# Swell AI Transcript: MoneyMattersEP1.mp3

SPEAKER_02:
Chris Hensley is a registered representative of Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., a broker-dealer member of FINRA CIPIC. Investment Advisor Representative, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a registered investment advisor. Cambridge and Houston First Financial Group are not affiliated.

SPEAKER_03:
Good morning, everybody. This is Chris Hensley with the Houston Society for Financial Awareness. And our show, Money Matters, is kicking off live this morning. It is now about 10.06, so we're just now getting started here. But we hope to have you join us and listen in weekly. This show will be every week at 10 o'clock. on Fridays, Friday mornings at 10, and so we are kicking off really the first in the series of these shows. I wanted to start the show by saying thank you to KPFT for having me on as the host, Christopher Hensley. I am the president of the local Houston Midtown chapter of the Society for Financial Awareness. We have been here at this station multiple times in the past, first as a guest on Open Journal and then I've actually hosted some of the Open Journals over the past year or so, probably about the past year. And now that KPFT is venturing out into the podcast space, the HD3 channel, The streaming internet radio, they've invited us out to host a show every Friday here at 10 o'clock. This is really a neat concept, because if you think about it, a lot of stations will have that HD3 channel, and they use it really kind of as a repeater. And you don't hear many stations kind of leading the forefront and bringing in kind of this creative additional programming. And so KPFT has taken the the choice to bring in additional shows and additional programs. So we are very excited about being part of that. So I'd like to start out with really this first half of the show talking about who we are, who SOFA is, how do we work, where have we been, and really let you guys get a flavor for what it is that we do. SOFA, we are a non-profit 501c3 Educational Speakers Bureau. So we go out to different groups, different organizations, different associations, churches, anywhere people already congregate and provide financial education seminars as well as health and wellness workshops. We do this pretty much, I'd say 98% grassroots effort, word of mouth. And so we get into these different organizations and provide education classes on financial literacy topics. So what is the process for that? How does that happen? We can go out and do one-offs where we're going out to different companies, organizations, and just doing one topic. But that's not how we prefer to do it. We prefer to go out and do either quarterly, monthly, at least annually, and switch up the speakers and switch up the topics. We like to call it edutainment because when it comes to A lot of times if you just start looking at the numbers it can really be dry and be boring. So we as public speakers, as professional speakers, we tend to use a lot of storytelling and we want to go the other direction with it. really promote going out there and changing up the speakers because everybody's got different speaking styles and that gives you kind of a variety of different topics. For instance, we just got finished with April which was Financial Literacy Month. Financial Literacy Month is nationwide really. an initiative that was put out to get education out about finances, about people taking personal responsibility for their finances. We just got finished with that. If you think about it, April, we think about taxes and your tax deadline. So that would be a topic that we could go out and talk, and that would be a CPA. If we went out and talked about taxes, that would be a CPA. If it's investments or cash management or budgeting, typically that's going to be a financial advisor, which would be me. If it is maybe first-time homebuyers or real estate, that's going to be a realtor. If we go out and we also have health and wellness topics and so one of the things that we argue or one of our beliefs is that your finances and your health are tied together. So we also go out and we talk about health and wellness, we talk about reducing stress in the workplace and that's going to be a health care professional, maybe a doctor or a chiropractor or someone like that. typically the membership of SOFA. SOFA is also comprised of volunteers, people who are helping behind the scenes with what we do. And then we have our members. Our members, I always say that for a member of SOFA, the stars have to align because it's typically going to be somebody who enjoys getting up in front of a group and doing the public speaking, but they also have to be an expert in the topic that we're talking about or that we're invited to go out and talk about. Where have we been? Well, SOFA, because we are a non-profit, we've been to a lot of different places. I mentioned companies, churches, associations. Here in Houston, we've been to several of the universities. We've been out to several of city government where we've been invited in to talk. We work very closely with the Alliance for Economic Inclusion, which is one of the groups that we partnered with, and also Houston Money Week, which is a citywide initiative to really bring financial literacy. Now that happens in April, and so we just got finished with that. Those are some of the places that we've been here. Now you're listening to, for everybody who's just joining in, you're listening to kpft.org's HD3 channel, the streaming internet channel. And we're going to take a break just for a moment here.

