In the world of finance and real estate, knowledge is power, but it's not just about what you know; it's about how you apply it. Join us with Vince Shorb, CEO of the National Financial Educators Council, as he shares his journey from a young real estate enthusiast to a seasoned financial educator.
Vince teaches that financial wellness is about taking a holistic view of finances and continues to call for a personalized approach for different individuals. Discover the multitude of ways one can participate in Real Estate, emphasizing the importance of understanding the mortgage process. He also encourages the youth to explore their options and follow their paths toward success.
Whether you're a young aspiring investor or someone seeking financial wisdom, this episode will inspire and guide you toward financial wellness.
Tune in to learn how financial education can change lives and how you can get involved in promoting financial literacy in your community.
Key Takeaways:
0:02– Financial literacy education is crucial for people of all ages, from young children to adults.
4:37– Current financial education systems often fall short, lacking qualified educators and meaningful content.
6:44– The National Financial Educators Council aims to increase access to quality financial education and empower individuals to make informed financial decisions.
19:41– There are various ways to participate in real estate, from primary residence to rental properties, and it's essential to understand the mortgage process and basic real estate principles.
22:59– Young people should consider alternative education paths, like online courses and self-directed learning, to achieve their goals and stay true to their passions.
Connect with Vince@:
Email: vince@financialeducatorscouncil.org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinceshorb/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NationalFinancialEducatorsCouncil/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NFEC_FinEdu
Connect with Corwyn@:
Contact Number: 843-619-3005
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exitstrategiesradioshow/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxoSuynJd5c4qQ_eDXLJaZA
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmelette/
Shoutout to our Sponsor: Exit Realty Lowcountry Group
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— Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/corwyn-j-melette/supportCORWYN:
Good morning. Good morning and great morning, guys. Welcome to another fabulous episode of Exit strategies radio show. Hey, I am your host, Corwyn J Melette, broker and owner of Exit Realty Lowcountry in beautiful North Charleston, South Carolina. Hey, If this is your first time listening to this show, hey, you sir or ma’am, are in for a treat. That’s because our mission, We have a mission is very simple. And that is to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education guys, we are legacy building. And that is what we do. So guys, I’ve told you and we have been delivering, and I’m gonna keep talking about it because we keep doing it. And that is because we care about you. We have scoured, we have cast wide nets. We have yell from the mountaintops that we want to bring the best guests to our listeners here at Exit Strategies Radio Show. And today I am extremely humbled. I am extremely honored to have this gentleman on with us to touch on and share what his organization does to help empower people with financial literacy. So I have none other than Vince Shorb, the CEO of National Financial Educators Council. Vince, how’re you doing today my man?
VINCE:
Corwyn, good to be here and appreciate all that you’re doing in this space. So thank you.
CORWYN:
But no, thank you. So look, you’re a busy guy. I look, I know that we know it. And I really appreciate you taking time out to be with us and our listeners today. So if you don’t mind, give our listeners an introduction of who you are, and what it is that you do.
VINCE:
Yeah, happy to do so no skew it toward the real estate side because that was really my initial passion and really anything to do with finance. I remember in the back of classes as reading my dad’s old foreclosure books, so it was forget science forget history, I don’t care. I was interested in money, foreclosures, , real estate, so forth. My grandfather made an investment in me, bought me this course is like one of those seminar-based courses, we went there, like $1,000 package, I read that thing. 20 – 30 times ended up buying real estate, my teenage years. First was a little piece of land in New Mexico I still have, it’s worth did nothing. But that was my first investment. Right? I didn’t know how to really evaluate things at that time. My next one was a small property in Arizona, which was a rental. And then I bought a home I lived in 20. So I really enjoyed that time. Because all my friends were asking me about this. All my parents’ friends were asking me about, hey, how do I buy LM? How do I do these things? And I really enjoyed that process of educating people. And, although I knew the higher-end investment type, how to how to do it, I lacked some basic money management skill sets, like one thing was important, I learned the hard way is not to make riskier investments with credit card fronted money. It takes a lot of big returns to do. So I made some mistakes. It put me behind. And really went through years of struggle to really maintain what I had and just avoid worrying about, hey, my car’s gonna break down. How am I going to get gas to go to school? And those years of struggle really inspired me to get into financial services. And I ended up in the mortgage sector my last handful of years. And I realized that my story was not unique. There are a lot of people out there that were making simple, dumb, easily avoidable mistakes. And even people that owned multiple piece of real estate went through the refinance process. Many times they were still asking me very basic questions. And that’s my mom when my house just got burned down. My mom reminded me of my time in high school where I was frustrated at what I was learning. That’s when we founded the National Financial Educators Council, back in 2006. I’m glad to be here with you here today.
