Financial Coaching Fellow Profile - Mike Casinelli

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.

Financial Coaching Fellow Profile - Jerome Thompson

CGF Financial Coaching Fellow Jerome Thompson grew up in a family that practiced what he likes to call “Survival Finance,” by which he means that financial issues were dealt with on an emergency basis.  As a result, debts piled up to the point that, as he half-jokingly asserts, caller ID was a godsend to his parents because it allowed them to screen the calls of creditors.  Lacking a bank account and plan for building savings, the family was always on the brink, and Jerome had no role model for how to manage money.

One day, while riding the bus to work, Jerome struck up a conversation with CGF’s first Head Financial Coach, Jon Erickson.  Having already heard about our work, Jerome was intrigued by the opportunity to become a Coaching Fellow: intrigued, but daunted by how little he knew coming in.

When Jerome started the Fellowship in September of 2012 he was part of the 2nd cohort of Coaches.  After receiving three weeks of intensive training, during which he was exposed to information that he quickly began to apply to his own life, he served his first low-income family.  Now, a year later, Jerome has served 12 clients, completed 25 free tax returns through the IRS VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) Program and mastered our Coaching curriculum.  He has also seen us grow from a small organization with only 4 employees and a handful of Coaches, to a rapidly growing non-profit with 12 employees and over 20 Fellows.

“Money is deeply connected to psychology,” Jerome said to me during our interview.  “A lot of financial issues are rooted in the environment in which people grew up.  If you aren’t given a positive example, it’s easy to fall into the same traps.  What I experienced is true of many people in my community.”  Leveraging his own experience, he often tells his clients to scrutinize offers they get: “It costs more to be poor,” he says, but an understanding of the system and one’s own motivations can lower that cost.

“One of my favorite clients,” he proudly notes, “Was able to consolidate debt from an interest rate of over 20% to 8% thanks to our sessions.  Now she has extra money to build savings and meet her and her family’s long-term goals.”  So what’s next for Jerome?  “Thanks to the network to which CGF introduced me, I am now training to be an agent with New York Life.  I also plan to continue helping CGF as a Coach and a tax preparer. I believe that income inequality is the civil rights issue of our time, and I want to do anything I can to further CGF’s mission of empowering families to move forward.”

Two Tremendous Opportunities for Impact

Here are two statistics that represent "low-hanging fruit" opportunities for social impact: 

1. "Nearly two-thirds of the 5.4 million legal immigrants from Mexico who are eligible to become citizens of the United States have not yet taken that step." (Pew Hispanic, The Path Not Taken February 2013)
2. "Roughly a quarter of Americans eligible for federal nutrition assistance don't sign up for it," and "The U.S. Department of Agriculture...says that in fiscal 2010 nearly 51 million Americans were poor enough to qualify [for food stamps] but only 38 million received benefits." (Huffington Post, Food Stamps Avoided By Million of Eligible Americans August 2013)

Being a U.S. Citizen confers numerous monetary and non-monetary benefits, from increased access to benefits such as student aid, to the ability to vote, petition family members to come to the U.S. and eliminate the fear of deportation.  In the same vein, food stamps not only can mean the difference being being hungry and eating three square meals a day, they also reduce one of the main stressors of being poor: the fear of not having enough income to meet expenses.  Clearly, then, given the induspitably high impact of becoming a citizen or qualifying for SNAP (Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program), combined with the (relative) ease of taking either step, we are presented with an opportunity to change lives at low-cost.

An Idea For Sharing Ideas

As someone that comes up with ideas a mile a minute (of which a small percentage are worth pursuing), I've noticed a dynamic that I don't like: when I discuss the idea, I put myself in the position of defending it, even if the questions posed are valid!  Stepping back for a moment, it's obvious to me how pernicious this is: shouldn't the goal be to objectively evaluate the idea rather than take sides for the sake of it?  To take the actions that most effectively move us toward our mission?  And I'm the worst offender!

So here's an idea for sharing ideas.  Start by presenting the concept, and then take a moment to present the barriers to implementation, the reasons why it might make sense to wait, and so on. Next, listen to the other people in the room talk about what's good about the idea, as well as what concerns they have.  And once all of this is on the table, the best course of action can be taken.

Now I just have to put my money where my mouth is!

Make That Investment Now!

Your Dream Scenario
Imagine it is the day before Google officially incorporates and their co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, approach you to ask for an investment in the inchoate company.  And let's further suppose that, though you can't possibly imagine how profitable Google will eventually become, you do know a few things: the co-founders are geniuses and have a brilliant idea; the Internet is going to see exponential growth over the next decade; searching for content online is currently painstaking; and Google's search algorithm is so powerful that people are going to prefer it, use it frequently, and therefore enable the company to sell a lot of ads.

Knowing all this, you'd be insane not to make that investment right then and there, no?  After all, the return on your investment would be so large as to be a waste of time for me to calculate!

It Can't Be That Easy

No, change is not easy, but what never ceases to amaze me is the difference between the most and least effective programs--something well designed seems to unlock potential in a way that almost, kinda, sorta, makes thing look easy.  And often, the product or service that works best is counter-intuitive or so obvious as to be overlooked.

A recent NPR story, A Chat With the Doctor Can Help Kids Resist Smoking, illustrates the point.  We are all so familiar with the numerous, costly, and complicated initiatives to reduce teenage smoking--ad campaigns, taxes, rules and regulations, and so on--that simple interventions can seen inane.  For example, what would you say to the assertion that simply having a doctor talk to a teen about smoking can actually reduce the likelihood that they will pick up this addictive, dangerous and expensive habit?  I imagine your reaction would be similar to mine: 'isn't that going to be as ineffective as having teachers or parents lectures teens about the issue?  No, we need a more sophisticated approach!'

The Allure of Justice

The idea of romantic love, so pervasive in our lifes as to appear to be a fundamental part of the human existence, is actually just that: an idea.  According to the theologian C.S. Lewis, the notion of romantic love first appeared in the 12th and 13th centures among the troubadors, who were nomadic musicians and poets.  He says, "The troubadours effected a change which has left no corner of our ethics, our imagination, or our daily life untouched...Compared with this revolution, the Renaissance is a mere ripple on the surface of literature."

Can you imagine a time when romantic love was as alien as electricity to our ancestors?  Or that it came into existence in the Western world thanks to the voices and pens of a small group of people living centuries ago?  The answer, of course, is that you can't.  The reason for yoru inability to do so is best captured by Victor Hugo, who said "There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world, and that is an idea whose time has come."