SPEAKER_00:
$10 bill in your pocket, $10 bill What you gonna buy with that greenback? What kind of thrill? $10 bill in your pocket, a $10 bill Tell me where did you get that money? Who'd you have to kill?

SPEAKER_01:
 so

SPEAKER_00:
I got a big black gun. It's time to share the cash now. Nowhere to run. I got a big black gun in my pocket. I got a big black gun. Let's find a 7-Eleven and have some fun.

SPEAKER_01:
 so

SPEAKER_00:
Landlord's knocking, knocking on my door. Can't you see I got no money, I can't give no more. Landlord's banging, try one more time. You can knock the damn door down, but you ain't gonna get it done.

SPEAKER_01:
 so

SPEAKER_03:
Okay, and we're back. That was Cop Shoot Cop with $10 Bill, and you're listening to Money Matters. Houston Midtown Chapter Society for Financial Awareness presents Money Matters. This is a show about financial literacy and really reframing the discussion of money, taking it out of the hands of academia and just numbers and really turning it into a conversation about everyday people. And so I wanted to just finish with what we were talking about earlier before the break. What is really the benefit for these organizations that invite SOFA out to talk? Well, for one thing, it's educational and it provides a level of education about finances that is often not brought into the workplace. There is something that is required by anybody who has a retirement plan, has some kind of a RISA retirement plan in place. It's called 404C. And 404C is a Department of Labor requirement that you have financial education at your work site. As a fiduciary of a retirement plan, you're actually required to do that. Now often these employers will off-ramp that to their 401k providers, but what tends to happen with that is it tends to be just an enrollment meeting where they're focused on getting started with that 401k. What you don't see are the really cornerstones and the basics about financial literacy so when you have that you don't see a lot of things about budgeting or cash management or Really just dealing with credit. How do we deal with credit and credit cards and that type of stuff? So really just the the fundamentals the things that we were never taught When we were if you think about it when we were in high school there was never a class about how to buy a car or how to budget or even something as simple as Budgeting is balancing your checkbook. We just we just didn't have it here In Texas, there was an initiative that was passed back in 2008, a bill was passed that required financial literacy to be a part of high school graduation. You would not be able to graduate unless you had some kind of financial literacy piece in place through school. Now, what I've been told is that we rolled that out. But we haven't really been able to enforce it. So you know a lot of the schools are really focused on the star testing and they haven't been able to go back and actually manage those expectations that were put in place. So that's organizations like SOFA, there are other groups that we work with, the Junior Achievement, Texas Council of Economic Education, they are going where we focus on adult financial literacy, they are going out to the schools and putting this same educational curriculum in place for kids and for the schools. Organizations like that are going to be one of the things that we're focusing on as we move forward. We're going to try to bring as many of these other groups here in Houston that are non-profits that are doing some of the same work that we are and really trying to get the word out about them. It's my personal opinion that We have a lot of the resources that we need. to bring financial education out to the public, to bring financial literacy out, but we just don't know it. Some of these groups that I've been working with, it's been about two and a half years now through the Alliance of Economic Inclusion and Houston Money Week, working with these organizations, and I have to say myself, I was surprised at how many different groups there were out there that are doing some of this work. out here in the Houston community and so I'd really like our show to be a forum to get that message out and to really get people in contact with those groups that can help them and help when it comes to financial literacy. I also wanted to focus on this second part of the show on what we will be doing moving forward. There are some things that I have lined up for us and I really want us to have guests. I want it to be more of a conversation instead of a lecture and so I would encourage you to get in touch with us to let us know what kind of topics and guests you'd like to have on the show. Our website is www.HoustonMidtownSofa.org. You can contact us through that and let us know what kind of topics and guests you'd like to have on the show. I do have some guests that are already lined up, so I'm going to give you kind of a sneak peek and I would encourage you to listen in over the next coming Fridays. We will not be here next Friday, but we will be coming back and really kind of officially kicking the show off on the 17th. And we have a good reason for that. We are actually going to be out at the Baylor College of Medicine doing their financial fitness week. This will be year two that we will be out there and what I hope to do if