South LA Saves Celebrates Financial Education Month

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Bigger Than Your Block

This year South LA Saves is providing four FREE webinars on personal finance to celebrate Financial Education Month!

Every week a new topic to help you make the most of your money will be provided … at no cost! Thanks South LA Saves!

4/ 7 Chella Diaz – Spending Plans

4/16 Shay Olivarria – Using Your Checking Account Strategically

4/24 Compound Interest & Investing

4/30 Passing on Generational Wealth

$12 on Amazon

Shay Olivarria is the most dynamic financial education speaker working today. She speaks at high schools, colleges, and companies across the country. She has written three books on personal finance, including Amazon Best Seller “Money Matters: The Get It Done in 1 Minute Workbook”. Shay has been quoted on Bankrate.com, FoxBusiness.com, NBC Latino and The Credit Union Times, among others. To schedule Shay to speak at your event visit www.BiggerThanYourBlock.com

Shay Visits Peru

Posted on March 29, 2014 by Bigger Than Your Block

Financial education speaker and author Shay Olivarria just returned from visiting her 10th country on her 4th continent: Peru. People always ask why her company is named Bigger Than Your Block and the answer is this trip.

The goal of Bigger Than Your Block is to show students, of all ages, that the world is massive and you can achieve any goal that you have as long as you work for it. Money has no intrinsic value. The only value money has is the value that we assign to it. Most people want more money, not to have more money but to do the things that we’d like to do. Money equals freedom. The place where some get confused is the idea that one needs more money instead of one needs to use the money that they have more efficiently.

Shay found a $300 round trip, including taxes, airfare on Avianca. The whole trip took 8 days, 7 cities and about $1,500. Not too shabby. She was able to spend a little time in:

Lima – Peru’s capital city.

Ollantaytambo – a beautiful, quiet town with lots of ruins.

Urubamba – a wonderful small town that’s close to the Moray ruins.

Pisac – know for it’s Sunday market and sun dial ruins.

Cusco – the major airport city to reach the Sacred Valley.

Puno – the city on the banks of Lake Titicaca.

Arequipa – the second (or third depending on what Trujillo is up to) major city in Peru.

It was a wonderful trip and Shay learned a lot about the different cultures that live there now and the cultures that lived there before the Inca. What countries have you been to? How did you learn that the world was Bigger Than Your Block?

Helping a Parent With Personal Finance

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Bigger Than Your Block

It’s inevitable that at some point your parents may need your help paying bills, managing real estate, monitoring insurance, creating a living trust or some other financial piece that you were not helping with before. In some cases a parent will ask for help. In other cases you may have to bring it up first.

Help or Coup?

If you notice that your loved one(s) are having trouble keeping up with their finances, don’t barge in and take over. Your parent(s) are adults with a host of experiences and education behind them. It’s understandable that they might see your involvement as an intrusion.

If you think that your parent(s) may require your help, talk with them about it. Do they think that they need help? If so, what kind of help would they like? The goal is to help your parent(s) in whatever way they might need, not to barge into their lives and make them feel like children.

Some helpful websites:

Medication Donut Hole – If you have Medicare Part D, you may be at risk of falling into the coverage gap, or “doughnut hole.” Follow this four-step tool and save money!

AARP Quicklink – Need financial help for a parent or grandparent, but not sure where to begin?

Social Security Estimator – Find out how much money your parent will be able get from Social Security with this easy calculator.

Medicare – Have questions about Medicare coverage?

National Foundation for Credit Counseling – Need help paying off a parent’s debt?

Federal Trade Commission – What to do when parent(s) are scammed.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – Report financial fraud. Get help!

AARP Tax Help – Tax preparation for low income seniors.

Tips for helping a parent with personal finances:

Make a list of everything that needs to be monitored (primary home, rental property, vehicles, checking and saving accounts, investment accounts, pensions, valuable personal property and any items in a safe deposit box.
Keep their assets separate from yours.
Keep clear records of everything that you’re doing.
Include all stakeholders in the information loop.
Consider hiring professionals to help. Ex: accountant, financial advisor, insurance agent, etc.

Remember, you’re there to help your parent(s) in whatever way that you can. Let them lead the conversation but pay attention to their behaviors.

Good luck!

Invest for Retirement NOW

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Bigger Than Your Block

“Twenty-one percent of those surveyed who have not retired have saved nothing for retirement and 44 percent have saved less than 10 percent of their salary.”

