14 Importance of Financial Literacy for Children

In this eye-opening episode of Winning Regardless, Coach Rodo tackles a topic that's often overlooked: financial literacy for kids. Drawing from his own candid story of struggling with a "horrible" credit score, he reveals the powerful secret his wife taught him that changed the financial future for his sons.

This isn't your typical financial advice. Rodo lays out a bold, hands-on strategy for parents to build their children's credit before they even finish middle school. He shares the remarkable outcomes, including his sons getting apartments and even a house without a co-signer and landing great jobs that depend on a good credit history. Rodo also issues a powerful call to action for the minority community to "break the cycle" of financial illiteracy and give their kids a critical head start on the road to success.

Key Discussion Points:

A Father's Confession: Rodo shares the story of his own financial struggles and how his credit score was "so low" due to a lack of knowledge passed down from his parents.

The Credit Card "Hack": The unconventional strategy of giving credit cards to kids in middle school and how it builds a positive credit history from a young age.

The Power of Good Credit: How having a high credit score at a young age led to his sons getting jobs and being able to rent or buy property without a co-signer.

Breaking the Cycle: A passionate plea to parents, particularly in the minority community, to take a proactive role in their children's financial education.

Why You Don't Need a Big Limit: Rodo's advice for parents on how to get started, even with a low-limit credit card, and the impact it can have over time.

Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Coach Rodo's podcast, Winning Regardless. ⁓ Today, I wanted to talk about a subject that's near and dear to me and it has become that because in talking to a lot of my friends, I find out how important this conversation is. And it's mostly for the parents and the grownups in the room who have young children.

⁓ Most of the time we try to set our kids up for success. know, nobody, no parent ever wants to have their kids fail at anything. But one of the most common things that I say as parents that we fail to do, at least I wouldn't really call it failure. I would call it a not being used to it being done because maybe it wasn't done to you when you were younger. My father had a really, really good job.

was an engineer for GM, worked there, the BOC a lot, a lot of years, was a supervisor, so made a great living. But the one thing in working so hard that he never talked to me about was, as I become a grown up, my financial literacy. ⁓ And when I say my financial literacy, it was...

I didn't know anything about credit because it wasn't a conversation in our house. ⁓ It was more, we talked about, you know, things that parents and kids talked about in those days, you know, how was your day at school? You know, you got practice today, whatever sport it was you were playing, you know, asking if you can go outside. There was no sitting down and talking to your kid about what they will need.

in America to be successful when they get older. ⁓ with that being said, marrying my wife, ⁓ we had kids. We had our oldest son, Alex. Let's see, he was probably in the sixth grade. She got him a credit card. And, you know, again, not.

Being from a household of learning any financial literacy or anything like that, of course, my first thoughts as a dad is, we're not gonna let him carry that around because sixth grade, having a credit card, what if he goes willy nilly and he starts just buying anything that he wants to buy or anything that he sees that basically ⁓ abuse it, so to speak. ⁓ My wife was like, ⁓

You know, we're not worried about that. That's not gonna happen. I said, well, why are we getting it? And then she broke it down to me. And this is really how important I found out financial literacy was that we should talk, that you should talk to your children about it or at least help them in doing so. Him having a credit card in our name and at such a young age.

And us paying the bill every month because he wasn't using it. And if he did, it had to be an emergency in which he had to call home because he was that responsible as a child to call home and ask, hey, can I use my credit card?

Me, again, never knowing, never being talked about it, never even taught about, wasn't even taught about credit cards or anything of that sort. Heck, I screwed my credit up so bad, like me and my wife, we make fun. I mean, she says, I never saw a credit score so low in my life, you know, because again, I knew nothing about credit. just, you know, oh, what? I can get this and pay you later? Oh, shoot, forget it. What if I don't pay you? You know, cool. It don't matter. I got it anyway. I got it for free. You know, that's just, that was my thought process because again,

I was never taught the financial literacy. So back to the story of him having a credit card in the sixth grade. She was like, honey, what we're doing is we're setting him up for when he gets older. What do you mean when he gets older if the credit card is in our name? The balance is held in our name even though it has his on it. Well, every time we pay the credit card, not only do our credit score get better, but he is.

