Ashley
Ashley Fox, Financial Education Specialist & Founder, EMPIFY
Since July 2013, after leaving my Wall Street career, I have worked every day to shift our mindset around money.
Financial literacy is not taught in our schools.We learn about money from those around us and from mistakes we make later on as adults. Therefore, if we don’t come from a wealthy household, our families can only teach us so much.
Ask yourself, what would I tell my younger self about money?What lessons have I learned? We teach those lessons to kids. What you could have done differently?We should involve our kids in the process of what we’re doing with our money.
I think sometimes we impose our reality on kids without letting them know anything is possible. We often train our kids to be employees. We teach them to make money so you can pay bills and then spend what’s left. We should teach them to invest in themselves and to make money work for them. That they can create and innovate. Economic empowerment is what I hope this brings.
We’ll own more, we’ll be more self-reliant. We’ll have more say in things.
We need guidance, support, and internal empowerment to break through the limitations history has placed on us. It’s challenging, but I do know that if man made it, man can break it. I don’t know if it will be in my lifetime.
It is not just about our community learning different financial principles, but also about creating a shift in how we view wealth and prosperity amongst ourselves. We need someone to believe in us while also educating us in ways the school system won’t. Our surroundings, our bank accounts, our test scores do not define who we are. These things do not define our potential. In the future, blackness looks like conscious excellence. We will realize that we possesses a wealth of knowledge, energy, wisdom, and assets that can be passed down generation after generation. If I didn’t see this future, I wouldn’t wake up and do this every morning. We are capable of mental and economic power, and I will dedicate my entire being to seeing that we obtain it.