On the latest episode of The Tony Steuer Podcast, I spoke with Josh Fontanilla, host of the Tip Jar Podcast about how financial literacy can be introduced into the educational system.
Josh Fontanilla is the host of the Tip Jar Podcast to promote financial literacy and professional/personal development. Josh was a member of the YouNancial financial literacy platform and served as the Chief Investment Officer of the Spartan Fund. Josh is currently also a business development representative at LivePerson.
In this episode we discussed:
- YouNancial and its impact
- Why college students need financial literacy now more than ever
- The intersection between financial literacy and hip-hop
On the latest episode of The Tony Steuer Podcast, I spoke with Josh Fontanilla, host of the Tip Jar Podcast about how financial literacy can be introduced into the educational system.
Josh Fontanilla is the host of the Tip Jar Podcast to promote financial literacy and professional/personal development. Josh was a member of the YouNancial financial literacy platform and served as the Chief Investment Officer of the Spartan Fund. Josh is currently also a business development representative at LivePerson.
In this episode we discussed:
- YouNancial and its impact
- Why college students need financial literacy now more than ever
- The intersection between financial literacy and hip-hop
You're listening to the Tony Steuer Podcast, where Tony interviews financial literacy advocates who are changing the conversation on money. So you can catch up on the latest trends and ideas in the world of financial literacy and education. Presented by Paperwork. Be prepared for life.
Tony:Welcome to the Tony Steuer Podcast presented by Paperwork. I'm pleased to be joined today by Josh Fontanilla. Josh is the host of the Tip Jar Podcast, a member of the YouNancial financial literacy platform, and Josh also served as the Chief Investment Officer of the[SJSU] Spartan Fund. In this episode, we'll be discussing why financial literacy is important for college students, how financial literacy can be introduced into the educational system, and the Tip Jar Podcast. Josh, welcome to the Tony Steuer Podcast.
Josh:Thank you so much, Tony. Happy to be here.
Tony:Yeah, Josh. Great to have you on today. Thanks for joining me. So we, I always like to get started by asking people about their origin story. What is your origin story? What sparked your interest in financial literacy?
Josh:Sure. So first off, my name is Josh Fontanilla and I am a recent finance graduate from San Jose State University, shout out to class 2021. But, my origin story really came from the start of the pandemic in terms of financial literacy. I'm fortunate enough to be in a situation where I have a roof over my head, I have food on my plate, and I have a family that's able to support me to pursue higher education, but I understood, and like I read the news every day, and I realized that not many people are in a situation that I'm in. And I wanted to find a way to give back to the community and being able to, seeing how the pandemic has affected so many people, I think budgeting and finance skills and saving skills are more important now more than ever for people to really weather the storm that is COVID-19. So using my finance background again, I majored in finance at San Jose State, I kind of wanted to see like, Hey, I'm learning textbook questions. I'm solving these answers in class. Maybe I could use this knowledge in a way to positively impact the community. So I'm fortunate enough to be able to team up with fellow SJSU students and leaders at San Jose State to be able to bring together YouNancial. So YouNancial is basically a financial literacy platform for students by SJSU students. And we offer free courses for people to be able to learn about budgeting, saving and investing, banking, economy, whatever. What have you, in order to just help build that confidence and foundation for people. Because if maybe if you're studying psychology or philosophy or English, finance it looks like another language to be honest, like I'm studying it. And I I'm going to let you know, like, one of my teachers, she kind of described it very perfectly as like this textbook on finance. If you read this textbook from beginning to end, you're still not going to understand finance. It's a continuous learning process. So, to me, like I'm still learning, but I still want to be able to find a way to use my experience and knowledge to give back to the community at this time. So that's, that's really my origin story.
Tony:Well, that's great. And I was also a finance major in college and so I can identify that with that. And so, what made you decide that you have your technical side of finances, what urged you to start saying, Hey, I need to break this down for people and make it understandable. What made that connection for you?