I'm again not knowing anything about financial literacy because I wasn't taught. Wait a minute, you mean his credit score is gonna... How is it in the sixth grade? He even has a credit score. She went into all of that stuff with me. Basically what she schooled me on is with our kids, we got them both credit cards in middle school.

Because what she told me was every time we paid that credit card on time, early, we never paid it late because we're just not those type of people, his credit would continue to climb at a young age. I was, you know, I went along with it. was like, okay. And it was for both of the boys, you know, we also did it for Devin, you know, who, who, ⁓ when he got in the sixth grade, we got him one also. and, and, ⁓

It didn't really register with me, even after she told me. All of the years went by. It didn't register until my both of my boys went to get apartments. They were 17, so you know, I'm expecting to have to cosign no matter what anyway. So we cosign, but you know, it's only a year lease.

18 rolls around again, you know, they're responsible. they never missed rent, never had a late payment, anything like that. So again, it was like, yeah, we're ready to co-sign again. But both of them, you know, when they got to came to me, was like, ⁓ yeah, we moving into the apartment, moving into my apartment on blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, wait, what do mean you moving into your apartment? ⁓ I don't need a co-signer. What do mean you don't need a co-signer? And so that's when they hit me. My wife was like, honey.

That's why when they were in the sixth grade, we got them a credit card in their name, even though it was under us. Because every time we paid the bill, this is what we were setting them up for. know, we as parents, have to do a better job in making life easier for our children in a sense of not having financial illiteracy be

a reason why they don't get the successes in life because a lot of people don't realize, you know, we as parents, got to realize that some jobs, if you don't have good credit or if you don't have credit at all, you don't even qualify for a good job. You know, that's the thing. You have to have, they check your credit report for a job at Striker.

GM and Ford and the reason I know this is because A, it happened to me but B, our youngest son Devin who works for Ford, when he filled out an application, they couldn't believe that at 24 years or 23 years old, his credit score was what it was. And he was like, they ran my credit score. Yes, son, because they needed to know if you have any gambling debts, if you have anything that would compromise your duty at work.

And that's how we as parents set both the boys up for when they got older to where your financial literacy is not going to be a crutch for you. You're going to know because we're going to set you up for the credit and we're going to remind you about it every single day so that A, you already know that you have it, B, and you know not to mess it up. And when

Both of the boys, you know, our son Alex, he's the landlord of our building. Well, he wouldn't be able to do that if we hadn't started his credit at such a young age to where when he got old enough to understand credit to where it's important to him to pay attention to his credit. He, I mean, he pays mostly everything in cash, but the great thing is he has the credit, he had to get a house. Well, I mean...

myself or his mother didn't co-sign on the house because he had the credit to get it himself. So again, as a parent, ⁓ I think we need to do a better job in our community of teaching our kids at a young age about financial literacy, about how, and helping them if we can and not be, I'm not gonna put a credit card in your name.

Because I'm afraid you'll abuse it. OK, well, put a credit card in their name and put that bad boy in water, in a cup, and put it in the freezer so that they got an unthought in order to get it out. And therefore, you're going to know. Or you just keep and hold on to it. But we have to understand the world that we're living in. And in order for our kids to be on the right path to, you know,

not necessarily success, but on the right path of being able to have more of the world and opportunities open to them, I think we as parents have to do better for them.