this works out I'd like to get some snippets some live coverage and bring it back in on the 17th when we come back and really kind of pop the hood for you and show you what we do, what SOFA does, and kind of bring you in as a listener into some of those seminars, and maybe look at some of the frequently asked questions that we get when we host those seminars. So that will be on the 17th, and we do have some guests that we have lined up for the rest of the show, just to sneak peek. One of the guests that we're going to have on is going to be Kyle Sadler, and he is the creator of the Barter Only website. And on that show, we're going to be discussing kind of alternatives to cash, so outside of money, barter and trade. If you think about that, trading comic books and baseball cards when we're kids, how does that carry on into something viable as adults? And so we're going to look at the phenomenon, really, of bartering and trade. We also are going to be speaking with Melanie Bragg Now Melanie is an attorney, she is also an author, speaker, local attorney here. She focuses on probate and estate planning and so that will give us an opportunity to talk about those topics. But she is just a phenomenal speaker, and so I think you will really enjoy some of the stories that she has. And she's also authored two books. One of them is also a fiction book, so we'll have a chance to talk to her about that. Another guest that we're going to bring on is filmmaker Jay Schneider. And he is the director of the film, When We Ruled H-Town. This is a movie about the local Houston music scene in the 90s. And you're going to ask, well, what does that have to do with finance? I'm not going to tell you. You're going to have to listen to hear that. So that's just three of the guests that we have coming on. I would encourage you to listen back with us on Fridays at 10 o'clock in the future to hear this. And then I wanted to kind of circle back around and close out some of the things that we've talked about here, some of the things that we've done in April and in what we have coming up in May here. In April, we had Financial Literacy Month, so SOFA went out and we talked to the Harris County Public Library. We were invited out to Houston Community College for their financial literacy event. And we also went out to the Houston Metropolitan Boat Trading Association. So I wanted to say thanks to those organizations for having us out. These are events that have happened in the past April. We're closing out Financial Literacy Month. But I wanted to talk about the venue that, when we were out at the Houston Metropolitan Boat Trading Association, it was a really nice venue. And this is rare, because as a public speaker, when SOFA gets called out to talk, we basically go anywhere we're asked to go. So I've been out to for-profit companies where they have nice training rooms and computers I've been out to companies where their employees work 24 hours and they are on the factory floor machinists. The only way that they can have somebody come out is that you have to go out on the factory floor. Just to kind of paint a picture for you, picture me with goggles. with machines going off in the background and then trying to do a seminar or workshop there. So really, when we got asked to go out to the Houston Metropolitan Boat Trading Association, this is a professional organization of boat dealers, people who deal boats, and their meetings float from restaurant to restaurant The restaurant that they had this particular seminar at, it's called the Monument Inn and it is out by the San Jacinto Monument. I haven't been out to the San Jacinto Monument since, oh boy. I'm thinking I went with my grandfather when I was maybe seven or eight, so it's been a really, really long time since I've been out there. I was driving there and you just keep going and going and going. Then when you get to the end, there's a ferry. It's called Monument End, so I was looking for a hotel or something like that. It turns out that it's a restaurant right there on the water. So it was a really neat spot for us to be able to talk to the members of this group. So I just wanted to say thanks for inviting us out there. And that really closed up April for us. That was the talks that we had in May. Monday morning we're actually going to be doing a spot on the Debra Duncan show. It's a PSA really so if you're able to check us out there. Then we have a meeting on Tuesday with the Alliance of Economic Inclusion. That's the group I was telling you about earlier. I will be working with them to try to get as many non-profit groups on the air as possible and really working on getting some guests. for our show and getting the word out. And then the rest of the week we are going to be out at Baylor College of Medicine. We've got six different talks there. Now these are closed events, so unless you are a student, faculty, or staff at Baylor College of Medicine, you would not be able to participate in this, but we've got six different talks there and we are going to try to record as much of it as we can and bring that back in for the 17th so you guys can get an idea of what it is that we do. And with that, I'm going to go ahead and wrap up, say thank you for listening today and we are going to transition here into the BBC and join them already in progress.