Josh:Yeah, I think, I think what's interesting is like, cause I've done different case competitions. And I also like listen to a lot of different podcasts. And what I've kind of learned is like we could learn all these formulas for finance. A lot of people when they think of finance, they think of the numbers. They think of the technical parts. They think of Excel like the spreadsheets, but I think a big part of it is actually, and Warren Buffet, famous investors said that temperament and how you behave with money is actually very crucial in terms of having successful outcomes when it comes to dealing with one's finances. And the behavior side and the psychology of things is not, It's not very prevalent in terms of learning finance and school. It's very like technical learning the formulas. And I think breaking down the concepts in ways that people can understand through storytelling can allow the principles underlying it to be easily understood by people. So if I tell someone to like budget or save, it's like, it sounds very straightforward, but I think what sticks with people is the stories behind it. So like why, why should you be trustworthy in finance? It's like, oh, be a trustworthy person. But if I told you the story of Bernie Madoff, it would stick with you. It's like, oh wow. Like you should really be, you should really like see how people are dealing with money and how are they reacting with it. Because I think the story sticks in the end with people and it's how, it's not so much what you say, it's how you make people feel. So I try to use different stories in my, like in my lessons for the YouNancial, I actually have, was able to be fortunate enough to teach some of the lessons at YouNancial. I use different stories such as the Bernie Madoff example, the Warren Buffet million dollar bet with the hedge funds example to illustrate these like interesting stories that allow people to think and go like, huh, maybe finance is cool. Maybe it could be really fun. So that's something I try to leverage in terms of being able to spread that knowledge is make it fun for people like finance, I think is really cool and fun. But, a lot of people they think of just finance, like, oh, it's kind of boring. It's the spreadsheets Excel, but there's alot to finance. And I really want to be able to show that joy through, through teaching it. And it also helps me learn as, as a fellow finance person as well.
Tony:That's great. And well, you hit on a number of great things, but of course, one of them is always a great way to learn something is to help other people learn it. As you teach it, as you start to absorb it at a deeper level. But I think what you talked about, especially with the psychological side of finance, doesn't get talked to about enough is about money stories and how people learn is that if you can tell a story about something as people really do grasp it and Bernie Madoff, you can talk about Ponzi schemes and somebody's probably not going to absorb it, but when you hit it, hit them up with the Bernie Madoff story, they, they get that and they understand the real life impact. So you talked a little bit about YouNancial is what did you do at YouNancial? What was your role with YouNancial?
Josh:Sure. So my role at YouNancial. I'm a content creator and researcher. So in terms of content creation, I lead YouNancial's Tip Jar Podcast. So like similar to what you're doing, Tony, I invite industry professionals and student leaders to just talk about and share their stories and experiences in regards to finance. I think being able to hear other people's stories and as I've learned as a host, that finance really, it's not a one size fits all thing. I think everyone has different financial stories within their own lives. And I think people can gain a lot of insight and experience through there. And then as for the platform itself, like I help as a teacher on certain lessons. So I illustrate different stories to give them an easier understanding of certain concepts and finance, whether it be in like banking, economy, investing, things like compound interest, like trying to show like a visual story to accompany, like the, the facts, beside it can allow people to really grasp these concepts a bit easier rather than just, me telling you like, oh, this is what compound interest means. There's a definition of it. Let's take a quiz. Like I kind of want to walk, I kind of want you to like, I'm like a tour guide almost like I want you to arrive at your own conclusions. I want to keep it open-ended for you. Like there really is no one size fits all, but there are these principles in finance that if you are aware of them such as compound interest, the power of time and starting early, and continuously learning each and every day, I think that can stick with people and can help hopefully allow for better outcomes as well.
Tony:Well, that's great. I, I love it because I agree with you completely that there are principles and guidelines and that within those, as there's, there's a lot of leeway for people to make choices that are still gonna work for them, but they have to really the guidelines or the rules of the game. And how can you do anything if you don't know the rules or do it successfully, if you don't know how the game works. So one of the things of course is that YouNancial is for college students by college students for college students is why did you feel that it was important to bring financial literacy to college students? And why wasn't it happening elsewhere?
Josh:That's a, that's a great question. I kind of view it as like in high school. Like, honestly, I didn't have a financial literacy course and I could only imagine, like now with COVID like really it's kind of opened everyone's eyes. Like, I think there's a statistic that only 20, either 21 or 24 states in the US for high schools, they require a financial literacy course. I think that number should be a hundred percent. I think if you don't have a financial literacy course in high school, you have these high schoolers who are so happy that they got their acceptance letters, they get all the essays to get into college and they enter college as a freshmen. And it's almost like they're taking a test that they didn't prepare for. Like, what are loans? What's FAFSA, what's, it's kind of like a slap in the face, like, Hey, welcome to college. Like you got to take this test you're not prepared for. So I, I really think it's important to bring it to like, as early as possible, but like high school and college students that are incoming into college to be able to prepare for that test before, rather than getting like, kind of slapped in the face out of nowhere with this curve ball in terms of financial terms and things with like loans and stuff like that. So I kind of thought like, Hey, even though I may be a finance major, I shouldn't forget about the people that didn't major in what I'm doing, or like, I'm trying to think of like, how can I shape the future so that people that even though I didn't have one in high school, I'd like someone that may be in similar shoes that may not have like the right resources, or maybe from maybe first generation or from a low income household, they could be the ones to change the trajectory for their families if they have access to this information. So I think it's really important and hopefully I'm optimistic that in the future, that statistic is going to be a hundred percent for sure.
