MassMutual believes that together has always been and always will be a better way! It’s the strength of their brand promise “LiveMutual”.
MassMutual partnered with the Houston Rockets and actor/author Hill Harper to bring financial education to middle school and high school students in Houston {and other select cities across the United States}. Their goal is that the FutureSmart classroom, digital curriculums, and the FutureSmart app will reach 2 million students by 2020.
Can’t quite put your finger on Hill Harper? He’s impressive, I must say. A graduate of Brown University for his B.A. and Harvard for his Masters and a Law degree; he is one smart cookie. But you probably know him most from CSI: NY, Covert Affairs, and most recently The Good Doctor. In 2006, Hill became an author and has since published several books – all inspirational in nature.
Held at the Toyota Center, FutureSmart was a 75 minute presentation complete with amazing graphics, music, dancing, and humor! The seats were packed with thousands of students and teachers. Everyone was on the edge of their seat the entire time!
As the mom of 9th grade and 7th grade teens, this presentation was magic! It’s a hard job to talk to your teens about money without seeming preachy or giving more information than one should. But FutureSmart hit all the hot topics :: the importance of money, how your income rises the more education you have, how to spend wisely, the value in saving, and how to set up a blueprint for your earnings {i.e. 401k}.
One of the questions that I’ve had as a mom of a college bound son is “when are student loans ok?” We’ve saved for college, but with the rising costs of post-secondary education, it won’t be enough. Hill’s advice was that student loans are acceptable as long as the income that you will earn after graduation are relative to what you will owe. For example, you don’t want to take out $100k worth of loans for a job that will only earn $18k/annual salary.
Giving our kids the right information about money is vital. Starting them on the right foot is imperative to creating healthy spending habits as they grow older is truly a gift.
What are you doing to prepare your kids for their own financial future?