Miguel Sanchez Robles 0:00

Welcome to the First Gen 1 0 1 podcast. Today I am joined by Samuel Molina. He's the founder and CEO of the Academy of Financial Education, a statewide nonprofit organization. Delivering personal, practical, and culturally relevant financial education. In this conversation, Samuel will share his personal journey, how he empowers others through the Academy of Financial Education and his views on financial therapy. Samuel, thank you for being here today.

Samuel Molina 0:37

Yeah, thank you, Miguel, for having me.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 0:40

I am very impressed by your experience and career. We talked just before the recording about how I've listened to your other interviews and your presentations, and surely your website and all the services that you offered. Before we talk about the work that you do now and how you became interested in personal finance, why don't you share with us a little bit more about your background?

Samuel Molina 1:05

Certainly Miguel, one of the things I would share with you is that I've always had a passion for service. So as a kid, growing up I was like, Hey, I wanna be like a fireman or a police officer. And after a few years at Fresno State, getting my degree in criminology and joining the Marine Corps, I was like, you know what? I don't wanna become a cop anymore. I think I wanna get into politics. And so in 2012, I worked on a presidential campaign and for seven years I worked. For a Latino civic engagement organization. We were a national organization and I, oversaw operations for California as the state director, however. After seven years of advocating on, immigrant rights, environmental rights, things of that sort I transitioned to personal finance because I was looking for something new. And here in Fresno, we often have folks who do car washes because they've lost somebody. And I was driving down Blackstone. It was December, 2020. And, I, I don't know where I was going. I just remember seeing a family doing a car wash because they had lost someone that they loved. And that's when I decided, I, I wanted to get into personal finance. And so six months later I left my job after seven years. It was a great organization and I had a lot of fun doing that work. But I enrolled in a group called Dalton Education, started looking at becoming a certified financial planner, right? Financial planning, as you may aware, may be aware is looking at the whole picture, right? We're looking at insurance to investments, to retirement and estate planning, so on and so forth. And that's when. I transferred over to Northwestern Mutual. So Northwestern Mutual hired me in the summer of 2021. And, it was a wake up call like having to, put on a suit every day coming from community work, which is not what you're used to, right? A lot of times we're in polos and jeans or. Sometimes t-shirts, which is perfectly fine. But not always the suit in the office every single day. So that was a transition. And then of course, having to call people every day trying to get them, into the office trying to purchase insurance products or investments. But it was a great experience because. I was able to then come back to nonprofits and start a financial literacy program. And in 2023, that is when I launched the Academy of Financial Education. And we, when I thought about it, I was like, this cannot just be a leg. For another nonprofit like this is not gonna be an armed, like this is gonna be our soul being right. This is what we're going to do as an organization, is really helping people become financially resilient and have a healthier relationship with money.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 3:45

tell me more about your first year experience.