Tony:Yeah. I think it would be great. It should be mandatory, I mean, no matter what you do, you're always going to have financial issues as part of your life and across many areas of your life. And I think you also point out the other thing too, that I think people forget about is that whether or not you go to college, when you turn 18, you're starting to make financial decisions. And sometimes at 17, you're starting to make those decisions about college loans and everything else. So that's great that you guys are putting out the resources and of course, personal finance goes well beyond student loans, but of course that's usually top of the mind for incoming freshmen is student loans, and it can become a huge burden for people down the road. So it's really important to think about that going in. So as we talked about this and you know, it, it's financial literacy is not part of most educational systems, how do you feel that we can push that forward and make financial literacy more a part of the financial curriculum?
Josh:That's, that's a question I'll try to think about a lot. I think there's, I think there's kind of two, I kind of see, like on a spectrum. So I think YouNancial is on one side of the spectrum where, it's interesting, like you can create a podcast without any permission. You can learn self-learn from like one of the best schools, like I attend San Jose State shoutout to Spartans, but I listened to Stanford talks on YouTube. I listen to MIT professors talk on podcasts. I listened to like Warren UPenn, all this free information on YouTube now, but, and then there's also like on the other side of the spectrum is legislation. So I kind of see that there's going to be, there's a combination of the two. So I think in terms of legislation, there are, there are like officials that are trying to push forth, manage, having mandatory courses for finance, but that does take time. And I think it will only move as fast as the system allows it. But I also kind of see in the other side of the spectrum that we live in a age of Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk, very inspirational people, and you see a lot of college students, they're trying to make their own startups and they're trying to change the world. And I'm very optimistic that like having both of these working in tandem with legislation, that it does take some time, but also students that are really hungry for change and they want to see change happen. I think having that to combine for the future is going to lead to beneficial outcomes in terms of bringing financial literacy, to like low income areas that may not have access to information and also allowing for a legislation to kind of incentivize that to move forward as well. So I kind of see, there's so much information nowadays. Like a lot of people are on TikTok. Sometimes they get investment advice from TikTok. I'd be wary of who you're getting information from, but I think it is, it is a good start to get people interested in the conversation on things like stocks and investing for the long-term. But also I think it's important to also make it realistic and ground that with legislation backing it as well. So I think in due time there will be, I see an optimistic future with both of these, technology and the legislation pushing forth on financial literacy.
Tony:Definitely that's that's, that's what I'm trying to do and I'm heavily involved with that. And I think it is going to take that combination of grassroots and legislation, but I think the other important thing that you said that people oftentimes miss is that you always have to be careful who you get the financial education from, just like with any other information is you have to consider the source. And unfortunately people oftentimes get misled, especially in the money world, by people who probably may have a vested interest in the advice, or just plain out don't know what they're talking about. What advice do you give your fellow college students about their source of information on financial stuff?
Josh:Yeah. I would, I would say that a framework I like to use is I try to see behind the curtains. So there's a lot of people that they show the flashy things. They show their, I don't know, their Robinhood stock charts, oh I'm up 1000% follow my way, but I would, I pose the question if it was so easy, why wouldn't everyone be rich? What it's, it's not, it's a bit more complex than that. So I would, I have a framework that I like to use is I like to see behind the curtain, who is this person? What did, where did you go to school? What did you study? Like, did you, did you work in investment strategy or are you just a TikTok content creator? Once you put someone, once you put someone kind of like in comparison, like, oh, are you really doing The Rock Johnson? Or are you a Kevin Hart? Are you just a comedian trying to? So I, I try to, I try to kind of see, like, where did this person study? Are they like a psychologist? Do they have like published paperwork? Do they have like, credentials backing them up? Are they a CFP? Are they a CFA? Like, I think a lot of people they're kind of getting these soundbites like quick, easy, fast, and it's kind of tempting for people to grab, grasp onto that those silver bullets when it comes to finance. But I would say, Hey, zoom out, take a deep breath and just understand that there is no one size fits all when it comes to finance. One person's strategy, they come from a different family than you maybe have different income, different location, copy and paste that strategy to you. I don't think that's really a formula for success. I think self-reflecting on how much are you taking in how much money is going out in your own life and trying to make sure like your portfolio is structured in a way that aligns with your values and your goals at the end of the day, not the investment guru like flavor of the month strategy for the week. I think in really thinking about the long-term and self-reflecting by asking yourself these questions that only you can answer, not the person on TikTok, not the investment guru, not the person that's asking for a hundred bucks a month for their stock trading course, like really take a deep breath step back self-reflect and make sure you're getting your information from trustworthy individuals, look behind the curtain. And I think you'll, you'll be fine, but it does, it does take time and patience to really kind of have that filter to be able to see, okay, is this information trustworthy or is it something that might be like the next Bernie Madoff?
