This week we bring back a longtime friend and collaborator with the Talk Wealth crew. Professor Howard Eskew is a former banker turned educator who's passion for financial literacy is unmatched. He is the man that was behind and created a personal finance class that is offered at San Diego Mesa College. It was so popular that there is a waiting list every semester. This week we talk about how challenging and rewarding it is to teach personal finance and how students really grasp real world tools to help decision making that impact theirs and their family's lives.
This week we bring back a longtime friend and collaborator with the Talk Wealth crew. Professor Howard Eskew is a former banker turned educator who's passion for financial literacy is unmatched. He is the man that was behind and created a personal finance class that is offered at San Diego Mesa College. It was so popular that there is a waiting list every semester. This week we talk about how challenging and rewarding it is to teach personal finance and how students really grasp real world tools to help decision making that impact theirs and their family's lives.
Welcome to top wealth, to me, a safe space podcast, where we chat about anything and everything related to personal finance, The information contained in the podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute as accounting, legal tax or other professional advice.
Chase Peckham:Start this off. I was talking with my brother this morning, um, and Howard, thank you so much for being here today and we're super excited to have you, um, of course we love where came with you, uh, on our, our fight for financial literacy across, uh, the, the youth and, uh, communities of San Diego. And, but I was talking to my brother this morning and he's got a daughter who's a junior in high school lives up and a daughter that's a, a freshman in high school. And I said, man, you're I go Kayla's at that age, she's, she's now looking at colleges. Right. And he, and we had that discussion. He's like, yeah, she's gotta take, you know, get prepared. You gotta take the ACT the SAT all these things. And we just had the discussion of, you know, going to college versus not going to college, cuz there's been a lot out there where people are saying, you know, do I really need to go to college anymore? I mean, there's all these things I can do online. Do I need to go live in a dorm? Do I need to go? And so there was the discussion of, uh, for me it was the college experience and the growing, you know, there's a big difference between growing up at 18, uh, being 18. And then, you know, when you're 23 or 24, when, when you get out of college, uh, we were just discussing that. And, but it, then there was the argument and discussion of cost. Um, and, and how much you, you know, if you were to go to Stanford right now, the cost of going to Stanford is more than by, by far more than the average person in the United States brings in a year, uh, household. So you know, where, where is the give and take there? Where does the money come from? You know, parents are stressed out about it by the time their kids, you know, might be in diaper. Still student loans has been a huge discussion over the last number of years, whether you should take out a loan, whether you should go into debt for a, a, an acumen that you don't know is gonna pay off, but Howard, you working at a, at a school of higher education. Um, you work at of one of the great, uh, community college districts in, in San Diego and Southern California. You were the, the, the man behind one of the first financial literacy courses. Uh, in fact, probably the first financial literacy course that transfers to the state and UC systems in financial literacy. You also come from a business acumen. You, you're not, you're not a, a lifer in academia. You're you're, you are a professional that went into academia.
Felipe Arevalo:Dare I say, he's a banker
Chase Peckham:Howard, tell us growing up. How did you get into your, how did you decide to go into academia and leave the private sector?
Howard Eskew:So you packed a lot in there. And I think the first thing I wanna talk to about you asked about my history. I'll just give you a brief history. Uh, so I'm a Midwestern we're typically, uh, conservative and growing up. Um, in my senior year in high school, my father actually had a, a stroke and two heart attacks and he became disabled very quickly. And I found myself being a very active high school student to all of a sudden having to work full-time on the third shift, uh, at a, at a local, uh, printing press to help support the family. So I learned about, um, the value of money very quickly. And also even prior to that growing up and I share this with my students all the time. Uh, I got an allowance as, as a, as a kid, I grew up on a farm and I will tell you doing farm work for a quarter a week was being grossly underpaid. But that was the way my life was. And my mother never gave us a quarter. My mother always gave us two dimes in a nickel. And the reason she did that was she made us pay ourselves first. She always made us save 10, uh, a dime, and then the other dime was ours to do what, whatever we wanted to do with it, but a nickel was always to pay it forward. And so however we chose to pay it forward. We, we did that. And so that became my for, for, for life. And I think that what's really important with that was philanthropy became a part of my life very early, also the understanding and, and realizing the value of saving was very, very important. So that foundation was there, but I don't think, um, a lot of adults, especially with children today, really understand the cost involved in education and know we, you hear the argument all the time.