CORWYN:
Well, thank you. Thank you. So at the council, what do you guys focus on? What is it that you hope to accomplish with it as well. And I got to get back on this other side about your investing, because I know our listeners love that stuff. But what are you guys focused on as far as assisting people? And what do you hope to accomplish overall with with the mission?
VINCE:
Yeah, really, it’s first is to increase access to quality financial education for all ages. So we start as young as three years old, all the way through the ages. So we increase access by doing a few things, training educators, we put educators through training, so they can teach personal finance effectively, we increase assets by training coaches, to coach people one on one, so maybe people that don’t have that money to invest or that money to purchase real estate, they really have nowhere to turn. So make sure they they’re trained, and have the resources to educate adults. And we also partner with financial service industry people to donate resources to local communities. And our focus really scaling programs. And how we increase the access is not only by delivering the resources, we also do bigger advocacy campaigns, you may have seen the one we did here last month with Kevin O’Leary, Shark Tank, Mr. Wonderful, he did a video for us, which was great, really promoting financial education, and also through relationships, I know you’re a big relationship builder. And that’s a key thing for us, too, from the policy side, to the advocacy side, to those teachers, to the nonprofits to the faith based groups that are in these communities, it’s those relationships are really key to help us promote financial literacy and get people more educated on money.
CORWYN:
So I love what you guys are doing. I have this conversation often, schools have gotten away from this, they don’t know one of the things that, kids come out of high school, it’s impressive, not and I think it seemed like I remember this in high school, that they taught us how to write checks, they taught taught us how to, balance a checkbook, those are things that we had to learn and had to do. Now, people don’t carry and write checks, like they used to, at least not younger generations, older folks still do that. Some, hey, I’ve got to check. a ready to go. But outside of that, people don’t. So, we’re not educating our kids and our kids are living off the app. So when they open a bank account, whatever’s in the mobile app, that’s what they think they got the spin, they go spend it, and may not remember that, hey, I charged something, swipe a card for something, and that charge hasn’t posted yet. So I did that yesterday, I’m thinking the money’s already gone. So I’m spending what I see there, and I may overdraft my account. So that is that’s huge that you guys are doing that. So are they so let me ask you this very broad question. And you may notice statistic, I don’t, but if you do, please share it. But what is the statistic of children in high school now that are receiving this type of training in information across that country or any specific area you want to target?
VINCE:
Yeah, yeah. So , basically, we analyze all every 50 states and about 20 states have mandated financial literacy programming. And of those we’ll other organizations rate ABC scale, we say every state absolutely fails. They fail for a number of reasons. One, they don’t have qualified educators teaching, right? You can’t take somebody from math, to teach personal finance, one plus one equals two and math. The differences with personal finance, everybody has different habits, behaviors, different financial situations, socio economic upbringing, so it’s not that analytical, logical thing is, people make emotional decisions so they don’t have qualified teachers. Most states are unfunded mandates. Most they don’t have testing requirements. The biggest one there’s not enough time and rigor required so all these people in this industry financial education applaud when they some state has like a 10 hour financial literacy course. I’m like, in the back, I was quoted in Forbes saying, hey, there’s it’s not going to do anything right. Imagine trying to speak Spanish after 10 hours. And in the reality is with money, it impacts 100% of students were subjects like science, advance geometry, algebra, all these things that impacts such a small amount science. People leverage their degree to earn income less than 6% math less than 25% need anything higher than eighth grade level math. So we’re teaching subjects that are absolutely useless. When money impacts everybody from a very core human perspective needs. So I’m a little I would say I’m not on the Positive, not a positive guy, we have to be real with what the states are doing and what they’re failing on. And that’s a big mission that we’re doing is really trying to say, hey, states, here’s here’s the framework to build out quality programs. And we did that because we’re the only accredited provider in this space. And, that means something when the states are just relying on policymakers to make up what’s being taught, though, there’s processes, procedures, there’s best practices, let’s follow that to make sure these kids are getting the education they deserve.
