Are you ready to rethink how young people approach money and build lasting financial confidence? Welcome to Credit Union Conversations, hosted by Mark Ritter, CEO of MBFS, a business lending CUSO serving clients across the United States and Puerto Rico. In this episode, Mark is joined by Todd Romer, who partners with credit unions to leverage his "Do Money Differently" financial education approach as a powerful tool to attract younger members. With paycheck-to-paycheck living at a record high of nearly 75% and rising, Todd’s strategy challenges traditional financial advice, focusing on practical, transformative steps for young adults. Today, they’ll dive into Todd’s journey with Young Money University, the unique advantages credit unions offer, and actionable insights on investing and avoiding college debt traps.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• (00:00) Intro
• (01:39) Todd Romer discusses Young Money University
• (05:20) Credit unions offer named savings accounts to save purposefully 
• (09:36) You don’t have to be an expert, start with a platform like Acorns
• (11:13) Upbringing shapes our money habits, set up a college budget and discuss career goals and costs
• (21.57) How to start investing in the stock market and its historical 10.2% annual return 

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

• Early exposure to investing shapes lifelong financial habits. To foster enduring financial confidence, begin teaching teens about money and investing. Providing young people with targeted financial education, emphasizing a distinctive approach to money management, is essential.
• Credit unions should emphasize their unique benefits, like named savings accounts, to attract younger members.
• Guide high schoolers to consider affordable education paths and discuss financial realities early to avoid debt. College debt is a growing concern, with many students unaware of cost-effective options.

RESOURCE LINKS

Mark Ritter - Website

Mark Ritter - LinkedIn

Young Money University - Website

BIOGRAPHY:

Todd Romer is passionate about financial education. He has helped thousands of people take on a new lease of life by providing them the exact steps to dream, save, spend, invest and give money DIFFERENTLY to reach goals/dreams.  Todd also partners with credit unions to use DO MONEY DIFFERENTLY financial education as their most valuable marketing tool to drive younger membership growth.

Credit Union Conversations - Ep 83 - Todd Romer

[00:00:27] So please subscribe. As this podcast has grown in popularity, I get solicited all the time for people to be guests on this show. Up until today, I have right clicked and deleted, but I was sent an inquiry to be on this show by somebody that fascinated me and in a topic that is dear to my heart. So joining me today is Todd Romer.

[00:01:02] Todd Romer: and absolutely, thanks for having me, mark.

[00:01:21] Financial education, which I think is just crucial to our industry, but life in general. But first of all, I always like to have people give their background, their origin story, kind of building up to today and what you're up to.

[00:01:49] Understanding a whole lot of things when it comes to doing money differently, and I'm glad, by the way, our PR guy Daniel, did a good job of, of reaching out to you and saying, Hey, this might be a little different [00:02:00] too. Yes, he did a great job. So yeah, I started to invest my lawn mowing money and dink in Ohio.

[00:02:29] He was a pediatrician, so he was not a money guy, not a banker, not a finance guy. My mom was a stay at home mom, seven kids. That's obviously a massive job and. He just said, I wish I would've started investing earlier. And he didn't start until he was in his thirties, and so he encouraged all his kids, including me, to begin investing money.

[00:03:00] Mark Ritter - Host: Well, that, that's great. And today you're working with credit unions and other people and institutions, so tell people a little bit about Young Money University.

[00:03:31] Then we pivoted and kind of went online. We started to play in that space and that was a tougher world too. Then with the entrepreneurial journey that I've been on, and that's kind of been in my blood since my th business, at age 15, I started speaking tour and that's really where it's been hitting home.

[00:04:24] And if we did the paycheck to paycheck living, which is now at a record high of nearly 75% would've been going down, and it's only going up. So we just teach money differently when it comes to a mindset first, we don't just say, you know, make sure you have a good credit score. Some of the old traditional financial education that focuses on, you know, make sure you save, make sure you get a, you know, don't go into too much debt.

[00:05:20] Actually many ACEs. We help them uncover that they have a lot of ACEs in their back pocket. One of the ACEs is that they have named savings accounts where you can create multiple named savings accounts, and we teach that through automation. You know, create a travel savings account. If you value that, create a new car savings account, call it that with your credit union.

