into a family or friend, is it tapping into an SBA loan? There’s all the various possibilities as far as funding a business. You really have to have a handle on that. And of course, you’ve got to have a handle on that because someday when you go to a bank and you present a business plan, you’ve got to be able to discuss the numbers and show this bank that you want to borrow some money from that this is what I’ve got proposed and this is how I’m going to do it and they need to know that you’re financially savvy. So having kids understand money for their own personal financial aspect is huge. But if they go into business and they are trying to market a product or service, understanding the money and understanding the books is absolutely critical. So you start on the personal side and then the business side becomes just easier.
Sarah - That’s so true. I know for me I had to work backwards. Because I started in business and it taught me all the different things about my personal side. So I think it’s nice when the kids are so young because as parents you can do both at the same time; you can use that, because they’re young they don’t have to be dependent on for providing that mortgage payment or the car payment or anything thing like that hopefully. And so they can do a little experimenting and you can teach them those principles of personal finance and business finance at the same time which is a huge beauty in things.
Patti - Absolutely. And just to add to that, better to have your child try something and fail or get affected in a negative way in some capacity when they’re living at your house under your roof with no big commitments versus being out on their own and either renting a house with a family and kids of their own and then realizing okay, these money lessons were things I should have had 30 years ago. That’s not what I want. So I don’t want to see history repeat itself and people losing homes and losing just –
Sarah - Everything.
Patti - Yeah, just life crumbles. So we don’t like that.
Sarah - Yeah, so true. So you’re a teen’s cash coach. What does that mean? Tell us a little bit about your, what you’ve done, what you’re doing with coaching teens with their cash?
Patti - Well, I have several different ways that I share my information with teens. I call myself a money coach for teens and teens cash coach just kind of rolled off my tongue nicely. So that was the birth of the business. Again, I started with the writing of my book. It’s called, “How to get your allowance and be richer than your parents.” And the book is a great place for people to start in terms of gifting their kids a product that they can quickly read. It’s very easy read, it’s entertaining, it’s fun, it’s not dry and boring mumbo jumbo. It’s also available in an eBook format. So it’s available in two different formats. And then I have my DVD program which is called, “The prosperous team.” It’s basically 10 hours of money school and it starts off with things as simple as spending habits and it goes all the way through to buying your first house, understanding mortgages and reading a stock chart and everything in between. I mean, it covers the gamut from credit cards, to debit cards, to writing a check, to understanding credit scores and entrepreneurship and business plans. I mean, it’s vast.
That program, it’s a tangible product, it’s an actual DVD product. There’s ten DVD’s along with the workbook. But I’ve also made it available in a digital format which is a fraction of the cost of the DVD product. And the membership association is called the National Association of Prosperous Teens. And basically what that is, it’s a monthly membership; there’s no long term commitment or anything. But basically you’re able to view the same video as it’s in the DVD, you’re just watching it on your computer versus having it sent to you in a tangible product. So that’s one of the ways that I’m working with kids. And then most recently, I have started boot camp for teens. It’s called Millionaire in the Making: The biz building boot camp for teens and it’s a four week series that meets, then we blast through all kinds of great stuff regarding businesses and starting a business, business plans, marketing, websites and doing flyers and business cards. And then we talk about the money aspect. I go into the credit card issues and savings and spending habits and we definitely talk about the money part. Because like I said earlier, if you don’t have your money piece in place, your business will crumble. So that boot camp is just actually just started. Last night was my first night and that was a lot of fun. So I’ll be doing some more of those this upcoming year. So that’s a couple different ways people can get –
Sarah - The information for sure.
Patti - Yes.
Sarah - And I love that you made it in lots of different formats because not everybody learns the same way so you have text, you have some audio, you have some video, you have real life events, in person events. So you did a great job in catching all the different types of audiences, I think that’s great.
Patti - Thank you. I’m happy to be able to get this information out at all kinds of price points. I know people are having a tough time, that’s why I took my book and made it into an eBook. So for $9.99, you can get the eBook version of my book and again the membership site is a fraction of what the DVD product is. And I also am offering on my website, the ability to download for free four weeks of that DVD product. So they can go there, just sign up and they’ll get immediate email with the first link and then every week for four weeks, they’ll get a 15 minute lesson of the money school. So you can kind of get a taste of that. And there’s no commitment or anything, just enjoy that and share it with the family and friends and take it and run.