While they're kids, I mean we think you know provide me essentials, you know Clothing the food roof over the head bills being paid, you know the extras you get to play athletics You know, you get to go to glee club you get to you know, you get to Play go to chess club, you know all of those things, you know, those those are great

But the one thing that we have to get better at as a community, because we always say in our community, things we are or things are the way they are because I don't financially have it or I can't financially get it. You know, the one thing that credit does is allows you to get it if you can afford it. And the simple fact of you have a good enough credit score to get a credit card.

then you can make payments on your purchase. But if you don't have that credit score, which everyone needs, then you can't make the purchase that you would like. And again, I feel as parents, one of the best ways that we can help our kids is not only teach them financial literacy, but help them. Teaching them and helping them are...

big proponents for success because if you talk to most of your affluent kids or I mean your white kids, a lot of them, parents did that at when they were, I've met three black friends that I have whose parents actually did that for them.

But out of all my friends, only three of them have. I have a friend now who has two older kids, and that's all we talk about is when he has to co-sign for them because they don't have jobs or he has to get stuff for them. One day he asked me, man, why is it that you don't have to do that? And once I explained it to him, he said, man, I wish I would have been told that because, I mean, he's good, he's fine, his kids are fine, he has the money to take care of the things, but still in awe, his thought process is,

had I known and have done that for my kids, they would be able to do a lot more on their own without depending on me and my signature for things. You know, the greatest thing about your kids having financial freedom is as a parent you have financial freedom because you're not paying for them. You're not cosigning. You're not wondering, hey, you got to keep that job, motherf*#ker, because if you fuck up my credit, it's gonna be me and you.

You don't have to have those conversations. You don't have to go to sleep at night worrying about that because your kid is a grownup and you've taught them not so much the mastery of good credit or financial literacy, but you've given them an apprentice class on it. ⁓ And that's one thing that our community, the minority community in general,

is lacking is we're lacking teaching our kids and giving them a leg up as far as that goes because when we give them a leg up financially man the world opens up so much if if you don't have to worry about you know your money and how i got to get that or you know your transportation because you got a good job and you know i can go get a car because i've been financially you know taking care of my bills taking care of my business because at a young age i was taught that

You know, it's no greater feeling as a person who has good credit. know, I mean, I take me for instance, again, my credit was terrible. mean, shit, my credit was so low. I'm probably in the 200s. It might even be, you know, if you haven't even heard of that. My wife said, I ain't never seen a motherfucking credit score this low in my life. And so did all my friends when I told them about it. The greatest pleasure I had in my life was, you know, after my wife and I started working on getting my credit together.

We did it the same way that we did the boys. She had the great credit, so she put me on there, but every time I got paid, that check was going to her. You know, I didn't get the, you know, okay, here, you take this and I'm gonna keep the rest. No, no, no, no, no. You know, I went to her to build to one of my climactic moments was when I walked, I had a car, and it took a dump on me. And again,

I was not financially literate, but I knew my bills was getting paid because I was giving her my money and she was taking, I knew my bills was getting paid. I go to the car dealership and you know, I'm looking at, you know, five, $6,000 cars. Cause you know, I'm thinking about, you know, well, my credit, my, cause you know, all of that comes up and ⁓

He runs my credit score. He comes back and he looks at me and I'm looking at him because he's looking at me kind of strange, you know, and I'm looking back at him. I'm like, well, what's the deal? He says, come on, let's go take a walk outside. This is a Harold Ziegler. ⁓ We walk outside and, you know, he takes me to the middle of the lot and I'm thinking he's going to take me to some, you know, some cars that's more in the little range that I was looking for and it's down the third. He says, hey, Mr. Marshall. I said, yeah, what's up, Randy? That was his name. He says,

You can have any car on the lot. I said, wait a minute, what the hell you mean any car on the lot? We talking about a BMW car dealership, Lincoln car dealership, and then everything that they got in the used lot. He said, anything in that motherf*#ker I can have. Well, you know, of course, first thing I want is a car. Hey, I'm getting a brand new blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. She says, listen, motherf*#ker, how we got here is by being smart, just because you can have it.

