Jason and Sharon discuss the ballooning student loan situation in the U.S. and whether a college education is still as valuable as it once was. Sharon feels that it has to do with a standard, an expectation in our society, and students today can look at alternative ways of attending college to avoid the need for large student loans, such as scholarships or employers who assist with college expenses. The Thrive Time for Teens game deals with this issue, as well as educating youth about investing, real estate, and how to obtain good credit to open doors of opportunity.
A life-long education advocate, Sharon Lechter is the founder of Pay Your Family First, a financial education organization, and YOUTHpreneur, an innovative new way to spark the entrepreneurial spirit in our children. In 2009 Sharon was appointed to the National CPA Financial Literacy Commission as a national spokesperson on the topic of financial literacy. In 2008 Sharon was appointed to the first President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. The Council served both President Bush and President Obama advising them on the need for financial literacy education.

Sharon is an entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, educator, international speaker, licensed CPA and mother. She has been a pioneer in developing new technologies, programs and products to bring education into children’s lives in ways that are innovative, challenging and fun, and remains committed to education – particularly financial literacy. In 1989 she joined forces with the inventor of the first electronic ‘talking book’ and helped him expand the electronic book industry to a multi-million dollar international market. Since 1992, she has dedicated her professional life and directed her entrepreneurial efforts in the creation and distribution of financial education books, games and other experiential learning products. In cooperation with the Women’s Presidents Organization, Sharon has held events across the country to teach young girls financial lessons through interactive games. In 2009 this event launched her new financial literacy board game THRIVE TIME for Teens, an innovative experiential and fun life and money reality game which has gained recognition with coveted awards including the GOLD Mom’s Choice Award, Creative Child Magazine’s 2010 Game of The Year, Dr. Toy’s Best Vacation Product and a five-star rating from WTS Toy Reviews. Recognized as an expert on the topics of financial education for children and entrepreneurship, Sharon has been featured in top national media outlets including CNN, Forbes.com, MSN Money and The Chicago Tribune. Sharon has authored Think and Grow Rich – Three Feet from Gold in cooperation with the Napoleon Hill Foundation and Greg Reid which was released in October 2009 and has ranked as a BusinessWeek and Wall Street Journal best-seller. Sharon’s most recent book project is Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill-a manuscript hidden for over 70 years updated by Lechter for the modern reader. Future projects with the Foundation include Think and Grow Rich titles for Women and Children.

Katie Kieffer is a national columnist and political commentator. Her multimedia website is KatieKieffer.com.  She writes a column for TownHall.com every Monday. Katie has a background in journalism, multimedia entrepreneurship, public speaking and commercial real estate. Due to her diverse experiences, Katie is a popular public speaker for college campuses and professional conferences across the country. Katie is a frequent guest on local and national radio shows to discuss her viewpoints on young professionals. Katie graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of St. Thomas. As a college freshman, she wrote an opinion column for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. During her sophomore year of college, Katie founded, edited and published a nationally recognized student journal of thought and opinion called the St. Thomas Standard. Katie also developed a comprehensive website for the newspaper so that all of the articles were available online. Katie has over six years of experience in commercial real estate. Before launching into multimedia, Katie worked for NorthMarq Real Estate Services. She chaired a National NAIOP Young Professionals Forum of rising stars in commercial real estate and traveled across the country learning about different geographic business climates and development trends. Katie also chaired the NAIOP Minnesota Developing Leaders and was recognized as NAIOP’s Volunteer of the Year in 2007.

Katie is a LEED Accredited Professional through the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Katie balances conservation and profitability considerations when discussing sustainability. Katie has traveled abroad and she currently researches the needs and challenges that young professionals face across the globe. Katie conducts interviews of both experienced and young professionals and showcases these on her website to inspire other young people to think innovatively, whether they work within a large corporation or are interested in starting their own ventures.

To Kyle, a ‘red paperclip’ is more of a symbolic thing, an idea that you’re ready to launch. A new project about to happen. That spark of insight or inspiration. The most important thing about an idea is to do something with it. Today, Kyle lives in Montreal with his wife and does speaking engagement, photography, art projects, and “Who are These Guys?” to name a few of the projects he has embarked on.

