Mike Casinelli found himself in full business attire at a
Starbucks in Providence, RI, waiting to meet with George, a CGF Financial
Coaching Fellow. His background as a
finance major at Bryant University colored his expectations for the interview:
leather stuffed chairs, mahogany desks, book cases filled with leather bound
tomes, large windows overlooking a body of water or expanse of greenery. So when George, wearing a t-shirt and shorts,
shook Mike’s hand and sat across from him on a plastic chair, he immediately
knew that this would be something different—finance related, yes, but with
rather nontraditional goals.
Mike learned of his selection as a Fellow the day after he
finished his last final for the fall semester of his senior year: he was
thrilled. Ever since he heard about the
Fellowship he had been intrigued by the idea of leveraging his financial skills
in a one-on-one setting to serve lower-income Rhode Islanders, and he assumed
that those skills would prepare him for the Fellowship. Even though the content of the Coaching
curriculum covered topics he had already mastered, the training made him
realize how little he knew about the nuances of working with people and
delivering the content in a way that unlocked the client’s potential.
“It’s not as simple as transferring your knowledge,” he
notes. “It’s about knowing how to meet
the client where she is, using examples and other techniques to make the topics
come to life.” What’s more, he was blown
away by the statistics about poverty in America, where 1 out of 3 people live
at 150% of the poverty line or below.
“It was hard to believe at first,” he says of the data, “and made me see
that I would be on the front lines of the battle against poverty.”
Mike’s parents were very cost conscious and imparted the
values of saving, building wealth penny by penny, and viewing money as a tool
for success as opposed to a problem or source of fear. At the same time,
relatives of his had gone through bankruptcy and foreclosure, giving him an
intimate understanding of the importance of sound personal financial
management.
Over the course of his Fellowship he brought an impressive
dedication and attention to detail to the 15 families he served. As a case in point, he made a folder for each client and created a custom report for them, going above and beyond the
curriculum to break down expenses into categories, identify trends, and track
progress toward goals. This personalized
approach bore fruit: one client, for instance, was spending $150 per week on
cigarettes when he came to CGF. Thanks
to his training, Mike knew that it was not his place to tell the client to
quit; instead, he showed him how trimming those expenses by $50 would mean the
difference between relying on debt to stay afloat and building emergency
savings.
Another client had recently lost her job and her home to
foreclosure. In response, she had
started her own company, but came into Coaching with an admitted lack of
understanding of finance. Not only did
Mike help her evaluate her financial situation, he helped her save over $2,000
in interest payments on her credit cards by negotiating payment plans with her
creditors. He also leveraged his
expertise to help her clean up the financial statements for her business.
His Coaching experience has shown him that every person is different,
with their own lives, fears, concerns and barriers to success, and solidified
his desire to serve people throughout his career, be it through volunteerism,
working for a non-profit or even starting one of his own. “I don’t want to just make money off people,”
he concludes.” I want to put my
education to good use so that others can have the same opportunities as I’ve
had in my life.”
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