Speaker 4:Well, it, it keeps getting more and more and more and more expensive. And we've had this discussion, you know, I, uh, went to college in 1978 and I would tell you, for me, the tuition was every bit is expensive because I was paying for it myself and getting to school. And, uh, but we tend to, I think, many times, and I'm sure I'm gonna get some responses to this. We feel like, well, our student, our, our sons and our daughters need to go to campus. They need to have the college experience. Uh, but the bottom line for me was I, wasn't able to have that. Um, and I'm not sure how much it would've necessarily added to my overall experience as far as finding a job and those types of thing, because I was already in the real world and I was doing that. So I was looking for skills and skill sets and those types of things to enhance what I already did.
Howard Eskew:I always knew that I wanted to be in education when I was in high school. I was in future teachers of America. Um, but I also always knew that I wanted to be, um, in the financial realm as well. So it just happened that, um, my bachelor's degree was in accounting and computer systems and business. So that's how I ended up in, well, you would think, oh my gosh, I got a bachelor's degree. So I'm gonna walk into a job and get a hundred thousand dollars a year. I started, I started as a teller.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Howard Eskew:And I had to work my way up. And then I got into a management, uh, training program and, you know, a lot of folks think, well, if I don't get to start as a manager or vice president, right outta college, then you know, I've failed. Uh, and I don't see it that way. I I'm a real, uh, believer in, if, if I start at the bottom, then I understand everything that's going on in the business. And as I'm coming up, my understanding is better. So I'm actually going to be a better manager executive because I, while the jobs may change the basic tenets of what they do and, and how everything fits together remains the same. And that makes you valuable. And that makes you powerful, uh, in, in industry. So I would encourage folks that, um, don't and I tell my students this too. I said, yeah, the chances of you, you getting a hundred thousand dollars job with a bachelor's degree, maybe. And if you do good for you, um, but don't be afraid to get into a, uh, management training program. Don't be afraid to start at the bottom and work your way up. It doesn't take you honestly that long if you're a good employee and you've got the work and you're soaking in everything and you're asking questions and you there's different ways you can do it, but for getting back for the financing of, of school, you know, I think community colleges do get, uh, overlooked very quickly. Uh, they have a stigma that says, oh gosh, if you're community college, uh, you may not be, uh, the cream of the crop as far as SAT scores and all of those, uh, and that's necessarily, um, a community college, uh, is probably one of the best things you can do for yourself as a student, because just look at, if you look at the tuition difference, uh, the cost there alone, uh, I would also tell you that community colleges are, are generally more proactive in things like OER, which is for open education resources, zero cost textbooks, or low cost textbooks. Many of my classes, yeah, you'll pay, uh, less than$40 for your textbook because I supplement my courses. And so that's a huge thing when the average textbook right now is about$185. And that doesn't include necessarily if you have to have an access code for, for the homework system, which is, you know, if they do that with the class, it's probably another$50 added on that.
Speaker 4:So if you know,$235 for a textbook for class, that's a chunk of change. Um, and folks, you know, talk about the 529 and, and, you know, we're, we're asking Americans to be responsible for the retirement. So we're asking them to put a, a, a portion of their wages in for 401k 4 0 3 B and then we're asking them, oh, well, don't forget. You're also responsible for your child's education. So you have to put money for your 529. And by the time that you're done putting it in for all of these things that we have to be responsible for, we can't live.
Chase Peckham:Without question.