Tony:No, that that's great. I love it. I was thinking of the wizard of Oz of course, when you look behind the curtain. But I think you also hit on something that's crucial for people to consider is the values and goals is what do you want to achieve rather than starting at the end point of like, okay, Robinhood, that's going to make me money is that's not really the question. The question is, what do you want to do? And then, okay, well maybe Robinhood when you get to that point is the right choice. But you know, it's not, the starting point is, is you do have to start with your values and your goals, and go from there. And then you, the other thing you said too, that I think is great is that it's personal, everybody's financial plan is personal what's right for you is not going to be right for the next person. And it's always going to be a little bit different. So that's, that's great advice. One of the other things you're doing is Tip Jar Podcast. Can you, tell us a little bit about the Tip Jar Podcast?
Josh:Sure. So Tip Jar Podcast, it's funnyso I'll kind of backtrack before the Tip Jar Podcast, I would network with industry professionals and student leaders and I'd say, Hey, I'd love to have a coffee chat with you. Just 30 minutes of your time. I just want to ask questions. I'll come prepared. And when I would be interviewing these individuals, I'll be like, sometimes they'd go over 30 minutes, like well over. And I would just be like, wow, like what if I record it? Like, what do we, like, I should've recorded this. Like we talked about so many interesting things. It would be great to like share this with the world and the other guests, like I like have these coffee chats with, they would agree. And I was like, yeah, this is like such a insightful conversation. Like definitely maybe recorded for something or podcasts. Like you should do that. So for me, like I'm fortunate enough to be in a position where at YouNancial, like I host the Tip Jar Podcast, which for most financial literacy and also professional slash personal development and really it's to help convey these financial stories from different people from all walks of life to give insights to other people, whether they're maybe like in high school or college to learn something new from each and every episode. So that's kind of where I started and I'm still continuing to do it at this moment.
Tony:Awesome. That's great. One of the other things you talk about is you're also a dubs fan, shout out to Steph of course, right. Go dubs! The intersection between financial literacy and hip hop, which are not normally two things that are mentioned in the same sentence. What do you see is that intersection between financial literacy and hip hop?
Josh:Yeah. So, just to give like your listeners context. So I have a LinkedIn article called The Intersection of Finance and Rap and in it, I, I kind of show these two views in terms of how finance and rap actually, a lot of people was like, what the heck does that have to do with anything, are actually very much intertwined. Like I'm a big hip hop and rap fan. And I noticed like, I don't just listen to the people's lyrics. Like I listen very closely. Like what's the story they're telling and some lines would catch me off guard. I was like, wait, that's a very insightful lyric they just mentioned in their rap. It's like J Cole and Kendrick Lamar, I feel are very, who've been, have such a long journey in the rap and their own rap careers. I would say they're like this generation's legends in terms of rap. I would kind of listen to what they're saying and also in interviews and I would, I pulled some quotes. You could check out my article, but basically like what J Cole? He kind of mentioned like, oh, if, if money is what you're after, it's never going to be enough. It's a hamster wheel. And I would also notice with certain people's views like Warren Buffett's, he would kind of echo like the same thoughts, like for him work isn't just about money. He likes to tap dance to work. And I know like these rappers, like they're passionate about the music, the art and craft of it. Warren Buffett's also loves the art and craft of learning and investing. So I kind of like saw two and two together. It was like, wait, like a lot of people, they would think of rap or they got the chains, they got the stacks of money to the ear, like rah, rah, like all up in your face, but I would kind of step back. It's like, wait, like Kendrick Lamar, J Cole. Like these guys have been like rapping for so long. What makes them have that longevity? And to them, it's like, they've, they've experienced it themselves. Like as rappers they've kind of went through that phase, but they said like, Hey enough is enough I'm content with what I have I'm content with being happy with making music, the art and craft of it, having good friends around having a loving environment, putting other people on, they own their own record labels respectively. So they're trying to put other artists to enable their dreams to come true. So after seeing that as like, oh, like having all that jewelry and money to them, these are like the top rappers in the game. They kind of saw something, they elevated above that. Like, oh, it's not just about that. Like they reached a point in their careers to really, again, I guess like create other leaders in, in regards to creating their own labels, to own their own businesses and trying to really elevate rather than just keeping it all to themselves. They're kind of sharing their knowledge out to the world and trying to bring other, other artists to also succeed. So I kind of noticed that with, with finance and rap two different topics, but I think in terms of lifelong learning, you can always find these different, interesting connections in regards to how people think about money. And it may not always be like, what is what's on the surface? Like all the chains in the money, like a lot of people like they're putting investments in their selves, but you don't really see those investments like behind the curtain. So
Tony:Yeah. Now, and a lot of hip hop artists are very astute business people. They, it's an image with some of the, you know, that's their stage persona when they go on stage. And I think that's a great observation that there is a correlation for you. The correlation is with hip hop, but for people to look at the correlation with the things they like and money, because money runs through whether we like it or not, money and financial issues sort of weave through almost everything. And you can't, you can't escape it even if you try. So I found it fascinating. I did read your article on LinkedIn and really enjoyed it. I go very old school with hip hop. I don't know if you heard of the Sugar Hill Gang.