This quote is from Financial Advisor Magazine talking about a survey done by TIAA-CREF. How do people think that they are going to live in retirement? Do they plan on retiring?

Regardless of how old you are, it’s better to have something rather than nothing. Take a look at how much the Social Security Administration will pay you in retirement and you tell me if you can afford NOT to invest an extra $50 per month in your 401k, 403b or IRA.

Let’s take a look at the numbers, shall we?

Start Investing Per Month % Return Value at 67

18 $50 9% $536,841.50

21 $50 9% $408,642.74

30 $50 9% $178,618.62

40 $50 9% $68,888.51

50 $50 9% $24,125.50

It’s pretty simple:

If you have a 401k or 403b at your job you probably have a match. Investing a few dollars every pay period lowers your tax base (instead of paying Uncle Sam you invest in yourself) and your company will contribute a few coins to every dollar you invest. Start early. Invest often. Check and see how much contributing $50 or $100 each pay period will change your take home pay. There won’t be much change in how your check looks every two weeks, but it could change how your retirement looks.
If you don’t have access to a 401k or 403b then open an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) at a brokerage house that you trust. You have to fill out a two page application and send over a voided out check. You can open many accounts by promising to contribute at least $50 per month. That $600 per year could grow into 5 or 6 figures using compound interest. Start early. Invest often.

If you are thinking about investing and you’re not sure where to start:

If you are a member of a credit union: contact Balance for FREE help.
If you have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) at your job: contact the EAP for FREE help.
If you do not have access to these: find a fee-only financial advisor for help.

You can create the life you want.

You are powerful.

Go get it.

PEACE,

Shay

Order Money Matters on Amazon.com

Start Small Think Big Conference

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Bigger Than Your Block

Shay at the Start Small Think Big Conference in Los Angeles.

Guess what I did yesterday? I presented at the Start Small Think Big Conference in Los Angeles! I was fortunate to work with South LA Saves and a host of other wonderful non-profits, businesses and organizations to provide financial education to the south Los Angeles community.

Speakers included:

Dawnneisha Smith from the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer Affairs

Shay Olivarria of Bigger Than Your Block

Deborah Perez of New York Life

Martha Maldonado of California Credit Union

Deborah Der of Edward Jones

Wilson Lee, a certified financial planner

The event was hosted by Zaneta Smith.

Besides speakers there were informational tables and the winners from the poster contest were announced!

Students were instructed to draw a photo about being a super saver.

Each winner received a recognition award, a monetary prize and a piggy bank (provided by Bigger Than Your Block) with separate compartments for saving, investing, spending and charity.

The winners of the poster contest at the Start Small Think Big Conference from South LA Saves.

Disclosure: Bigger Than Your Block is a South LA Saves partner.

WEBINAR: Using Your Financial Aid Check to Build Wealth

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Bigger Than Your Block

The second free webinar in the series (check out the first one here) is Using Your Financial Aid Check to Build Wealth. In this dynamic webinar you’ll learn how to leverage the money you have to build wealth. We’ll talk about student loans, checking accounts and investing for retirement using compound interest. You’ll learn how to turn $100 from your financial aid into $36k. This webinar is free, but there are only 25 spaces.

~~REGISTER HERE~~

Update:

In case you missed the live event, you can watch the replay here https://www.anymeeting.com/WebConference-beta/RecordingDefault.aspx?c_psrid=EF52D9848549

WEBINAR: Pay Off Holiday Debt

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Bigger Than Your Block

In an effort to reach even more people, Bigger Than Your Block will be hosting a series of FREE financial education webinars. The first in the series is Pay Off Holiday Debt. In this informative webinar you’ll discover the two most important strategies to pay down debt, how the CARD Act helps you pay down debt faster than ever before and how to make your credit card work for you!

~~REGISTER HERE~~

The webinar is WEdnesday, January 19th 6pm PST/9pm EST.

Update:

In case you missed the live webinar, you can check out the replay at https://www.anymeeting.com/WebConference-beta/RecordingDefault.aspx?c_psrid=EF51DB878048

10 Things on Kindle for $3.50! Order Now!

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Bigger Than Your Block

I know you’ve been thinking about ordering copies of 10 Things College Students Need to Know About Money for your children, grandchildren, cousins, neices and nephews but you wanted to read it first, right? You wanted to make sure that it was a good read with real information about personal finance. Well, here’s your chance! 10 Things College Students Need to Know About Money is now available on Kindle for only $3.50 per download!