Felipe Arevalo:Well, you mentioned the, the community college and I myself went to a community college before transferring to, um, SDSU. But when you get hit in the face with that first semester worth of books, that, that first expense, and, and, and you're looking at it and you're like, oh, I thought I was done paying for everything. And what do you mean this? I can't buy a used book because then I don't have the access code, or this edition is last year's edition. And I need the new one. So I can't buy a used book. And it was just such an eye opening experience to be wait, the books are expensive here. Um, although classes weren't as expensive as had I gone straight to San Diego state, for example. Um, so it's interesting. There's all those extra little expenses that go along with school, where if you're not prepared ahead of time, it can kind of sneak up on you and just, you, you know, hit you in the face with that expense.
Howard Eskew:Yeah. And I would think San Diego state is, is, has a, a fairly good mix of those folks that living on campus versus commuters. So, but those that, that even choose to live on campus, then you've got that expense of being in a dorm. And then I'm not sure forgive me, but I, my guess is you probably have to be buy some kinda meal.
Felipe Arevalo:Meal plan. I believe they do have it.
Howard Eskew:And then, you know, those are all things that you're not expecting. And honestly, once you live on campus, uh, everything's more expensive. It's just more expensive there. And then you wanna do all these things because gosh, you know, there's, there are concerts on the campus. There's sporting events on the campus. There's parties that you need to attend where you believe you need attend, uh, at, at the campus. And so, and then, oh my gosh, you know, what are you gonna do? Well, gosh, there's great shopping around there. So we're gonna go shopping and we want, we wanna experience it all. So we're gonna go to the beach. We might have, if we're from the Midwest, we might have to buy a surfboard and da da and on and on. And then, because we want this, we wanna buy this experience and there is validity and experience, but you have to ask yourselves, you know, is this something that's going to, to cause me to be homeless or to struggle for week to week to week, or I'm calling back to my parents and saying, gosh, I need money. Or I'm going to find charge cards because all of a sudden that world becomes open to me. And then I create additional debt on top of my student loan debt.
Chase Peckham:Oh, yes.
Howard Eskew:So you know, the question I think, and I've always seen us as a team and as a partnership, how, uh, my I'm gonna throw this back at you. So how do we best talk to students about that and make them understand, or be able to give them some of system to evaluate wants versus needs and, and making that in, in a pitch because it's really, really hard,
Chase Peckham:It's extraordinarily difficult. And, and it's funny, it's almost like we should bring in, um, a psychia or psychologist of some kind to kind of help us through, you know, it, it was an interesting thing of talking about my 13 year old and the fact that his brain, he just seems to be this different he's wacko. And, and the interesting thing is, is their brains are still developing. Their, their bodies are still developing at that age of 18 and up till about their mid twenties, where their brains are still maturing. And the, they don't think the same ways, you know, their, their idea. It's kind of like this. And I, and I, and I say this to kids all the time. I say that the year is flown by my kids feel like a month is like a year, right? So time is different. Their days are longer. They're everything as, as a younger person is just different. So you can almost segment your days into your mornings and in your afternoons and your evenings. And they just there's so much to do in all that time. And they just want to suck it all up and do it all. And there's no consequences for actions and a lot of that's because of probably they didn't have to pay for much when they were growing up. Now everybody's different, I'm saying kind of a blanket here, but I think a lot of it is just psychological on where they are in their life. And you know, they're going into college going, Hey, well, my, I, I, I, I don't really need to worry about paying bills yet. I don't need to worry about finding a job yet until it slaps'em in the face, right. Until the world tells'em oh, yes, you do. And unfortunately, when you brought that up, that made me think of how many kids are struggling for money. They went to go ask their parents. Their parents said we can't afford that, or no. Or you spent it already. Um, and they go out and get, oh, but there's student loans available. So here's, there's another way for me to go get money, even though school might be paid for by mom and dad, the actual tuition and all that. They'll take out student loans to supplement exactly what mentioned surfing, uh, you know, concerts, lots of pizza, whatever.
