Our Purpose

Our Purpose: Our goal is to give HOPE, teach, and help one citizen, one employee, and one student at a time build a better financial future for themselves and their families. To accomplish this major challenge we are raising Americans' financial literacy intelligence quotient, or IQ, giving them the knowledge and life skill tools to build bridges and clear paths to 'Self-Sufficiency' and financial success. This knowledge will ‘literally’ provide them the ‘Keys’ to homeownership, the foundation for building wealth and a more secure financial future. It also provides Americans with the ability to make better financial decisions and save huge amounts of money simply by maintaining excellent credit. 

The National Financial Educators Council, NFEC, conducted a survey that concluded financial illiteracy costs 254 million American adults over $436 billion annually. We must find a way to put this money back into their pockets for their financial success and grow the economy. Currently, only 57% of Americans have basic financial literacy, and 60% live paycheck to paycheck Statistics state that 69% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, more than likely because they have a lack of or inadequate financial literacy knowledge. In these challenging times inflation, high credit card debt, and shrink-flation people are really struggling financially. American credit card debt has reached over $1.13 trillion and $120 billion in interest and fee payments. This creates enormous amounts of financial stress in their lives and causes many health concerns.

We have ambitious goals to raise the financial literacy IQ and uplift all Americans within the next four years. This will allow them to put this $436 billion annually back into their pockets, bank accounts, and communities drastically reducing food, housing, and financial insecurities. They will know and understand homeownership is the foundation for building generational wealth. They will have the resources to repay student loans, generate savings, and wealth, and grow their local communities.

This NFEC data and rising prices present citizens with many unique financial challenges. Without adequate financial knowledge, how can they ever overcome their enormous debt and achieve their American dream? Once we concluded that folks limited financial literacy knowledge was the ‘missing link’ to individual financial freedom, our goal was to develop a way to address this void and increase the financial literacy IQ of all Americans. According to the AMA, National Institutes of Health, and the CDC and Prevention the average American reads at the 7th- to 8th-grade level. According to The Literacy Project medical information for the public should be written at no higher than an eighth-grade reading level. It is safe to conclude that this would apply to the written level of financial literacy information as well. 

Currently, everyone has to grow up and manage their finances without an adequate introduction to basic money, credit, and financial management tools. This inevitable progression of adulting made the need to educate them even more urgent and challenging. It's now very easy to understand why folk consistently make poor financial decisions and ruin their credit ratings. Simply increasing their financial literacy IQ ensures they have the knowledge to succeed. Also, all employers are hiring employees who are more financially knowledgeable, productive and focused. This will ensure a stronger future economy for all of us.

We wanted to give government officials and company executives who are responsible for their citizens' and employees' financial success valid reasons to do whatever it takes to make that happen. We would like to suggest a collaborative effort to invest in raising the financial literacy intelligence quotient of all the people of this great country. Our goal is to uplift, encourage, and provide the 'HOPE' of financial success for the tens of millions of Americans who are struggling financially due to no fault of their own. To accomplish this, we had to first identify why so many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to make ends meet, and finding a permanent solution to change their current financial situation. Even in times when the economy of higher prices for housing, utilities, food, gas prices, and massive layoffs there are still ways of providing people with a sense of 'HOPE' for change that things will get better. We need to increase their financial literacy to make sure they are prepared to manage their lives no matter how much money they have. This is an effective plan for Trickle-Up Economics.

What are their problems? Is it that they aren’t making enough money? Are they spending their money unwisely? Are they just making bad financial decisions? Or are they living well beyond their means? It seemed to boil down to a combination of all of the above. However, the common denominator was that all their problems seemed to evolve and stem from making many bad financial decisions and choices and spending too much money due to a lack of basic financial education. They all seemed to lack the basic financial literacy knowledge to manage their money and most importantly their credit effectively. They didn't prioritize, plan, or budget and had no idea where or what they spent their income on.

Even those Stimulus checks, tax rebates, pay raises and bonuses can’t provide them with enough additional income to compensate for poor financial decisions. Stimulus checks, rebates, and bonuses are like giving them just one meal rather than the long-term value of increased purchasing power. Increased purchasing power is the net result of investing in increasing their financial literacy IQ and teaching them to make better financial decisions, which is the best sustainable long-term life-changing solution.

Financial Literacy is not taught in our grade school system's curriculum. Even if it was, until you have the responsibility of managing your own money it’s an abstract concept. That's why so many folks end up 'learning about money from the ‘School of Hard Knocks’ or getting financial advice from family and friends. So, they end up making many financial mistakes as they take the journey to ‘Adulting', which is the stage of being financially responsible. Hopefully, they will not ruin their credit to the point where they can’t reverse the negative impact and they will have to settle for a 'life sentence' of higher interest rates. This would end up costing them tens of thousands of dollars if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional interest payments over their lifetime. This large amount of money represents their personal wealth that they end up giving away to subprime lenders. Therefore, they will never have the opportunity to save or use these funds unless we intervene and do something now to teach them better habits.

We had to find a cost-effective way to raise the financial literacy intelligence quotient of the mass population collectively and simultaneously. It needed to be in an easily administered Do-It-Yourself, DYI form without requiring the client to travel or go Online. It has to be administered at the client’s reading level, at their own pace with easy-to-follow relevant examples and illustrations reflective of their daily life activities which they could readily relate to. Therefore, it needed to be all about overcoming their current financial challenges. This would make it much easier for them to understand and comprehend the concepts so they can apply them to other aspects of their lives.

‘The 'STFF HOPE PROCESS’ which means 'Soaring Toward Financial Freedom - Helping Others Prosper thru Education - Provides Real Opportunities to Create and Empower Savings and Success. It will provide financial literacy knowledge and life skill tools to help them avoid making the many financial bad decisions that can sentence them to a life of high-interest payments that ‘steal’ their ability to create financial security and wealth. If employees receive a ‘living wage income’ combined with behavior modification, planning, budgeting, sacrificing, and making better financial decisions, they can become financially successful. Simply knowing where all your income is spent will allow you to be flexible and make the necessary changes to keep from living from paycheck to paycheck and maintain a very high credit score. It will help reduce the probability of them having future housing, food, and financial insecurities.

Financial literacy is the foundation for building wealth in America, it empowers people to plan, budget, save, and make good investments. It provides them with an awareness of where and how all their money is being spent and helps them understand the importance of prioritizing and being able to adjust their spending to pay their monthly overhead expenses first. Implementing many of these behavior modifications allows them to better value and manage their credit score giving them the potential to put tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars back into their pockets for financial security and wealth. It can also put hundreds of millions if not tens of billions of dollars back into your local, state, and national economies. This is a perfect model for and the epitome of Trickle-Up-Economics and a great start on the 'war to end poverty'.