Download yours on Amazon.com now.

Click the image to read more about Shay speaking at Cal State Long Beach.

Allensworth 2012

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Bigger Than Your Block

Allen and Josephine Allensworth, founders of Black California town Allensworth.

Yesterday, the Bigger Than Your Block team was very honored to be part of the Juneteenth Celebration at Allensworth State Historic Park. Financial Education Speaker & Author Shay Olivarria gave a wonderful speech on building a solid financial foundation based on learning about personal finance, sharing information about personal finance, and learning to pass on wealth to future generations. During the speech participants laughed and really interacted with Shay. When she came off of the stage people kept coming up to the table to speak with her, congradulate her on a job well done, share why she was a different type of financial education speaker, and find out what the Rule of 72 is! Kids took part in the financial education cross word puzzles and word search puzzles for prizes. Adults took home copies of the referral sheet that could net them $250 for referring an organization to Bigger Than Your Block. It was a wonderful day.

Allensworth is sometimes called The Town That Wouldn’t Die because of the tenacity of the people that settled there. The drummers mentioned that Black history is a living thing. We have to remember our history, and contribute to it for the next generations. I’m Black & I Travel says, the Allensworth family created a Black town in central California

.. Allensworth turned his eyes west. He wanted to create a town where black families could own their own homes, their own land, run their own farms and control their own destinies ..

It’s up to us to keep Allensworth alive. For those of you that haven’t been to Allensworth yet, we thought we’d share a few photos to motivate you to come up and celebrate next year.

There were tons of vendors, BBQ, ice cream, and people! Buses of folks kept coming up. It was good to see kids running around and folks hanging out under the trees.

The plaque reads:Elizabeth Dougherty, a wealthy Oakland business woman, purchased the property and financed the construction of the hotel in 1910. The hotel was her investment in Allensworth, but she did not live here….”

Mary Jane Bickers arrived in Allensworth in 1909 and opened the town’s first business, a general store.

If you’d like to read a bit more about Allensworth visit VirtualTourist.com. See you next year!

Lee HS in Baytown, TX

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Bigger Than Your Block

I had a great time with the students of Lee HS in Baytown, Tx. I’m super-happy they were interested in learning more about credit unions and credit-unioning! Check out the video of students and staff talking about what they got out of the presentation “Money Tips for Seniors”.

Thinking about booking the most dynamic financial education speaker working today? Visit www.BiggerThanYourBlock.com to read articles, watch more videos, and find out about Shay’s unique take on personal finance.

Know an organization that could benefit from hearing the most dynamic financial education speaker working today? Send the Bigger Than Your Block team a referral. If they book, you’ll earn $250 as a thank you!

HEART Talk Interview

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Bigger Than Your Block

Shay talks about her time in foster care.

I just had a wonderful interview with Evelyn Polk of For a Child’s H.E.A.R.T. We talked about my experience in foster care, the things that Bigger Than Your Block, LLC is doing to educate youth about personal finance, my new book “All My Mistakes: Money tips for kids in care”, and the no-cost webinar this Saturday, “Money Tips for Foster Youth“, to celebrate Financial Education Month.

In case you missed it, click here and you’ll hear the whole thing.

TTFN

Help Humans Save

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Bigger Than Your Block

My company, Bigger Than Your Block, has partnered with Financial Footprint to sponsor a Financial Education Month contest we call “Help Humans Save”. Basically, you submit your best 2 min money tip (hint: we like funny, edutainment videos) via video for a chance to win a $250 Grand Prize and a $150 Fan Favorite Prize.

Submissions will be accepted until Friday, April 15th. Visit http://www.HelpHumansSave.com for all the details. Please share, FB, Tweet, email everyone you know. It’s everyone’s responsibility to help humans save! =)

http://twitter.com/HelpHumansSave

BTW … check out my bio. I rock! LOL

Congrats!

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Bigger Than Your Block

Congratulations to SOAR’s Super Saje Squad for winning the first Black 365 Knowledge Bowl! The event was covered by Our Weekly:

“My mom was extremely proud and was talking to everyone on the phone,” Williams laughed. “I wasn’t surprised (when we won). I knew from the beginning we were going to win. I told my team we were going to outwork, out-perform, and outdo everyone. I told them, we have to act like we want it and if we do, we will get our heart’s desire.”