Felipe Arevalo:I mean, SDSU football was playing in Los Angeles. So if you wanted to go to a game the last couple years, you had to find a way to get up to LA, although they were busing students up, um, that's like an added expense and you want to have that football experience. I mean, whatever San Diego's football experience, is nothing like the football in Ohio, I'm sure. But you know, it's something where that's an added cost, as you mentioned. And I are competing with social media where they see, like, I have a cousin who goes to UCLA and he has the meal plan and some of that food he posts on there, it's like really nice looking, gourmet meals that he's eating
Chase Peckham:There's a reason that people call it the freshman 15.
Felipe Arevalo:It's not rectangle pizzas. Like<laugh>, you know, it's, it's some nice food and now they see their friends posting about it. I'm like, oh, I could just take out a student loan and get that. Um, and, and it's something where, you know, now you're competing with that, you know, you're also with that peer pressure and that online pressure that the students are facing to.
Chase Peckham:Yeah. That's even more than we experienced.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. We didn't see everyone else posting about it. We just heard from the people around us, they have a much wider net, to pull temptations from,
Chase Peckham:And So Howard, I don't know if we answered the question and, and I, it's something that we all grapple with. It's something that we, we, we can sit there and give kids the tools. I mean, that's why a lot of teachers and parents, and we just, we feel like we're banging our heads against it, cuz some kids kind of get it. But I don't think there's anything supplemental than life experience. And sometimes life experiences can be extraordinarily difficult and until somebody experiences pain, they will continue to do something until it causes the pain. And does that make sense? Uh, and, and I, my, because we have talked to students over and over and I'll tell you what, I don't know how many students have come up to us after we, we do these presentations and they go, oh my gosh, thank you. You've really opened up my eyes. And, and we'll get stories of kids that all of a sudden decided to go, uh, instead of going, uh, away for the summer, they decided to get a part at time job and, and work to pay off their, uh, work, to pay for community college instead of take out loans for it. And I, we look at it like, man, if we reach one or two and we make a difference, that's a big thing. We're not gonna reach everyone. There's no blanket again. I mean, it's, it gets as I think Laurel, and hard's said, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. And I am really dating myself and, and my parents love for Laurel and harty, but it's true. We can give'em all the tools that we can, but until they understand experience wise, what we are really talking about, and that's why we teach it the way we do, right. That's the way you teach it. The way you do is we have people that come in and talk about, this is real life situations. This is you are going to need this, this and this and bottom line. You have so much money coming in. And so you can't have more money going out than it's coming in. And if you do,<affirmative> eventually it's gonna come back to bite you. Now that's very simplistic.
Howard Eskew:Well, I think it's simplistic, but I think you hit the nail on the head Chase. Um, especially a course like personal finance. You can't just, and it's, uh, right now in, in this, environment's really frustrating to don't get to teach it face to face. I'm teaching it online because basically, um, I don't feel like I have the same impact because typically in my class, it's very experiential you folks, you know, uh, I ask you guys to bring up small army of mentors in, and my students are actually in interacting with financial professionals three times a semester, as they're working through different situations. You know, I, we're asking you to, to bring yourselves and, um, other folks in to talk to them about the real situations. We even ask them to develop, um, their own program and, presentation and, uh, give it back to us. So we're doing all these just to give them, um, financial literacy information and expect that to have an impact. It's not gonna work, uh, because financial literacy is about your life. And the best way to, like you said, the best way to learn about your life is to ask you to do these things. So, you know, and we talk about financial literacy and I don't think people, you know, people just immediately go to paychecks, taxes, saving, and budgeting, but it's so much more. And, uh, unfortunately in a college class I get, uh, um, 16 weeks to try to transform your life. So, and, and plus I'm required to give you all this other additional information. So how do, and really impactful manner. Um, and that's where I think our partnership has been, uh, while we do a wonderful, uh, wonderful job with the financial literacy, speaker series. And we bring our folks and do the opportunity clinic, which is really, I think one of the, the most impactful things my students come back and I know they tell me, they're like, first of all, oh my God, you're you mean I can talk to a financial professional for free for an hour. Uh, and what I see happening is two things. One, my students will go tell their, their family and not just their parents, but their families and they'll call in and make appointments. But two, I hear my students come back and say, well, I went and taught my parents about this. They didn't know. So I think we make the assumption a lot that our students come in and they don't know, but we have to realize in some situations, the parents may not have that information. And so this is really totally new. It's revelatory it's, uh, it's mind blowing for them. And even these concepts that we take for granted, I think now, because they're so basic and they're so ingrained, and they're so a part of our lives, these are new challenges for students. So, so what we have to do is be able to give them opportunities to, to use these tools and give them different ways of working with them so that they become meaningful. And once we do that, uh, you're right. I can't tell you how many times my class, that class fills up within the first week of registration. Uh, and I always have a long wait list. Um, it's really, and students really, really, really love it. So.