[00:06:05] 'cause their parents were a member, they became a member. You know, a huge percentage was like, I still have no idea what the difference between a credit union and a bank is. Market opportunities, as I mentioned, a

[00:06:35] So yeah, it is quite interesting. Yes, but I really think partnering with credit unions is such a natural fit for you. Just because of the mission of the organizations and it's a good fit because I think there's a lot more affinity than some other types of financial institutions where it's the mission and DNA of [00:07:00] the organization.

[00:07:26] This is a big deal. We need younger members and we believe we have an amazing solution. It's already been tested and. It's flying colors of how we teach money and how we tell young people here's what to do, and that's really what they want.

[00:07:51] He is the, I'll say the money guru. He's had a Robinhood account for years. He researches the companies digs [00:08:00] into balance sheets, financials, outlook, research. And is quite involved. My school teacher daughter is more on the other side, you know, she's an adult and I still do the taxes and help out and explain and guide.

[00:08:17] Todd Romer: Well, that's fantastic. Your son is in, uh, I'd call it the two percentile of young people that are digging in to money and finance, even finance majors. And I have fun with this when I speak on college campuses, I said just because. Your friend's a finance major.

[00:08:54] And I said, sure. And she said, I'm Sophia. I'm. 23 and it was College of Western [00:09:00] Idaho. So a quote, community college. And she said, you have changed my outlook. Got into a relationship. I've been divorced for a year already, and I thought my life was just pretty much gonna be super, super tough. And you showed me how to invest like anybody else.

[00:09:36] We do that. We talk about investing and overtake the mindset that, oh man, I've gotta be super smart. Or tell them, now you don't have to be smart to open up an Acorns account five minutes and, and a boom. They put it into a fund for you. So these young women and young men in their twenties are like. Okay, this is, I can do this.

[00:10:19] We are different. We're gonna help you get to where you want to go.

[00:10:46] And my snobby kids were fortunate enough to have parents who grew up. A pretty blue collar who both had good jobs and and responsible with money. How do you [00:11:00] think, you know, kind of that parental upbringing really impacts people's money as they go into the teens, twenties and thirties of life?

[00:11:16] We call it the money DNA, that. You and I and every human being on the planet has, based on what they saw growing up from the age of eight to 18, they saw things like, and heard things such as maybe arguing over money, complaining over lack of money. Maybe the flip side there was some, whenever someone maybe got a gift when you were a child from a grandma or grandpa, right, for a birthday or a Christmas or a holiday, um, you know, reinforce some savings.

[00:12:17] But just truths about money and truths about yourself. So in a presentation mark, I'll ask whether it's 400 people or 40 in a room or an an auditorium. I'll say, fill in the blank for me because we're gonna overtake myths, if you will, that most of you likely are believing about yourself. I'll say, some of you think you may not be blank enough.

[00:13:11] I don't know if I'm, you know, just deserve it enough. We hear that too, so. We let them know right out of the gate that those are just simply lies that we generally sometimes believe about ourselves. I'm the first person to raise my hand when it comes to back in the day. I didn't know if I was smart enough to get to a life that I wanted in my college days, if you will, or just doesn't even matter college and, you know, come to technology.

[00:13:48] Mark Ritter - Host: Absolutely. So I go,

[00:14:08] I, I didn't know this is what it requires. Or I don't have to come from a, a. Successful financially, successful family. That's another thing we talk, I don't have to come from this or that, or have to look a certain way. And

[00:14:32] But I think it can be overcome as you're saying.

[00:14:45] Mark Ritter - Host: I wanna ask you about college, just because you touch colleges so much. I was lucky in that, not that we inherited any money.

[00:15:23] You go over this and it's on you. Or you pick a different school, you're going to be in debt. And reality is, I didn't even let her go down that option. So. They were both lucky enough to graduate debt free, and my daughter finally said, I now understand what you were saying, because so many of my friends are buried in debt now.

[00:16:17] Gimme your 2 cents in advice to a high schooler. 'cause I just see a lot of people making what I think are mistakes.

[00:16:38] So that was kind of a cool piece, right? I had skin in the game and I remember my dad before I went to school freshman year, like, you know, if you go below this GPA, it's on you. I'm like, oh boy. And so here I was studying on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in my dorm freshman year, where some. Buddies would kind of tap me with, Hey, come on, let's go to this party on [00:17:00] Tuesday.

[00:17:19] With. The value of a college education has to really be discussed within a family, uh, as to, is this right for you? If you're just going to go and quote party, well, great diploma dad can do that. Great. You know, there's those people that are doing that. Are you going to, for a certain degree, are you going to a school that has a great business program or has a great finance program like your son, or teaching like your daughter?

