Do you know the nine words almost every adult says when they find out that one of my biggest audiences for financial education is students?

“I wish I had that when I was younger.”

And then they usually follow it up with sentiments like:

“That would have been nice before I spent way too much money on my first car.”
“Wow, I wish I had known this stuff before I got that credit card offer that seemed so perfect.”

In my experience, few of us felt adequately prepared for our financial life after high school. Did you? I know I didn’t.

I mean, it wasn’t until 2011 that I started tracking my expenses (cough, way after high school), and I realized I had spent almost $50 on ice cream in one month. Thanks #budgeting. It was the beginning of a journey into understanding my own habits, beliefs, and mindsets around money. I realized that once I had identified them, I could change them in order to build the life I wanted most.

I live in Vermont, and in 2009 my original position teaching financial literacy to VT high school students was funded through a federal grant (thanks to Bernie Sanders). This was in the aftermath of the 2008 recession, and the initiative was in response to statistics like these:

1 – Only 48% of high school students could pass the National Jump$tart Coalition Financial Literacy Assessment–and the number was even lower for college students.
2- Only 17 states in the USA require students to take a finance course to graduate high school.
3 – The #1 reason students fail to complete college is due to financial pressure.

Since then Vermont has made progress with financial education. I reached thousands of Vermont students before launching my career as a national speaker, and Vermont’s Champlain College created the Center for Financial Literacy. In 2013, 2015 and 2017 the Center released the National High School Financial Literacy Report Card. They have also trained hundreds of teachers through their Summer Institute to better financially educate their students.

According to the 2018 Survey of the States: Economic and Personal Finance Education in Our Nation’s Schools, there are now 17 states that require personal finance to graduate.

This is important to me because I believe your ability to manage your money directly affects your ability to have the life you want. I say this line in every speech. That’s how much I believe it. 🙂

If you never learn how to have a good relationship with your money, it’s much more likely you’ll live life with debt, stress, and probably a fair amount of gastric distress. These are the facts.

Many people struggle with a sense of hopelessness when it comes to personal money matters. This is where I want to help. Financial education shows you that the foundational terms and money habits are learnable, and that you can acquire these skills with the help of experts around you. Most importantly, learning these basic money skills shows you that you are not a victim – you can change the story you’re writing with your life by changing the way you manage your money.

Check out my funding page here, and if you’d like to bring my performance to your area, you can apply for a scholarship.

It took me a long time to figure out how to describe what I do. I wasn’t purely a comedian or a speaker or a financial planner.

I finally cracked it with Financial Comedian or, even more accurately, Comedic Financial Speaker. Do those job titles sound made up to you? They should. Because I made them up.

So what is a Financial Comedian? Good question!

A Financial Comedian is a motivational speaker who uses humor, storytelling and interaction to engage the audience in a conversation about money.

Ok, but how does this benefit me and my financial education goals? Another good question! You’ve probably noticed that “Finance” and “Lecture” tend to go hand in hand. But it’s actually a topic nobody wants to be lectured about.

“This is what you’re doing wrong and what you need to change immediately.”

“The decisions you make today will affect the entire rest of your life.”

“You know how you’re having fun with money? Well that needs to stop right now.”

“Money isn’t a game. Money doesn’t grow on trees. There are no free lunches.”

Imagine how you would feel being on the receiving end of that. You might think, “Wow, do you have anything positive to say?”

Here’s the thing. Everyone wants to talk about money. They just don’t want to be bored, and they don’t want to feel judged. There’s a lot of room between those two ways of experiencing financial advice. Here is why I use each of the three tools of humor, storytelling and interaction.

I use humor as a “state break,” keeping the audience from feeling overwhelmed when I’m teaching an important but possibly-discouraging point.

I tell stories because stories are more memorable. A Guardian study found that only 5% of attendees recalled a statistic after a presentation, while over 63% recalled a story.

I use interaction by asking lots of questions throughout my talk, because my biggest objective is to create a space where people can see that their fear of being judged for their financial ignorance or financial misbehavior is unfounded. Despite our fears, it’s actually okay to talk about money. By helping people dislodge that myth, they become free to ask their “dumb” questions, and to share stories of their own, whether it’s teaching others through a mistake they’re made or sharing their own hard-earned financial wisdom in a memorable way.

I want people to walk away feeling positive, empowered, and confident in the realization that they are in many ways already doing better with finances than they may have thought. And that becomes a foundation they can build on through workshops, financial counseling, further research, and lots and lots of hands-on practice. We call it personal finance for a reason!

Check out this list of 8 Ways to Get Funding for your next financial education event.

Take a look at my calendar to find a date to bring me to your area.

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Colin Ryan, CPFC is the author of “A Comedic Guide to Money,” has been featured everywhere from NPR to The Moth Radio Hour, and speaks all over the country.