Chase Peckham:Well, it's a blast. I mean, it's,
Felipe Arevalo:It's fun to go in there.
Chase Peckham:It is. They, they want to, the kids that are taking those courses, and it's amazing how many adults actually take those courses too. Uh, and, and that, that, and, and that, I think Howard, what hit me the most with those classes, uh, when you had adults who had lived professional lives, that were going back to school for whatever reason, and you have that mix with younger kids and the literally being able to just as colleagues, right? So to speak, uh, and, and learn from them in a real world atmosphere. And that's why when we teach it, it's remember, we, you have a full semester when, when Phil and I in our organization meets with a lot of people, we have one or two times that we wanna make an impact. And we know that we're not gonna teach them everything in one or two times. So our goal is to literally have them just interest them enough, to want find out more, to want to take an extra step. And that's why I, I, I, the financial literacy is the coined phrase. It is, you know, the one that is when you wanna look it up, it's go Google's it's biggest friend. But in my, my opinion and the SDFLC, when we talk about it, it's really for financial capability is what we wanna teach, because it's decision making our life, everything we do from the time we wake up to the time we go to bed in the morning is based on decisions that we make. Finances is no different than any other decisions that we make in our life. In fact, most of the decisions we make impact us financially, and that's what kids don't understand yet, and they will through experience. So if you can give them those opportunities to experience that for themselves, put a budget together for the first time, that's real, that's theirs, even if it's very little income, even if it's just the amount of money that they get, it's still money coming in versus money going out. And it's still, gosh, I gotta make a decision between going out for pizza with my friends and going to the ballgame and getting a drink or two versus maybe I'll just watch it on TV at home at, with my friend in our apartment, whatever it might be or at home with my parents and the fact that they might spend 10 bucks on pizza with everybody versus going out on the town or going to the game itself and spending a hundred because they wake up the next morning and that experience is over. And yes, it was probably a great experie, but there's a big difference between$10 and a hundred dollars. And that's, all things that we learn. I mean, I, I do what I do now because I made terrible decisions as a young person. I, I was, I was brought up in a, in a upper middle class family. My father was an attorney. My mom stayed home. I, and my parents thought they taught me. I was well educated, all of that stuff. And I still always chose to go to concerts and not say, no, I was terrible at saying, no, I always wanted to be part of something. I ne I had you wanna talk about FOMO. I had, I was, you looked up FOMO in the dictionary and there was a picture of me. And I got myself into a lot of credit card debt. And it took me eight years to pay it back in my middle to late twenties and early thirties. And that's when life really should have started for me professionally. And I that's when I was making money. That's when I really should have had fun, but I, I was pushing it at a younger age than I should have. And I didn't, I learned hard lessons, and that's what we're trying to teach people is you're gonna wake up tomorrow morning and you're no worse off because you missed that necessarily.