CORWYN:
What I just heard, and that is so true. And I’m gonna paraphrase, but essentially, legislators are not engaging experts in the field, they’re making decisions that oftentimes don’t turn out to be the right decisions. You got local school boards, you have, state legislators, and I can imagine even at a national level, on there certain things as being put into place that may counteract what you’re doing from a grassroots level. Is that fair to say?
VINCE:
That is. It’s just a tie in one thing that you mentioned about check writing, and a few states that still taught that check writing still taught in their financial literacy programs like okay, it’s, that’s a new age, right? Check writing isn’t a safe way to manage your finances. Yeah, my parents will write checks out for that generation. But it’s still taught, it’s still integrated in some financial literacy curriculum. And we all know, that’s not a current event that should be taught, we can make space for something else, but just kind of silly to spend an hour teaching them how to write checks when that’s absolutely not needed in today’s age.
CORWYN:
Looking at for what, for the amount of amount of checks that most people write nowadays, you probably can do it in about 15 minutes versus an hour. It does not need that much time, because it’s very rare that you have because, I mean, case in point, I mean, I learned I know, I know it, but case in point, I change banks a number of years ago, it’s been a long time. And when I change banks, I didn’t even order checks for the personal account. This up, yes. But personal count at all. So when I need a check, I entered the person is Bill Pay, and have the bank send them a check? Yeah. Yeah, go do that. And as I found one, I didn’t pay for a bunch of checks that may be sitting around, which means that it could be compromised. That’s one. Number two. I’m not even paying for the check that I’m having. I’m seeing the bank on the bill pay doesn’t charge me for that true. So I mean, so it’s like, okay, well, I’ll save some money, and also limited my risk in that. So that’s interesting you should say that the curriculums are still in existence on what I heard was, they’re outdated, antiquated, so they need to be updated.
VINCE:
That’s one of the big problems out there. And it’s, times are changing so rapidly, and if we look at the subjects, they’re teaching a school, we go back 100 years, they’re still teaching the same subjects, right. We have ChatGPT, we have computers, I think the whole education system should have been changed by then, something like real estate, if we look at the path for how most people achieve financial security in their life, it’s real estate, right? And don’t you think, hey, if we really concerned about protecting our kids wanting the best future for them, we would teach a subject like that, of course, I’m bigger into broader money management topics, too. But I would also include, hey, let’s get real estate and other topics in there. So they understand how to start a business how to invest in replacing these outdated, antiquated subjects that aren’t going to benefit them at all in the future.
CORWYN:
So two things, a trade and how to manage the money you make from it, put those two things together, and we change and we change the entire dynamic. Not every child is going to college, we know that. And the ones that go while we do embrace even still they go to college, teach at the college level. Okay, how are you going to apply this knowledge? What does application look like? And then past that, how to manage the finances because you notice some kids come out of college making six figures a year, boom, there’s some that’s coming out of college, barely making five, and how to and both of them need financial management skills, both of them, because just one person got more to manage, but both still have the need.
VINCE:
Yeah, and you bring up a good point there with that career trade education, where we include that in financial literacy. So financial literacy is kind of a broad term for us. I think career and trade education is critical. To your point, a lot of people they’ll go to college they’ll switch majors several times, which cost them more money because they’ve never been exposed to these other topics. I saw a survey here recently. Where to compare what kids in the US want to be compared to what kids in China that live in China want to be in China was like rocket scientists and the molecular engineer of all this high tech type stuff. In the US, the number one was a YouTube influencer, up there was an athlete, a celebrity, the only one that was like a trade was teachers, then we had this conversation with our advisory boards, like, Hey, why why teachers amongst this list of all these other athletes, YouTube influencer, and, the reason we came up with and I’ll let your audience make their own determination, but was the fact that that’s the only other profession they’re really exposed to on a mass scale, is teaching. And that career education, allowing kids the ability to explore things they may or may not like, , I’ve worked with people that were that had their law degree, they spent all the time getting a law degree, and then they go into the worthless professional, or like, I don’t like this, right? We could help them explore that early on and, and so forth. So your point on trade, education is critical money and how you manage it, how much you save, and how we can make that grow and invest for us.