Samuel Molina 3:49

I would say that I didn't realize how important it was that I was the first person to go to college out of my family. Right? There's about 19, 20 cousins and so I've got, you know, my mom and four Theas, and so my aunts, my mom, they're all, they did not graduate high school, and I'm not trying to put anybody on blast. However, it, when I was going through. My program at the University of Georgia and we had to do that family tree kind of exercise. I really was like, oh wow, like this did play a major role in influence how everybody else has behaved with money, how everybody else has behaved with seeking out a higher education because. Many of my cousins did graduate from high school, but I'm like sixth or seventh in line for being the eldest. So for me to be the first was still quite an achievement, I think, for the family. And since then, we've had a few others now get their degrees. My sister is got her master's. I have my master's and now my brother's going after his master's. But what our parents do, what our grandparents do, really have a direct influence on what our children are going to do for the future. And if you look at my profe, one of my professor's family tree, all of them work in farming. All of them have at least a bachelor's degree. So what does she do? She works in farming and she's a. She, she has her doctorate and she's a professor at UGA, and so I'm like, wow, like, you know, again, 16 years ago I was like, oh yeah, I got my degree. Okay, cool. But I didn't realize the significance of it. We have our unique experiences and what we know. It's all we know, and we think it's the same for everyone. While you were in college, what were some of the things, maybe one or two experiences that you had that sort of. Let you know that you were different. In other words that you don't know what other people know. How was that exposure put you in a place where you were like, okay, A lot of my colleagues seem to be from different places or better resources. How was that like for you? I wish I could really speak to that. It was so long ago. I couldn't tell you what my bachelor's degree experience was really like, and when I attended U-G-A-I-I went online. However, what I could share is that just from learning from other. Folks that I've met with on an individual basis through my counseling or therapy sessions is that I, I can take a look and see how for them, some of them have a lot more resources, like they're not struggling to pay for college. They didn't need government grants or scholarships, which is what I, I applied for fafsa. I got the California Governor's Fee Waiver to help pay for college, and I had to use the GI Bill to help pay for college. Whereas many students don't have some of those privileges. Some of them use it, and then of course others are like, Hey, my college is taken care of. I still, and I'm saving money on top of that. That wasn't my experience as a young man in my ear. Early twenties. What, what was saving money? It's one of the other things that comes up regularly for first gen is the topic of networking, and some will say that college or just general higher education teaches you something.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 7:04

You get a degree and you also build a network. How did you develop your network what were some of maybe some of the challenge you faced as a first gen graduate?

Samuel Molina 7:15

When you're going to college, you certainly have to network, right? Because everybody that you're going to college with now may become a business owner, may work in politics, may become a politician, right? They might have resources that at some point you are looking to work with them on, right? And you want to collaborate with them on. And so it's just very beneficial to continue networking and have those relationships. It's also healthy. Because after K through 12 experience, many of your friends start to go their own separate ways, and so college also gives you that opportunity to make new friends. So it's healthy to have that, those relationships as well. What I would say is I don't think I leveraged my college experience enough. To really grow that network. What I think, what can I appreciate now is that I still live in Fresno and so many of my colleagues are Fresno State graduates, and so we have that connection to each other. And then of course, there's also a few folks out here who are actually Georgia, UGA graduates as well. So I got to be, what I like to say is I'm a bulldog through and through because Fresno State Bulldogs and University of Georgia Bulldogs. And Marine Corps bulldogs. Yeah, I, I'm surprised you don't have that as a background or maybe as in your mug somewhere, I'm sure you have some sort of alumni that swag somewhere with the Bulldog. That's a big, that's even a commercial. I think that, anyway, that's for another time. It's an insurance commercial. Yeah. I think that's what it is. What would you say is, or what would you say has been your biggest achievement as a first gen graduate? Uh, I think as a first gen graduate, there's a few things. Being able to buy my house at 29, almost 10 years ago on my own, being able to start my own business and just having the financial resilience and confidence that I have, I think that a lot of that has come through because I'm college graduate.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 9:14

Do you recall when you were growing up in Fresno, how was. Personal finance taught or was it even taught and how, what were some of the things you re recollect from that experience?