Felipe Arevalo:And you mentioned we only get like an hour to teachers. You get the 16 weeks at, at the college level, the professors, it really comes down to as parents. If there's any parents listening to try and get that lessons going, because you get the most time with them, whether they're listening or not, but, but you gotta try. And there is a, a research study on just like saving for college. And I saw it a while ago, but I came across it again recently. Um, it was a study from the center for social development at, uh, university at Washington university in St. Louis, which is a mouthful for, for a college name. But the difference that having, uh, a say, savings account, a college savings account for a child, um, and it doesn't have to be a big savings account. You know, they did it with no savings savings from$1 to$500 or savings from$500 and more. And the, the attendance rate for children, uh, going to college for it when there was savings. And then the completion, the graduation rate was significantly higher, whether it was a high income family or a low income family. If the parents had some money put away. And, and I mean, you're looking, looking at it in a low income family with no savings for college, they had a 5% graduation from college rate, but if there was$500 or more, that percentage jumped up to 33%,
Chase Peckham:That's that's astonishing,
Felipe Arevalo:Right. Even if it was$1, to,$500 somewhere in between that's 25% success rate, as opposed to a 5% success rate.
Chase Peckham:Again, decision making. That's what it comes down to. You're, you're, you're, you're creating a habit for yourself. You're creating an expectation for yourself, even at a young age.
Felipe Arevalo:That's what it was.
Chase Peckham:And even at a young age, when you don't even know you are that's, you're just, but you are planning for something. And there's that word that we love to use. Right? Well,
Felipe Arevalo:There was, that was planning. It was like, not just, not just the money, but the fact that the money he was being put away, it kind of has that. And, and letting the child know that, that you have a college fund, it, it, it sets up the expectation that they want them to go to college. And it, it creates more of a urgency, I guess, more of a, a commitment from that student to themselves to try and finish because, oh man, mom and dad have been saving, I don't know the reasoning behind it. I'm not a phycologist.
Chase Peckham:And I would imagine that that student, when they're in college is gonna make better decisions based on the fact that they were making decent decisions through their early parts of their life. So they've got a clearer understanding and experience of making thoughtful decisions, weighing the, the pluses and the negatives on those decisions. And they're gonna be less apt to be opening up the credit cards and getting themselves into debt and taking out loans, Howard, I'm sure that you have seen or heard incredible stories with what some students have done with. They might even get free money grant money, or, or tuition, or excuse me, uh, student loans.
Howard Eskew:Well, I, I, some of the horror stories, you know, buying new cars, uh, going to coachella, which I get it, it's an experience, but I'm, I'm like really in the middle of the desert in the summer, you're gonna sweat your brains out and you're gonna pay$250 to Do that.
Chase Peckham:and throw up all over yourself and your neighbor, you know,
Howard Eskew:Shopping and really what it comes back to is I've been thinking on what you said earlier. Chase is it's the psychology of money. And so what we do in, in my class early on is we ask students to assess themselves. I give them assessments. So what is your relationship with money? What, what do you value? You know, what's your value system look like? What are wants versus need? We do that very basic. And then what I ask them always to do is take your results and do two things. You need to go talk to your family and talk to them about your results. Maybe ask them to take the assessment and have that conversation and report that back to me and then go to your friends. And you're, you're that system and have that same conversation and then compare the two. And it's really, really amazing to me. And I think it's very, very eye opening and it really sets the stage for the whole class because it makes them more open to, you know, this is what I understand my value system to be today. This is how I make decisions today. Is there different ways or new approaches, uh, that I need to be listening to and try to be open to, to make things better? You know, the other thing I would tell you is if you come to one, like I teach accounting, I teach human resources. I teach human relations. I don't care what class you come into. You're getting probably three to four assignments about personal finance, because.
Chase Peckham:It's all around us. It's everywhere.
Howard Eskew:It's it's yeah, it's,
Chase Peckham:It's it's business, by the way. There's, there's not a big, giant difference between a business budget and a personal budget. I mean, it could be a little bit, you need an, you know, a money gotta handle it, but the PR the premises are the same. The goal of a company is to make a profit every month. That should be,
Howard Eskew:I teach<laugh>
Chase Peckham:That's the same premise is our, in our personal lives. If we're not making a profit every month, we're digging a hole for ourselves.
