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Shay on Multicultural Familia Radio

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Financial Education Speaker & Author Shay Olivarria was on the Multicultural Familia Radio Show a while ago. For those that were not able to join us, Shay has taken the time to jot down a few thoughts about the major themes covered in the interview. Here are a few things that were covered:

Why are you so passionate about money management?  What prompted you to become a financial educator to kids and young adults?

I’m passionate because of all the mistakes I made in my youth! I even named them my most recent book, All My Mistakes. I look back and think, “Why didn’t anyone tell me to invest a percentage of my income?” or “Why didn’t anyone tell me about the beauty of compound interest?”. I started Bigger Than Your Block back in 2007 because I had been working with youth and I noticed that the things I didn’t know back then, they didn’t know right now. I wanted to help them learn from the mistakes that I made.

What are some financial mistakes that you’ve made and how did you overcome them?

There are so many, where should I begin?  I’d have to say that the worst mistake I made was not taking advantage of compound interest. I talk a lot about the mistakes and how to avoid them in 10 Things College Students Need to Know About Money. If I had invested only $50 per month from the time I started working at sixteen until I completed undergrad when I was about twenty six (ten years) I would have amassed $6,000. Let’s pretend that I had invested that money every month into an investment account that returned 8% per year (the average is 10% over most ten year periods, so I’m being conservative), I would have $9,000 at the end of those ten years. That’s $3,000 that was given to me because of compound interest. Let’s take it a step further and say that I never put another dollar into that account and I just let it grow. That $9,000 would turn into $217,000 by retirement!  Imagine if I had kept it up!