not mean you get it. So let's compromise. So we compromised and I ended up getting a BMW which, you know, growing up as a kid, my uncle's car, the BMW, a black man's wish. I ended up getting a 2016 X3 and was, man, that thing was great for me. But the point of the story is me not understanding financial literacy when I got to 30,

33 years old and was my credit had finally got right at 30 fucking three It felt so liberating to be able to walk out there and a motherf*#ker look at you Way different than he would have five years earlier where he looks at you and he's shocked because your credit is that good and That's what we as parents can do for our children They'll get that euphoric look

when they go and don't have to have a co-signer, the reason I know is because my youngest, you know, our oldest son, Alex, never worried about anything like that. And it wasn't that he'd have a co-signer. It was always that, you know, he was a maneuverer. He'd be in a hustle. He knew how to maneuver and make things happen for himself. You know, he would figure it out first and then come to us if he couldn't figure it out. But the euphoria that our youngest had when he went to get his first apartment, he graduated at 17.

He wasn't turning 18 until July. The apartment building was like, know what? We won't start your lease until August 1st. So he was able to sign the lease under his name without a co-signer was the greatest feeling he ever had because he didn't need anyone.

to co-sign and he didn't have to put that burden on anyone because his credit was good enough. Now he has a family, he has his girlfriend, he has his son, our grandbaby, ⁓ and everything, they are apartment. He didn't have a he signed for everything, his credit is doing great. Got a great job at Ford because he had a great credit score.

You know, I'm pretty happy at learning that and being able to teach my kids that because again, there's no better euphoric feeling to know that no matter what happens to me, one of the things that my kid needs in America to succeed is a good credit fucking score. Why? I do not know. I don't know why they made that part of, you know.

being a productive member of society because I know people who work real hard and do a great job and are great parents that have horrible credit and they still pay their bills on time and things of that sort. So I really don't, I mean, I know why, but again, the importance of it, but it is important. So therefore we have to, as the minority community, we have to take it as it is important. We have to pass that along to our children.

We have, if we have the means and we have the ability to do so, we must do so. It is paramount to our children's success to not have to borrow because they don't have, you know, you never want your, you don't want to have that feeling that your kid can't get something because of something that we as parents never talked to them about. We have the opportunity to do it.

It's a matter of we do it. It doesn't matter if it was never taught to you, because it was never taught to me. But that doesn't mean that you can't break that cycle and teach it. You know, it doesn't mean that just because your credit is bad, you know, ⁓ I'm going to I'm not going to teach you about because because you're as a parent's credit is bad. I'm not going to teach my child the importance of having good credit. You know, ⁓ we tend to.

⁓ follow along with as far as teaching our children with how we came up. And we have to break that. We have to, if we really want our kids to be successful like most parents do, and like we say, we have to do some of the things that maybe we've already done or have been done to us that taught us in life, but there's also things that we have to do that we weren't taught. I mean, I hope somebody hears this conversation who

was thinking about trying to get their kid a leg up and is able to do that. And the thing about it is we always thinking, okay, it's got to be the $20,000 credit limit credit card. No, it could be a 500 goddamn a month, a 500 credit card limit. All you got to do is just make sure you pay it every time. Your credit score goes up every single time.

Even if you start with a $500 credit card, if you start with a $500 credit card for your child, you get their school clothes on it. That's the only time you use it. You pay that mark off, you pay the minimum, every month pay it off.

Not only are you affecting your credit, but your kids. And this is for my parents who don't have the score to get the multi-thousand dollar credit card. These are for my parents who think that they're unable to even fix their own situation ⁓ financially. There's programs out there. And what happens is you'll get a higher credit interest, absolutely.

But once you start paying and you get a record of paying, not only on time, but paying that bad boy off, well, your limit goes up. Now, your limit goes up, your interest rate goes down because you're sustaining a pattern of making sure that the bills is paid. You're staying financially literate. And we can pass that on to our children.