Josh:Oh, I think I've heard of them. I probably have to hear a song for me to remember, but
Tony:Yeah, well, I'm definitely not going to rap. I mean, I would pay to probably see Warren Buffett rap. That would be interesting him and Charlie Munger busting it out at a Berkshire Hathaway meeting, but probably not going to happen. So as we wrap up, what is your number one tip on being financially prepared?
Josh:I'd probably say two things. First is spend less than what you earn. It's important to understand that a lot of the things we've mentioned previously, like there's a lot of appearances and noise that may be able to push you off track, but it's important to really kind of stay on your own path and your own lane in terms of what are your goals at the end of the day and what life do you want to have? Because there's a lot of like things like on Instagram or Snapchat or TikTok, or it's like, oh, like this person has like the Lamborghini, the Ferrari. But I think at the end of the day, the best investment you can make is not really so much on stocks or crypto, but is in yourself like what are the skills that you can leverage on the job market in order to allow yourself to be indispensable? So maybe you're a good writer, maybe you're a good photographer and editor, utilizing different skills that give you energy. So you could be like Warren Buffett. To him it's not just about the money. He's tap dancing to work, find something that kind of gives you that energy and makes you want to tap dance to work. And I think allowing yourself to be in a position to learn and also earn a big advocate for lifelong learning. it's not so much like, let me backtrack. There's this, there's this quote by Warren Buffett. He basically says you don't have to do the, you don't have to do extraordinary things in one day to get extraordinary results. You just need to do the small things very well consistently every day. So I think being able to develop great habits, I think sleep is very important and investing in yourself, can allow you to be financially prepared. Cause if you, if you want to become financially prepared, you first got to look into yourself. What are your strengths? What, what brings you energy and joy to this world and leveraging that in order to get in order to, earn, earn money so that you're then financially prepared. I think it allows you to have, again, that peace of mind and allow you to have your time freed up to do whatever you want, and also just bring yourself energy at the end of the day.
Tony:Well, that's great. I, I think that's wonderful advice, tap dance to work is captured that joy with whatever you do. So Josh, how can people learn more about you get in touch with you? Is LinkedIn a good place, Tip Jar Podcast still happening.
Josh:Sure. So if you want to get into contact with me, I'm, I'm always on LinkedIn. So LinkedIn, Josh Fontanilla. Also, shout out to the Tip Jar Podcast. You can check us out on Spotify, Tip Jar Podcast by YouNancial. So I interview different industry professionals and student leaders, similar to Tony. So I'll probably have Tony on the podcast soon, but, yeah, it's always something new to learn from each, each, and every episode, people from different walks of life, sharing their insights in regards to their own financial stories, but also like in terms of professional and personal development. So like leadership, networking these are all different themes that we try to tackle on our podcast. Definitely check it out if you're interested.
Tony:Fantastic. And for everybody watching and listening to this episode is I'll be posting links in the show notes to Josh's LinkedIn profile and to the Tip Jar Podcast so you can tune in and check out in an episode of the Tip Jar Podcast for yourself. So Josh, thank you very much for joining me today.
Josh:Thank you so much, Tony. It was a pleasure of being able to be a part of your podcast.
Tony:Yeah. Thanks again. And thank you everybody for tuning into this episode of the Tony Steuer Podcast. Until next time.