Samuel Molina 9:26

Great question. The, personal finance definitely was not taught in schools. That was not something you were gonna pick up. I think even today, California, only about 5% of schools teach personal finance. But beginning next year, we will have all high schools teaching personal finance. There was a couple of things that my parents, my mom did for me, which is, number one, she set up a savings account for me at my credit union. Number two, she told me two things, which was, build your credit. And don't put all your eggs in one basket. And that was, maybe not a lot, but it was enough, right? Because it stuck with me growing up and then learning about investing and saving on my own moving forward. It's interesting how, and you, I had a similar experience where we grew up with limited resources and you don't realize until later that a lot of the practices that our parents teach us, even though they're not necessarily called diversification or risk management or savings, a lot of the habits. We're taught, are geared to accomplish those goals, right? Like you said, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Like another way of saying, be mindful of risk and diversify. So there is that, no. Those seeds that are planted early. And so now that you've moved on and you've worked at different places, you even were part of the Marines and you shared with us some of the work that you've done I wanna really focus on the work that you're doing now because I think it's really impactful. And to start off, tell us about the Academy of Financial Education. As I shared, coming out of Northwestern Mutual, I came back to nonprofits. I started a financial literacy program. Immediately in 2022 and then a year later, that's when I started the academy. With the Academy of Financial Education, one of the things that it's gonna make us different is we provide holistic financial education. So we really get down to the basics, really helping people understand like, Hey, this is the importance of budgeting, right? Building up your credit, what's the role that it plays in your life? Why is it important to all the way to the more advanced, to the estate planning, to the retirement planning, right? How can you plan for that appropriately? And of course I do want to clarify like, we don't sell insurance or investment products, so we're not, I'm not licensed to do anything anymore. I have been, but I don't do that anymore. And then we compliment this, these education, no classes with the financial counseling or therapy, depending on what. Folks want. So the idea is that, if they attend a class or if they find us online, they can schedule these one-on-one sessions because, Miguel, I can sit here and I can teach you and everybody else how to budget and how to build their credit for two, three hours a day for every day for the next. 10 weeks. But that doesn't mean they're gonna implement what I've taught them. What are those strategies for them that are gonna make them successful? Not if they have any kind of mental obstacle or barrier that's keeping them from doing so. I'm sure you've experienced like, Hey, you've probably told friends, hey, like this is how you budget, and then they don't follow through, and it's like, what's going on there? But we really have to get to the root of the problem. So if they're experiencing any kind of financially traumatic event or negative event that took place as a child or in young adulthood, that has, led them on this trajectory. With their financial behaviors, then it's gonna be really quite an obstacle for them to overcome. And so we have to dig deep and identify what's going on with them. What are those money beliefs that they have? Are they somebody who, was taught like money's the root of all evil? Are they somebody who's taught to, live on credits or were their parents. Always coming through for them and saving them at the end of the day, paying off their debts, and now that's no longer happening for them. And so they've created the, they've created and continue to live with these behaviors that aren't leading them to financial success. So again, we're trying to understand that, Through several sessions and helping them address that and then give 'em the skills and the tools to become financially successful.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 13:36

I wanna focus on the financial therapy concept, 'cause I think that's something that a lot of people are unaware of. But before we do that, you mentioned financial counseling and financial therapy. How would you describe the differences?

Samuel Molina 13:52

So I would share that, when it comes to financial counseling. I might assess the situation, I might give more directives as far as Hey, this is what you need to do next. Just plainly question and answers, right? For on behalf of the client. What are they looking for and how can I help with financial therapy. Again, I'm digging deep as far as what are those challenges, and I'm really trying to get a better picture of what their experience with money has been. So I have to ask way more questions than they are, right? Than the client is, and it's involving, me going back to their childhood, right? So for example, like in a counseling session I'm not gonna ask, Hey, what did your mother teach you about money? That's gonna be that, that therapy session that I'm doing, or what was the most I'm sorry, what is a negative experience you had with money, or a joyful experience you had with money, right? Things of that sort, right? And then of course we might go through different exercises, with financial therapy, what I often use quite a bit is a values exercise and then another exercise that was developed by Dr. Bradley Klontz, which is the the money script inventory or what's called the KMSI table, right? So we're trying to identify if these, if folks are, money avoidance, if they worship money, if they believe, money status or are they, money vigilant, right? So I'll try to identify things like that and. There's so much more that just goes into these conversations. Whereas on the opposite end, like I said with counseling, I just might be like, Hey, Miguel, what are your questions? Here's how I can help. And after a few sessions, maybe we're done and we've developed a financial plan. Where, whereas the therapy is gonna be a lot more getting, like I said, getting to the overall experience that you've had with money and how you landed here today.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 15:36

For people who are thinking about financial therapy, is this something that. You assess a person, someone who comes to you. Is it something that you would generally say, Hey, there, there might be more that we need to look into that's maybe affecting how you're spending habits? Or is it something that people come to you and say, Hey Samuel, I'm really struggling with this situation. I really need help. Like how do you determine that financial counseling is appropriate and when financial therapy might be the best course of action?