A Chicago native, at the age of 18, Walsh has amassed great wealth as well as created a personal brand that surpasses most seasoned marketing experts.  As CEO of iSocial Academy, Walsh has created what he calls “iHit17” which is a “17-minute Social Media Hit List”, that allows you to build and easily maintain your personal brand and Social Media network. Austin started his career by developing local bands MySpace pages in the Chicago area, bringing in 200 to 1200 attendants—all without spending a dime and using social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  After many successful events, Austin’s father’s colleagues took notice and asked him to do the same for them—create a Facebook page that not only increases their followers but also brings in revenue.  The great thing about his concept is that your followers are people who actually want to receive information from you—unlike a mailing list.

Sean is a wunderkind – with the strength and determination to succeed at whatever he does. A young entrepreneur, he was raised in rural poverty and has lifted himself to wealth in the millions through his service, import, and real estate portfolios. The intensity, commitment, and preparation that Sean demonstrates provide practical starting points for anyone who wishes to become wealthy. Though still in his late 30’s, Sean has become successful in business many times over, with accomplishments such as SBA’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and the San Francisco Bay Area’s Most Successful Under-40 Recognition. He has sufficient self-awareness and analytical abilities to clearly describe the principles and practices that have contributed to his success, so that others can follow where he has led.

Todd Babbitt grew up in the Washington, D.C. area, in an average middle-class family. He attained the majority of his wealth through real estate, and a smaller portion from the stock market. Nothing he did was complicated or beyond the understanding of an average person. Today, Todd lives the good life in Naples, Florida, with his wife and daughter. He continues to build his net worth through various investments.

Such was the case with Frank Corbin at http://jasonhartmanfoundation.org/articles/young-wealth-show/. When Frank was very young, he had a “hunger”, as he put it, to become wealthy. After moving from Ghana to New York City, he watched his mother constantly struggle to pay the bills. Frank was determined not to get into this same situation. Frank was determined to become wealthy and eliminate money as an issue in his life. As a teenager, Frank worked many different jobs. After graduating from high school, he attended DeVry Institue in Toronto – which loaded him up with student loans and other debts.

In addition to his studies at DeVry, Frank also purchased every real estate course and real estate investment book he could get his hands on. As a result, Frank became convinced that purchasing and holding real estate was the easiest and quickest way to become wealthy.

At the age of 21, Frank purchased his first property – a $241,000 home in Toronto which he picked up for no money down, received $20,000 at closing and the property ended up providing him with $900 per month of positive cash flow. One year later, Frank had attained 4 more properties and was financially free.

After 15 years of buying properties, Frank became bored. He needed a new challenge. Frank saw people struggling financially. He couldn’t understand why people weren’t doing what he was able to do so easily. So he went about creating a course, the Remic Wealth Institute, which teaches his methods for finding and investing in real estate. While putting together the courses within Remic Wealth Institute, Frank identified another need people had that he new he could satisfy – obtaining credit despite having a poor credit history. “The 8 Strategies to Highly Effective Credit” was thus born.

Here are few of the more choice tidbits:

1.$100,000 for socially conscious puppet shows in Minnesota

2.$2 million for a replica railroad tourist attraction in Nevada

3.$700,000 to Oregon fishermen to recover lost crab pots

We’re stopping at this point, not because there are no more glaring examples of wayward stimulus spending but because we’re about to lose our lunch at the lengthy list of political stupidity. But we can’t go without revealing a special little boondoggle to the tune of $3.4 million. Have you heard about the poor little sea turtles down in Florida that get crunched on the road by passing automobile tires every season when they go the wrong way and miss the ocean? Lake Jackson, Florida, is spending the $3.4 million to build an underground turtle crossing.

Didn’t they already try something like this down in the Florida Keys to keep the key deer from getting run over? And the silly things couldn’t figure out how to use it and are STILL getting splattered. Sorry, unless they’re writing the directional signs in “Turtlese” the critters will only be using the new tunnel by accident.

Lesson for today. Do not build your personal financial plan using government logic.

The Young Wealth Team

Flickr / andryone