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.

At the age of 16, defiant and hardheaded, Eric decided to leave home and drop out of school, choosing to live on the streets of Detroit. By divine intervention at age 17, Eric met a pastor who saw him a young man with tremendous unrealized potential. As a result, their mentoring relationship was born which led Eric to complete his GED and to prepare for college. Determined not to be another statistic, Eric enrolled at Oakwood University where he began reading every thing he could get his hands on. Understanding the struggle of the streets, he realized what his purpose in life was to become, so he reached back to his fellow drug dealers and helped many of them get their GED’s, go to college and incorporate the strategies and self-improvement exercises he learned in order to assist them in developing their own life plans. In so doing, he provided them with a much-needed positive option to the life of crime and illiteracy they then led. While in college, Eric started Break The Cycle I Dare You, (BTC) a non profit youth development and special event organization that focuses on developing programs for youth who have made bad choices and most often have had family, social, and academic struggles along with the lack of a father figure in their lives. Today BTC has developed and produced many supportive community-based programs and conferences across the country. They provide youth and teachers alike with activities, self-improvement exercises and motivational strategies to help them reach their highest potential in life. Eric now serves as the Chairman of the Organization.

He obtained his Masters degree in 2005 and is currently pursuing his PhD in Education Administration at Michigan State University and serves as Senior Pastor of A Place of Change Ministries, Lansing Michigan. He also serves as a consultant at Michigan State where he has developed The Advantage Program, an undergraduate retention program targeting academically high-risk students of color. In addition to his work with the Advantage at Michigan State, he also serves as a consultant for several collegiate athletic programs across the country. In this role, he provides assistants to student-athletes having academic and social challenges as it relates to successfully transitioning from high-risk schools and communities to a collegiate environment. Eric’s representation of the merits of higher education, coupled with his knowledge of the pains of the street, inspires young people to break bad habits and reach for new levels of personal and spiritual achievement. Eric has lived a life of challenges and triumph but has found a way to break the cycle.

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.

Let’s look at the stock market, specifically the video game industry, though this idea works anywhere. Some factors that contribute to a company’s worthiness are easy for anyone to track – revenue, profit, growth. But then there are the intangibles that come along with intimate knowledge or interest. Maybe you’re a huge gamer with knowledge that can work to your advantage to build wealth through savvy stock picks.

Here’s a real world example. Take Two (TTWO) and Activision-Blizzard (ATVI) are competing NASDAQ companies who sell video games. At a cursory glance, they seem about even for potential investment. Maybe their side-by-side numbers look dead equal. However, what if you, as a hard core gaming addict, knew that Take Two was about to release another in it’s uber-popular series of games called Grand Theft Auto (GTA). GTA sales have always been through the roof and no one would expect this time to be any different.

You know about GTA’s imminent release down to the hour because you’re wet-your-pants ready and have already pre-ordered it from Amazon. That simple bit of “insider” knowledge could make the difference in how much wealth you build off a gaming industry investment. In this instance, Take Two clearly becomes a better bet at this point. So, when it comes time to pick stocks, what are you interested in?

The Young Wealth Team

Flickr / Rob Boudon

Now a company named Varolo has stepped into the mix with a brave new approach that might just as quickly go down in flames. They don’t actually claim that watching their ads will help you build wealth but you can earn money by doing it.

Works like this.

Varolo has completely upended the advertising model by paying you money to watch them and pays you more the more people you bring into your “friend” network who watch ads also. If you think all this sound suspiciously like a social network, you’d be right. It is. The catch is you don’t earn money until you get friends into your network. Watching on your own gets you entered into weekly prize drawings which increase in size as more people tune in.

The good part of the whole deal is the ads are tailored to topics you might be interested in. In the market for a car? You’ll see car ads. Ready to go on vacation? Travel ads. While Varolo’s concept may not usher in the end of traditional internet advertising, it is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that sometimes works – sometimes.

Time will tell if cyber-surfers are ready to turn their YouTube viewing hours into a chance to build wealth, or collect pennies as the case may be.

The Young Wealth Team

Flickr / JMRosenfeld

The end result is that to build wealth year in and year out, you have to make a high enough return to pay the capital gains tax, cover the annual inflation rate, and still have some left over as profit. We believe Buffett, as does almost everyone, severely underestimates the true rate of inflation but at least he’s thinking in the right direction. In an average year, the government will admit to about a 4% rate of inflation. The actual rate is probably closer to 10% but we’ll use the government number for the upcoming example.

Before anything else happens, you have to figure your investment profit has been reduced by 4%. Let’s say you have a $10,000 profit. Subtract $400 for inflation and you’re already down to $9,600. Next up is the capital gains tax, which can be as much as 40%. You’re going to owe Uncle Obama $3,840 to pay for his next boondoggle. That drops your profit to $5,760 of the original ten grand.

That sucks, doesn’t it? There is a way around it. Visit www.JasonHartman.com to learn how to turn inflation on it’s head and make it turn you a profit with real estate investments. People are doing it daily. Why not you?

The Young Wealth Team

Flickr / CainAndToddBenson

Take McDonald’s for instance. This ubiquitous burger chain won’t even talk to you unless you have $250,000 cash on hand. As in cash – borrowed collateral doesn’t count. So do you have to already have money to build wealth?

Not quite.

There are plenty of tried and true franchises, many of them geared toward providing services, that allow you to buy in with $9,000 or less. Here are a few:

1.Bonus Building Care – this commercial cleaning company has been franchising since 1996 and now has over 2,400 franchises. For as little as $9,000 you can work out of your home and even have the option to purchase an exclusive territory.

2.Breath Testers USA – this brilliant little idea franchises machines for you to place in bars, restaurants, anywhere people might have a drink. For a small fee, they can blow in it and find out their blood alcohol content before driving. Great idea? We think so. This buy-in opportunity also costs about $9,000.

3.Global M.A.R.S – this is a great franchise if you’re interested in making cars look good and really don’t have much money to spend. Offer customers a quick, economical way to remove scratches, dings, burns, or any other discoloration on paint, plastic, leather, vinyl, velour, metal, carpet, or glass on their car while they wait. Buy in for $500, a price that includes comprehensive support and full training.

There are literally dozens of other low cost franchise opportunities. We suggest you use your good friend Google to find them.

The Young Wealth Team

Flickr / azrainman

Until you finally cry “Uncle!” and begin looking at your credit repair options.

If there’s one thing you can count on in America, it’s that scammers find desperate people like Tiger Woods finds women who aren’t his wife. Don’t let your overwhelming desire to make your credit problems disappear in a POOF of smoke affect your good judgment. The following are warning signs that you’re about to be snookered:

1.The credit repair company wants you to pay money before they do anything. This is against the Credit Repair Organizations Act.

2.The company “forgets” to tell you your rights and what you can do yourself for free.

3.The company recommends you not contact the Big Three national credit reporting companies directly.

4.The company tells you they can get rid of most (or all) negative credit information, even if it’s accurate and current.

5.The company suggests you create a new identity by using an Employee Identification Number rather than your Social Security Number.

At Young Wealth, we’d much rather see you visit the Federal Trade Commission website here to learn legitimate ways to repair your credit.

The Young Wealth Team

Flickr / TheTruthAbout…