Samuel Molina 16:13

I work with a lot of low to moderate income folks. I had a gentleman today who's, over $15,000 in debt, and he was just like, when he came to me initially, he is just Hey, should I file for bankruptcy or debt consolidation? I started to share with him like, Hey, this is how I can work with you. I can do the counseling side. I can just tell you, hey, like this is bankruptcy and this is debt consolidation. Educate you on some steps on what you can do next. Or I can, really dig deep with you and figure out like how you landed here. And immediately after I said that, he says, I think I would like the therapy because I feel comfortable when I struggle. I'm okay with struggling, which is unique, right? 'cause most people don't wanna struggle, right? They don't want to be in debt and feel like they have to, always stress him over money. But that's something that came up for him, right? And so as we continue to meet, I'll continue to uncover why does he feel comfortable under stress or, under pressure all the time, right? Because that's not a healthy world or environment to to really live in.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 17:17

Thank you for sharing that example. And that really nails down that, there could be someone who just wants to be more organized, right? They just want to understand where their money's going every month. So they might just need general budgeting advice, whereas somebody can come to you with a major problem in the stress that really needs more help. What. I also noticed on your website and all of you should check it out, it's great resources. One of the, one of my favorite resources that you have that I wish I had found five or even 10 years ago, was that very well put together Excel sheet where anyone who's one who can down, you can download it and use it to track your expenses, your income, and your financial position. I highly recommend it. One of the things that I want, that I'm curious about is I also noticed that you have resources in Spanish. I think that's obvious, right? Because you're in California and such a large sp Spanish speaking state. But when you work with folks who primary language in Spanish. You find that there are also cultural barriers, or what are some things that maybe you've learned working with Spanish speaking clients, and if you do work with Spanish speaking clients.

Samuel Molina 18:35

I have had Spanish speaking staff and they'll usually do the classroom instruction. So we haven't had the real opportunity to do that one-on-one financial therapy. Because there's not a lot of folks who are trained in this field here in the Central Valley, right? Like I think one out of. Maybe five here in California that I'm aware of from San Francisco to Los Angeles. But in the Central Valley, you're not gonna find many folks who do central certified fi, I'm sorry, financial therapy. When it comes to working with folks, in the Spanish speaking community. We're finding the same thing. We might find a lot a amongst many low income communities, which is right, not speaking about money right in the family, isolating it. We're not talking to kids about it, right? We're not talking to our siblings about money and there might be some shame. Around money as well. And so what we're really trying to do when we've done these presentations is really encourage conversation during the instruction, right? We really want folks to share their stories about money, even though we might only have two hours with a group of 20 people, we're really trying to encourage conversation, and then of course when we follow up with them in a subsequent classroom. What are they doing differently? What do they do differently between now and the last class? Did they have conversations with family members? We really wanna address that because for far too long in the Latino community. Money has been a taboo conversation. We don't talk about it enough. We don't teach our children about it enough, right? These things are changing now, right? However, we wanna encourage it more so that less of our, less folks are growing up in poverty and, maybe feel more comfortable speaking to others about it so they can become financially successful.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 20:24

I wanna talk about the future of the Academy of Financial Education. What are some of the projects or what's really. Excites you about where the not-for-profit is going for the next few years