Each of the 15 participants received a copy of financial education book “10 Things College Students Need to Know About Money“. The event was held Saturday at United Christian Fellowship Church.

From Our Weekly:

Despite the forecast for rain and snow, community members, educators, parents and friends of the competitors filled the sanctuary with high energy and support.

Created by local griot, Black history scholar and community leader, Jamaal Brown, 28, the Jeopardy-style quiz game consisted of four rounds of 10 categories in Black history including Egypt, famous firsts, and Africa.

For five weeks, the students studied subjects from ancient Egyptian history to current Black accomplishments.

“My expectations were far, far exceeded,” Brown said. “The event was more spectacular than I imagined it would be. Everything from attendance and crowd participation to the level of excellence and the level of mastery the students displayed.”

I’m proud to support the Black 365 Knowledge Bowl.

Black 365 Knowledge Bowl

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Bigger Than Your Block

I’m thrilled to announce that Bigger Than Your Block, LLC is a sponsor of the first Black 365 Knowledge Bowl!

See the bigger picture

I first heard about the event while reading Our Weekly.

African history lecturer Jamaal Brown, 28, who some recognize as the local griot, or oral historian, is getting ready to introduce the area to a more fun and competitive way of learning and appreciating Black history.

Brown is the creator of the Black365.US Calendar that highlights a day in Black history every day of the year. With his creation, he is launching the AV’s first Black365 Knowledge Bowl, a Jeopardy-style history competition between high school students from all backgrounds.

Teams from Antelope Valley High School, William J. Pete Knight High School and Students on the Academic Rise (SOAR) are hard at work, studying Black history in ten areas: Africa, Egypt, famous quotes, Civil Rights Era, athletics, famous firsts, noteworthy women, Haiti, “Who Am I?” (photo category), and from August in the Black365.US Calendar.

It will be held Saturday, February 19th in Antelope Valley.

Good luck to the sixteen contestants!

Who Controls Your Retirement Account?

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Bigger Than Your Block

I was reading about how the rules that govern your 401k and IRA are created in Financial Advisor and it kinda scared me. I think that we should all be saving for retirement. The part that scares me is when there are laws enacted to make sure we do:

While at Brookings, Iwry began developing the auto-IRA, which would require employers without retirement plans but with more than 10 employees to withhold a portion of each employee’s pay—similar to a payroll-tax withholding—and deposit it into an IRA. Employees could opt out.

Be an adult
You probably realize that I’m all for small government and personal responsibility. People should be educated about how and why to save for retirement and then left alone to make their own choice. If they end up eating cat food because they haven’t saved a penny… that’s not my fault. The reason that many law makers want to make laws that force people to save is because they think we’re not smart enough to comprehend the importance of saving and investing for our own well being. If we don’t start making different choices we’ll either end up a) being forced into programs that we don’t understand. Obviously if we understood them, we wouldn’t need to be forced. We’d run to our financial institutions and set up our automatic retirement contributions as soon as we earned our first check from the mall or b) we’ll opt-out of those forced plans and become part of the social welfare system set up for people that couldn’t handle being an adult and making adult decisions.

Make good choices

What is more, the lower-income workers are more likely to withdraw money before 59 1/2 for emergencies and living expenses, and then owe a 10% tax penalty on the withdrawal. “They might wind up with less after taxes than if they had never contributed at all,” says Ms. Ferguson.

That means that workers that don’t earn that much in the first place are putting a few dollars aside and then pulling them out before they should, triggering extra penalties. I understand that sometimes things happen that we can’t control, however we can control our responses. Do you have an emergency account set up to deal with life’s emergencies? Do you have your retirement contributions going to your 401k or IRA account automatically so you can pay yourself first?

One day you’ll be old.
One day you’ll be old. You can choose to prepare for that eventuality and feel the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes with that or you can choose to do nothing and hope that you can get by on whatever money you get from social security every month. Are you willing to make decisions that will set you up for a comfortable retirement? Will you make small sacrifices now to have future gains?

Whatever you’re life ends up being, it’s that way due to your choices.

Choose wisely.

Bigger Than Your Block

Financial education for all.

Tag Archives: bigger than your block