Elisabeth Arragon is the founder of Chalkboard Financial. We had a fantastic conversation about teens and money. If you were like me when I was in high school, I had absolutely no idea how to create a budget, balance a checkbook or make good financial decisions. I wish I had someone like Elisabeth to teach me the ins and outs of managing money. The good news is that it’s never too late and Elisabeth is here to help us get our kids on the right financial track.
About Elisabeth Arragon
Chalkboard Financial actually came about through Elisabeth’s own personal experience. She was the undecided student that didn’t know what she wanted to do and went off to college and accrued a lot of student loan debt. When she opened that first student loan post-graduation, she physically cried and asked herself what she had done and why wasn’t she taught this and the idea hit her. She was 23 at the time, and then years later, post working in the advertising world and other industries, actually during the recession, she started working on this, out in California and created the company as it is today. Chalkboard financial is a nonprofit and they are on a mission to teach every high school student, currently in the state of Pennsylvania, a workshop series in financial literacy. They have a lot of great partners and organizations that have come alongside them to reach that mission. Elisabeth is teaching financial literacy at the high school level, helping students figure out paths into the workforce via college or a trade school route, or military, or whatever is best for them.
Episode Highlights
- About Chalkboard Financial
- Teaching teens budgeting and how to prevent debt
- Applying real-life scenarios to teach teens about money
- Careers and financial management
- Financial decisions you make today will have an impact later in life
- SMART goals
- No matter how much parents earn, they should be teaching their teens financial literacy
- Understanding your spending personality
- Elisabeth’s advice to her teenage self
Resources
Chalkboard Financial Facebook Page
Student Budget Template
(FREE download from Chalkboard Financial)