Samuel Molina 20:36

I started doing the financial therapy last year, right? Because I had just wrapped up my certificate program at University of Georgia and this year I'm looking at launching group financial therapy. So I'm excited about developing that program. I want to have it out by March or April, helping maybe, five or six people during a group session. And we're looking about maybe five sessions. For folks, right over the course of about two months. And then we're also in the midst, like we're in the very beginning stages of creating an event. Kind of like a forum, 40, 50 people with Latino influencers or celebrities where we can talk about the taboo of money in the Latino community. So we, are gonna hold it here in California. Those details are yet to be finalized. But sometime in the summer or fall is what I'm really excited about because again, we really want to encourage folks to have these conversations within the household because when we isolate, that's when the problems really start to compound one another. And so we want to, again, ensure that people are, Hey, the kids are talking to parents about money, and parents are talking to the kids about money, right? And there's no more shame around it. We can move forward as one.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 21:53

And so I don't think I asked you this before. Do you deliver your services exclusively in person or do you offer virtual sessions and are you limited to California?

Samuel Molina 22:05

Certainly not limited. I'd like to say Zoom makes all things possible. I actually have somebody, I have actually have a client in the Middle East who found me on YouTube. So yeah, I definitely can be worldwide as long as we have a good internet. Awesome.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 22:19

So for those of you who would want to know more about your services, how can they reach you?

Samuel Molina 22:25

Certainly they can visit us on the internet, of course, www.taofe.org. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or TikTok, and they can also email me at samuel@taofe.org, right? I would say. The other thing I'm excited about, I created this several months ago during the summer. I don't know if you checked it out, it was called our do it yourself credit repair page.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 22:53

Yes.

Samuel Molina 22:53

So it, it is literally like six steps to credit repair on your own, right. We don't, we're not charging anybody anything because again, it's all about helping educate the community and get the, getting them out of debt and becoming on a, working on the pathway to becoming financially successful. So in there folks can find the link to annual credit report. Com pull up their free credit report, they can link back to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau website, and they can link up with any of the blogs that I've written that give you real tips and strategies to reducing your debt, negotiating your interest rate, and all that good stuff. And. Is right there available for them. People can check it out. We've had a lot of visitors go to that website and I'm just hoping that on the backend, I know that not everybody's reporting to me, but I hope that they're using it and getting rid of that debt.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 23:41

I that's what I like about your website is that it has resources that people can take them, own them. And really make changes that they can. That they can do on their own. In other words, that they don't have to have someone telling them, you must do this, or you must do that. Sometimes people, if they find the resources, it's better for them to change their habits, to change their practices, to help themselves and make that a more long lasting effect. Samuel, as we, we start coming to the end, and I'll definitely have the links to your website and your social media. Resources on the show notes, and I'll also have it on the on the podcast video as we come to the end. If you could only talk to someone for two minutes about personal finance, what would be three main points you would wanna put across?

Samuel Molina 24:34

If I could only talk to a person for two minutes

Miguel Sanchez Robles 24:37

and three points, two minutes, three points.

Samuel Molina 24:40

Then what would be the three points? That's a good question. One of 'em would be like, my mom taught me, don't put all your eggs in one basket. We have to know the lesson of the importance of diversification and it, I. Number two, I think this is not just personal finance related, but also just in general always, have a willingness to learn because there's always something to learn about in, in personal finance, right? Things are always changing. Financial products are always changing. So that's, that's something I have to make sure people do and wow, what would be the third point I would make sure people get across. Monitor your finances monthly, right? Because you don't want to let it slip away and you wanna make sure that the bills are being paid, you're staying on top of your financial goal, whatever those goals might be. So check on that monthly,

Miguel Sanchez Robles 25:42

Samuel, these are great points. Definitely diversification. Willingness to learn. The fact that we're, we met through the A-F-C-P-E and I think that kind of speaks of our willingness to learn. So that is something that we share. And definitely our listeners should always be striving to learn, monitor your finances. If you don't know where you are, you don't know where you're going. I think that's one way to put it. Samuel, I appreciate your conversation and we'll continue to. To showcase what you do and hopefully we'll catch up again in the future and we'll get to hear more about how your organization is growing and some of the things that you've done since the last time we spoke. So Samuel, thank you for being here today.

Samuel Molina 26:21

I appreciate your time. Thank you, Miguel.