Sarah - So you’re going to go to, anyone who’s listening is going to go to teenscashcoach.com and up on the right hand corner it says, attention parents, educators and mentors. And that’s where you’ll fill out your name and email and you’ll sign up for that and it will be delivered, the first one right away and then the next there will be delivered every week. So it’s a great program. Definitely you want to check that out because you have real good content Patti. I’m really impressed with your delivery and everything. So is there anything else that you’d like to share as tips or as last words of advice on helping families that around the world to really educate their kids and especially their teens in money?
Patti - We’ll, I’d like to close just by saying that no matter what circumstances you’re facing today, if you are dealing with issues that are challenging that this is just a temporary situation. There absolutely is a way out and you just need to seek help and guidance. And there’s lots of opportunities for you to get that. I know a lot of people are just looking at this as this very dire situation and I want to just to leave this with the fact that there is – don’t lose hope, there is lots of opportunities out there to grow and learn. If somebody wants to email me directly, I would welcome that. You can email me at patti@teenscashcoach.com. I’ll personally get that email and I will respond. So if you have some issues that you’re facing and you want some assistance go ahead and email me and that will just be a complementary way to work with you.
And then the other, one last thing is a saying that I kind of sort of adopted. “Don’t judge your insides by somebody else’s outsides.” And I think that in today’s world, we do a lot of that. And I encourage people to not be quick to judge, not be quick to compare and I think that society does that. So again, don’t judge your insides by somebody else’s outsides. You don’t know their story, you don’t know their circumstances and you’re perfect the way you are. So don’t try to be somebody else and that includes money. It’s not about money because you’re acquiring the bigger car, the bigger or the more toys. It’s about finding a place of financial peace, financial serenity, a place where you can give back and make a difference in the world.
My whole premise is absolutely not about teaching money because I want you to acquire things. That is so against my grain and I make that very clear in all my stuff. It’s about fulfill your purpose and I think the last sentence of my book it says, this is a quote that I heard on a tele-seminar years ago and I can’t remember who actually said it so I can’t quote the person. But basically it said, “There are two great moments in your life. One is when you are born and the second is when you figure out why.” And I encourage people to go figure out why. And often times having the money issue in place helps you do that because you’re not dealing with the struggles of financial issues, you’re free to be creative and open and fulfill your purpose and calling.
Sarah - I love that. I got goosebumps when you shared that. Oh my goodness, I just absolutely love that. Because when you’re struggling with money issues, you can’t even focus even on your why or – does that make sense? You can focus on your passion because you’re so hung up on what is happening day to day or minute to minute.
Patti - Well, you’re trying to survive. You’re trying to pay your bills. There’s no room for creativity, there’s no room for joy and; well I shouldn’t say joy because you should be joyful regardless. But it’s very hard to be creative and allow that to flow when you’re choking.
Sarah - Exactly. Exactly. And I’ve been, we as a family have been on both sides. We’ve been in places that are really, really prosperous and other places that are really scary and the scary places were because of health issues for my husband. And so I just, I’m really passionate about teaching about money because we lived through that experience because we were taught really good sound money principles in college and early on in our marriage. And had we not had those things in place, we would have lost everything. Like we literally, we would have lost all, our house, our cards, our credit would have been gone. But because of what we learned and had in place, he was able to be able to be out of work for 18 months, lost thousands and thousands of dollars in alternative health care that we paid for and our credit was fine, we may be paid $200.00 in interest over the whole six years that he’s had his disease. So it’s been amazing.
And now we don’t have any credit card debt for it. It’s all paid off and it’s totally take care of but it could have been terrifying. So I do want to leave that legacy for my kids and really, I think what your doing is so important because kids can make a difference right now by learning those things, by learning those things and not creating more burdens for their families. So well, Patti, thank you so much. You are just doing a phenomenal job and I hope everybody goes and gets those video sessions from you and gets your book whether it’s the eBook or the actual book. And if you’re close to her area, be sure the next time, of course your going to sign up for that, they’re going to sign up for that list to, they’ll be on the list the next time you do your prosperous teens program that you’re doing. I think that would be great to be able to be in person with you for four weeks and learn all the things that you have to share with them. So keep doing such a great job and thanks again for being on the call today.
Patti - My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. [/private_trial][/private_regular]
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