CORWYN:
Yeah, apprenticeships and stuff. So let me let me take you on because I want to get make sure we get back in on what your company does. But then I also want to get some more of your experience as it relates to investing and stuff, as well, because all of this stuff is irrelevant. The lessons that you’re teaching. Now, you learned the hard way in your investing. So I found that fascinating. Most times, it’s the opposite way you want to learn it, and then go apply it, but you learned it, so you learn the application of it. So you kind of backtracked yourself into it. So your company, I mean, you guys are amazing, like you have all this information, all these certifications, all these things that you do, again, to help champion financial literacy within our communities, your quote-unquote, you’re the teacher for the teacher. So how do you find… One, I mean, is this something that you have a lot of engagement with is one question. The second part of that is, give me an example of what the results were the impact what you’ve seen as the impact of what your organization does.
VINCE:
I think the biggest impact that we’re making really is how people are in the whole industry, or are teaching, educating and promoting financial wellness. I think before, you’d get up to a financial literacy presentation, financial education presentation, it’d be death by PowerPoint, right? People will be walking through slides, and so forth, even when they’re coaching is more like talking to them. But
the beauty of education, it’s there’s best practices, teaching that align nicely with other skill sets that financial professionals have as far as sales and so forth. So there’s ways that we can address not only their content knowledge, their behaviors, their confidence, the systems they have established, so really taking a look at people’s finances from a holistic perspective, and not just hey, gain knowledge on credit, because somebody can have knowledge on credit. They can know, hey, there’s three credit bureaus, there’s 700 is a pretty good score, you should pay your bills on time. That’s one level where we want to drive us toward higher order thinking skill sets, where people know, how do I get my credit report? How do I analyze it? How do I set up systems to either improve or maintain a good credit so that higher order thinking skill sets, is where we’re really trying to drive the industry is to push people toward empowering people. So they’re confident to make the decisions that they need to make to achieve longer term goals. They have a plan in place in the modifier mode, positive behaviors, to reach that plan. So it’s, I think the key thing we’re trying to do is raise awareness. It’s not just literacy, even though we use that term over and over. It’s these other factors that really, and you see it in the real estate side all the time. It’s, hey, people are… they may know something, but it’s like, can they apply it? And can they benefit from it? And that’s really what we’re trying to drive in this industry.
CORWYN:
That is massive. So let’s let’s talk about these you touched on some of this a little early events about a quote-unquote, the lessons that you’ve learned along the way so you started investing early. And I love that. I tell people what got me to real estate. My grandfather was a carpenter, I used to work on houses with them. I hated working on houses when I got old got it, so I didn’t ever want to learn learn to trade, but I used to build houses and stuff with him. I did flooring I put roofs on I mean I did all of that stuff carried up and down the lattice, because it’s good data on the house, you look at me now, you’d be like, Nah, boy, you ain’t been allowed. But but for what it’s worth, I took from him, the business part of it, the interaction with people. He also oversaw properties for people property management. So, I took that part of it, and my application to people taught me my knowledge about houses, is what got me into real estate and I got in with similar I wanted to be an investor, I got licensed. And, I realized, wait a minute, I can help people do what what I what I want to do, which is I want to invest in real estate. Everybody in this country that has met wealthy means they might not have started with real estate, or real estate sustain, because God and make them more dirt. So with that, you learn lessons, okay, well, look, this ain’t a way for me, and it’s not a one size fits all. that I know that our listeners, they need to understand that the way that you go away it might be for some of them may not be for all. So your exploration into real estate, again, start at a very young age. What was the first type of property that you acquire?
