The Best Audience In Weeks

I have been at speaking engagements all around Lincoln and Omaha over the last few weeks but none was better than the presentation today.

Today Ronny and I had the opportunity to speak to a group of 60 junior high students at the annual Gallup Kid’s Day. Our topic was of course, Financial Wellbeing but we took a refreshing approach from the usual content meant for adults.

We covered the 3 S’s and the importance of the order that the mnemonic translates to:

• Saving
• Sharing
• Spending

The kids guessed the saving and spending pieces of the 3 S’s right away. The sharing “S” was quite a bit harder to prompt the kids to guess. We also talked about saving first and foremost as well as making sure to take every dollar that you earn and decide where the money will be allocated t0 among the three options before doing anything else.

The best part was when I talked about the power of compound interest. I used a story of a girl who saved every month from the time she was 20 until she was 65. When I told the kids how much money she ended with, over 2 Million, one girl threw her pen in surprise and another boy burst out “No way! Is this for Real!?”

Guys, I had a chance to share a secret today - I had the  opportunity to spread the good news I learned way back in high school. Watching the eyes of the kids light up today when they heard about the power of compounding interest felt like I was watching them take their first steps toward financial freedom.

Albert Einstein called the compounding power of interest “The eighth wonder of the world” – I couldn’t agree more.