Howard Eskew:Well, I, I do a managerial accounting is all about making decisions. So one of the, the assignments they have is we, we call it let's do potluck. So they have to take a recipe and they have to break down the cost of the ingredients. We talk about how long it's gonna make the cost of the labor, your electricity, your overhead. So how much does it cost to make that dish and how many people does it serve? So tell me how much it costs per serving. And, uh, then always we talk about, well, what happens if you order that, that same thing at a restaurant? And so do that comparison. Then we talk about what happens. If you bring some friends over, you have APO to watch a sporting event, and then whatever leftovers are left, you split'em up amongst each of them. Not only do you have a nice, nice time you have a nice dinner, but guess, what you've got food again, probably for another two, three days.
Chase Peckham:Yep.
Howard Eskew:So ultimately, how much did that cost you? And that's what we talk about in business. We're trying to be the most effective and efficient way, and it's not always making the right decision. It's making the best, most informed and based on the data that you have at the time, correct.
Chase Peckham:Sometimes they're gonna be wrong and that's okay. I think that's what teaching kids, the difference between making an well educated decision that didn't go well is different than making a decision that is based on emotion. And, you know, has no positive, super positive outcome outside of maybe giving you a temporary, uh, euphoria, temporary high, so to speak.
Howard Eskew:And that's what I love about you guys. Uh, and especially when we were mentoring, our, our students is being able to sit down with them and they understanding they can come say, you know, I did this, I made this decision. It was a poor decision and they don't get hammered about the decision. They rather that you, we come alongside them and say, so what did you learn? How would you do things different? And, uh, it's okay that you did this. Uh, because I think many even adults think, oh my God, if I made this financial mistake, it's, it's so catastrophic in their mind that they give up and we don't want them to give up.
Chase Peckham:No.
Howard Eskew:We just want them to say, you know what, this is a hiccup along the road, you know,
Chase Peckham:Just don't go put your paycheck on crypto. That, that, that could be catastrophic.
Howard Eskew:Yeah, yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:Learning experience.
Chase Peckham:But a learning, a painful learning to.
Felipe Arevalo:An expensive learning experience.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Howard Eskew:Yeah. We were talking, you know, we're talking about students and making sure that they're making wise decisions and we able to make sure that they know that, uh, making poor decisions, isn't the end of the world. And that's what I love about you guys coming in and working with us and why I, you know, if you come to my class that you guys don't come one or times, and I do that intentionally so that they have those different perspectives. And we also are able to have you guys, um, bring so many different, um, thoughts, um, thought processes and individuals coming in sharing different stories. So, and that's, you know how hopefully we'll get together again. And, uh, uh, we'll do, we'll just do horror stories of Howard's class.
Chase Peckham:Oh, that's another episode. We will do that For sure.<laugh>.
Howard Eskew:but I, you know, the other thing, I guess I want, uh, I don't think I ever tell you guys enough how much, how thankful you guys, because you may not get to see it as, uh, as often or here, as often as I do the impact that you do have that students come back to us, time, me time and time and time and again, and say, this is, this has probably been one of the best classes I've ever had. One because you're teaching me how to live my life better, but two everything's practical and I can take what I'm learning today, apply it to my life. And I think that's a key to learning. If you can apply what has been taught to you immediately, then it, it sticks with you.
Chase Peckham:Why does this benefit me? I mean, it's human nature, right? If you feel like something's benefiting you right now, you are gonna be more apt to want to take steps. You're gonna be more apt to want to do what has been instructed. Um, and, and that could be the difference then, you know, I, and I see this with my son who's, you know, for whatever reason I loved history, my son doesn't love it. Um, it's, it's, it's, it's just boring to him. And so for him, he doesn't work quite as hard from it cuz he doesn't know what he's gaining from it, even though I can tell I'm blooded or you know, my eyes are bloodshot, I can explain to him why history is so important to decisions he's gonna make in the future, uh, in, in learning from history. But to him, at this point, it's just talking to a, a, you know, a, a, a dead fish. Um, and eventually he'll get it, I think, but that's, that's the point that I, that I try to explain is, um, if you can take something like you do and you can see right away that my gosh, if I do this, I am gonna benefit this way. That matters.