VINCE:
It was that small piece of land, but I say my first property was a real property was a condo in Phoenix, Arizona, I think it was a 28,000 that might be $30,000, FHA, minimal qualifier. 3% down, that type of deal. And it was almost breakeven, right. And I kept that for quite a while. My second one was in Huntington Beach, and I actually, I was a busboy. I might have been a waiter at the time might have been waiter might have been read about that transition. But one of the guys there was a realtor that was pick his brain, right? He was always even counter real nice guy, he’d always feed me a lot of information, give him a little extra stuff on the side, good guy. And he said, Hey, there’s a property going up down the street for people that haven’t ever owned a primary residence. Perfect, I’ve never owned a primary residence. So I found a partner, a buddy at the gym. And he wanted to buy something too. And we ended up purchasing a two bedroom condo there. And I bought them out a couple years later, when he when he moved. But that was really the process. And you’ve mentioned something that’s very interesting. It’s like, and I think a lot of people need to think about this. There’s many different ways to participate in real estate, right? There’s those fixer uppers, there’s a rental properties as a primary residence, there’s flipping, there’s pre construction, investing all these different things. And I think if just so I think everybody sees, Hey, I just need to buy a home first. my path to this was rental just because I didn’t have the money to buy a home I was at that time, I definitely was a busboy. When I was a waiter, I was able to purchase that my primary residence at 20 years old. So, just it’s a process. And you’ll find kind of what you enjoy as well, while your risk is what you feel comfortable with. But I always tell people, you need to understand the mortgage process. And you need to understand basic real estate, right? And being able to identify areas of potential growth and so forth, you’re not always right, and so forth. But the more knowledge you have going in, the better questions you can ask of people like your professionals like like Corwyn here, and other people that you’re going to be dealing with.
CORWYN:
So Vince, I don’t want to– we’re quickly getting towards the end of the show. So I don’t want to get past the opportunity here for you to plug your company, how can people get in contact with you? So if you don’t mind, how can people connect with you with your organization?
VINCE:
Yeah, so anybody that feels a passion for promoting financial education, financial literacy coaching, getting that in their communities, my personal LinkedIn is Vince Shorb, just as you see it on the screen here. Also, you can go to our website, financialeducatorscouncil.org and again, we attract those people that are passionate about wanting financial education in their communities. Also, we work a lot with financial service personnel that are looking to be involved in the financial wellness movement. So thanks for that opportunity.
CORWYN:
Well, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. So Vince, I have this thing that we have been doing for the last several weeks. I frame it as the mic dropping, and I know you got you probably got several of these is that thing that if you would have known it, way back yonder when would have completely changed the trajectory? And what have you in a completely different place now much further than than where you are? And I always know that we have to do things that we have done in order to get to where we are, and on the way to where we’re going. But sometimes if you can look back and change one particular thing, you really believe that you would already have surpassed where you are today. So if you could share with our listeners, what is that for you?
VINCE:
Yeah, for me, and I really got sidetracked with school. I was very entrepreneurial minded at a young age, I was always that and I ended up going to college and spend a lot of money and in studies, some things I get value out of very little in the sidetrack me about seven years, I was working full time and, and doing other things as well. We starting businesses and doing some activity, but I felt that really sidetracked me and distracted from my true nature. And I spent a couple of years. Okay, now I get the story, I’m going to get into a career, right? Like, that wasn’t me, right. And I quickly realized that I was off course and reconnected and took action to fix that. But I would tell young people, hey, just consider the options, you can get a high grade education by reading books, YouTube videos going, I mean, even even Harvard has their classes online, a lot of them if you want to study Harvard base class or high Ivy League type classes, you can do so online. So just make sure you have a plan first, I wish I would have had a more conviction in my plan and more faith in myself early as far as my ability to to create businesses to invest and create things that better society. And I got sidetracked for a little bit, but I’m on the right track now. And nothing stopped me now. So but I really hope that gets through some of your younger listeners, because they’re here, right? You have a big influence on people. I’ve seen your many of your podcasts and in other interviews, it’s like people are following you. I think that young people can be a very positive influence to following the path toward yourself. And if that involves college that involves a trade school that involves alternative education or great do it. I wish I would have that advice set at the 18 – 17 – 16 year-old, but I’m glad to share it now.
CORWYN:
Well, I greatly appreciate that. Vince, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for for being on the show with us today. I’ve had a great time with you. And you’ve shared some amazing insight for our listeners. So Vince, one more time. Thank you for taking time out to be with us today.
VINCE:
Corwyn, it’s been an honor. Appreciate everything you’re doing and look forward to talking here again with you soon.
CORWYN:
Please, thank you. So for our listeners, guys. Hey, y’all know how we feel about you. Y’all know what we say? And we always, always like to put those two things together and do it this way. Which is, I love you. I love you. I love you. And we got to see you guys out there in those streets.