And I would say sixth grade. That would probably be the grade that I recommend that you even sixth to eighth grade. Those are the grades that I would recommend you start because when they get into high school, it becomes a little more sketchy because of how high schoolers are treated in today's society. mean, they're almost treated like they should be grownups in which...

You know, you think about when we were in high school, man, I wasn't thinking about trying to be no grown up, but that's what we asked these kids to do. ⁓ So I would recommend sixth to eighth grade that you would ⁓ go about getting that. And again, you can get that at any bank, any credit union. Hell, get you a Meyers card. I mean, anything that you can make a payment on. Them damn grocery stores don't turn nobody down for their cards.

Even if you're just using it for food, but you're paying that motherf*#ker off. Every month you're paying that bill. Now, all of a sudden you're building yours and even if you have your kid's name signed onto that goddamn Myers car, guess what? Their credit is also building as well. And they've never even had a bill in their life. But the thing is, you're setting them up so that, you know, when they get...

18, 19, the credit card companies in college comes calling. My boys didn't get those, because they still had my credit card. They still had our credit card. And we told them, you're fine. Your interest rate is so low that the credit card companies stopped even sending them stuff, because they could not compete with what their credit scores already are, because they know.

coming to college, your ass ain't got no credit. So we're about to stick your ass with a high interest because you're not gonna say no. You've never had a credit card in your life and you probably weren't taught what to do when you get this motherf*#ker. So that's what happens to us. We get caught in that mixer and guess what? You never get out. Because then financial aid comes crawling along. Well, not financial aid, but you gotta take out loans for school. Now you got student loans.

Now you got the credit card that you got to pay for that gave you this astronomical interest rate because you weren't taught as a young kid or as a youngster and your credit wasn't built when you were young to where you don't need them and they know you need them. So they give you this high ass credit rate or interest rate with a low, ⁓ with like maybe a low limit thousand dollars or so. It makes no sense. But again,

How do we know if we weren't taught that? And it's not to say that the parents do a bad job. Maybe you have other things that you have on your mind. ⁓ Or maybe no one has ever even talked to you about that. Because that's what happened to me. No one ever talked to me about that.

But my wife did, and she knew. I mean, I can't recall if I ever asked her how she learned about it, but I mean, she's a very smart girl, so I'm pretty sure she probably read about it in some damn book that she read, because when she got on punishment, they had to take books away from her because she loved to read, so they punished her by taking books away from her. So I'd assume she probably learned it from reading or some shit like that. you know, I think had I not had her...

teach me, I probably wouldn't have the credit score that I have now. I probably would learned later, but man, imagine the growing pains I would have had to go through to get to the point when I'm standing in the middle of that car lot and him telling me I can get any car that I wanted. Now, because of what we did for our boys, they can essentially do the same shit. Because...

We taught them financial literacy at such a young age by starting their credit for them. And then once they got old enough to be able to have the conversation of what credit does for you, what it provides, and why you need it, we were able to teach them and give them an apprenticeship on the importance of having good credit. And I must say that I'm very proud of both of them because

Neither one of us has come to us to tell them that they need to pay a bill, and neither one of them's credit score is bad. So ⁓ I hope this conversation that we had helps some parent or two ⁓ get their kids or teach their kids financial literacy at a young age and help them get started on their way in life, because it is very, very important. Trust me.

I used to couldn't see it until I had my own two boys and seeing what having good credit has done for them. Forget what it's done for me. You know, I'm just talking about them because that after all, that's what this conversation was about, setting our kids up for financial literacy. So hopefully someone listens to this and it helps them. Again, this is only my opinion.

with a lot of facts based on it as far as being able to build your kids' credit when they're a young age. ⁓ And if you have any questions or if you have any comments, feel free. Again, I would like to thank you for tuning in to Coach Rodo's Winning Regardless podcast. And ⁓ you have a wonderful day.

Dope subject. Mm-hmm. How long was that one? Damn.

Yeah. Okay, we got one more. What are we gonna do? Let me see. I'm gonna do this one on uh I just started