Howard Eskew:Yep. So I wanna share a quick success story with you, one of our students, and I'm gonna give a shout out to Paul Paul Lim, he comes to, uh, the class regularly and he's one of your volunteers.
Chase Peckham:He is our top financial professional volunteer for sure.
Howard Eskew:Uh, she and her husband and then her mother separately. Um, she took the class. She met with Paul. She was paired with Paul in, um, mentoring. And they were in debt up to their eyeballs. They didn't understand how to, to budget. They didn't understand spending and saving. Anyway, she graduated from Mesa, she's moved to, uh, they've moved to the east coast. Um, and they still work with Paul to this day. And, uh, they are out of debt. They are living a much stronger financial life. They're saving. Uh, she's told me she constantly messages me and she's telling me they're able to breathe again. And, uh, her mother who went through a pretty nasty divorce was also having, uh, issues. And she was having some serious financial issues, uh, even to the point where there was some legal problems there, that's all been cleared up. She is, is becoming stable in her financial, uh, situation in her financial life. And I guess I wanna share this is, uh, what you guys do and this class can be life changing. And, and it's amazing to me. Um, you talk about something being really fulfilling. Uh, it's not me giving them a student, an a it's me watching their life being transformed, uh, in a really positive manner so that they can move forward. You know, she's talking, there's talking about having a family and she's already talking to me about here's what we're gonna do. So, um, our, our baby is going to be able to grow up and learn these financial, um, techniques and principles so that they will never have to incur what we incur. So that's kudos to you and a huge kudo to Paul. Um, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for everything that you do, because you guys do make a difference. You are life changers in, in the lives of, of my students at Mesa.
Chase Peckham:Well, I think you hit it. I, I can't thank you enough for that story and telling us that story, because that's something that, that we talk about a lot is, is I can do something to change the future of our family. And that's huge for us. That's, that's, that's the goal is to help people make decisions to, because these decisions that you make, not Aren only are they gonna help you, but they're gonna benefit future generations.
Howard Eskew:Yep. And understanding that it's not gonna happen tomorrow.
Chase Peckham:Nope.
Howard Eskew:It's a, it's a process.
:Yep.
Howard Eskew:Uh, and it, it, it took, um, the, both of these folks, you know, two or three years, uh, but think about it, two or three years is really not a long amount of time to be able to transfer your financial life if you're dedicated and you're actually going to be serious and listen to the advice that you're being given.
Chase Peckham:Amen, Howard, I can't thank you enough, Phil. And I obviously love working with you. Uh, you've got such, uh, a, a powerful view, uh, that you get to see every single day, um, on the future of, of our, of San Diego, the future of our, our, our society, um, and, and the passion and work that you put forward, uh, in not only your collaboration with us, but just in academia itself, uh, is really, really to be commended. Um, and you know, it's, it's, it's, there's a smile on my face for a reason. Uh, I really appreciate your time and, uh, your collaboration.
Howard Eskew:Well, I appreciate you and Felipe, you guys, you know, you are my brothers from a different mother and the work that we do together, uh, like I said, is, is it's not, it, it is educational, but it's more importantly transformational. And that's what makes the difference when you can, uh, when you can change somebody's lives and, and know that that difference is going to stick with them over the long term. So thank you both very, very much for having me. Thank you very, uh, much for being, uh, partners with, uh, me at San Diego Mesa college. And I look forward to a long, wonderful relationship, uh, continuing with both.
Chase Peckham:Thanks so much Howard.
Felipe Arevalo:Same thanks, Howard.
Chase Peckham:We'll see you in, uh, I guess we'll see you in a couple weeks.
Howard Eskew:You will.<laugh>
Chase Peckham:All right. Take care.
Howard Eskew:Okay. Thank you.
Felipe Arevalo:That was good.
Chase Peckham:That was good. And, and Phil, I think, you know, it goes without saying, uh, how important Howard is to us and look, it, this was a thought provoking, awesome episode. If you liked it, please like us, um, follow us, uh, share it, share this episode and, uh, you know, obviously, um, you know, share, spread the word and, uh, we'll talk to you next week.