[00:17:58] Mark Ritter - Host: daughter that if [00:18:00] you're going to be a teacher, you make the same salary whether you go to Princeton or local state school. Now, that fell on deaf ears a little bit.

[00:18:22] Mark Ritter - Host: Best career ever today. Yes. I'm like,

[00:18:31] So it's a really a personal decision, but it really, money does have to start coming into play and having those discussions with your children in high school. I think one of your questions was when do you start that discussion about money? Obviously the earlier the better. You know, Hey, let's save some when you're in middle school and you know, from gifts from parents or whatever happens, right?

[00:19:17] Mark Ritter - Host: No. You know, we went to our, my kids went to big suburban school and we saw guidance counselors, Dr. Push and drive kids to go to schools with no consider. Money was never a consideration. It was, what's the best, biggest prestigious that they could say they had a kid go to blank school and it wasn't, well, what do they actually want to do and what can you do that most economical?

[00:20:12] Hi, I am Luke. And, um, important. Those things are, so what I'm trying to say is that an employer, right? You go to school to get a good job if you're not going into a medical school or dental school, all that kind of stuff. But just that, those life skills that you can start learning and becoming more self-confident.

[00:20:50] Okay, I kind of wanna talk to you again. So those are some. Soft, if you will, skills that are becoming more hard [00:21:00] skills that employers and business owners like, yeah, I wanna hire that person. You know, even though they didn't go to quote x, Y, Z school. So those are big, always big deal skills to have.

[00:21:16] Sometimes when it comes to money, particularly those that tout. The huge crypto gain and their fancy vacation and the big cash return and the investments and the huge money they're making and the light where, where it's it, it's, first of all, I think most of it's fake. Then I think much of it is just bad investment vice, and you never see the 90% of deals that go awry in these situations.

[00:21:57] Todd Romer: Yeah. The number one interest we [00:22:00] have everywhere we go on the speaking tour and whether it's the newsletter is investing, how do I start investing both male and female, 18 to 30?

[00:22:31] But stock market investing for a moment here, I put up the charts. The charts don't lie. With 130 plus years at the stock market's been around if not more, and the average annual rate of return of 10.2% per year, and this is a game changer. And what we're doing actually with a lot of credit unions is we're not leading with investment education, but we emphasize it so that, wait, I can do this.

[00:23:25] Well, his daughter Rachel Cruz is awesome and she does a great job for younger people too. I take a little bit of a unorthodox approach based on my personal experience to investing Mark, and that is when I started investing in high school with lawn mowing money and I owned these stocks and I was in a mutual fund.

[00:23:53] Mark Ritter - Host: at a time when it was much more difficult and much more inaccessible to invest

[00:24:07] That was the minimum to get into a fund today, like you said, Robinhood or Acorns, you can get into an ETF of a hundred. You know, stocks and bonds for five bucks. And so just that piece, highly encourage it so they can go five, 10 bucks a week, 10 bucks a month. What, starting with a little bit of investing, and again, we go into mindset, but honing in on investing with young people, it's fun because they go, wait a minute, that money can compound into that, and I don't have to pick the stocks.

[00:24:57] I do have a funny story about Ethereum [00:25:00] and I wish my, you know how, uh, your kids learn from you and your, their mom, and then they, but as they become adults, I'm learning from them just as well, right? I wish I would've, but so my son Luke went to Ohio State. He's pushing 28, I forget. And anyway, back when Ethereum was trading at like $10 or maybe $8, we were on the phone one day.

[00:25:41] And he goes, no. He said, it's a, it's a, uh, crypto. And I'm like, crypto, you know, just that term. Like, no. He goes, dad, you should buy. So I'm like, love you Luke, but I'll just stick with stocks. And uh, he was, he was right.

[00:26:10] So tell people where they can connect with you if they're a parent with young kids or young adults or credit unions wanting to, uh, check you out.

[00:26:34] And uh, yeah, would love to connect with any credit union, anybody for any questions they have. We'd love to help credit unions drive younger membership growth.

[00:27:01] So this is Mark Ritter, your host of Credit Union Conversations. Thank you for joining me. We'll be dropping episodes weekly instead of biweekly coming up, so keep a lookout for that. And the best way is always to subscribe to on your favorite audio platform, so you can connect with us every Tuesday when episodes drop.