Actor, Author Hill Harper Teaches Chicago Kids About Smart Money
(CBS) -- Actor and author Hill Harper is working to get young people to stop thinking about buying the latest video game or bag of a bag of chips, but instead investing in their future.
CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports Harper gets young people energized about their future and what he calls "smart money."
Student Ronecia Johnson says she noticed she was spending a lot of "dumb money" on things like, "…getting my nails done, candy and pop, when I should save it instead."
"When your head hits the pillow at night, whatever you spent your money on that day, did it make your life better?" said Harper. "Is it worth more money when you wake up? That's smart money. If it's not, or the reverse or depreciated, it's dumb money and these kids got that, so I'm excited."
Harper, with degrees from Harvard and Brown, has written several books about everything from relationships to financial success. He partnered with Mass Mutual Financial Group and the Chicago Bulls to get his message out to middle school students from Junior Achievement of Chicago and After-School All-Stars.
"It's just critically important to save and the earlier you start, the more powerful it is over your lifetime and to save for something that you really need and take that time to do that, the instant gratification of putting it on a credit card, it's so important for these young people to understand that," said Nick Fryntrilakis, Vice President of Mass Mutual Financial Group.
"They can take all of the lessons that we talked about today and change their family, change their school, change their community and that's the goal here," Hill said.
Student David Tunstall said he was going to start a savings plan today.
"I should go right now," he said.
Besides saving, Hill also stresses how education level is tied to a person's future income. He'll be taking his message to four more cities, this month and next.
For more information on Junior Achievement of Chicago, visit www.jachicago.org. For more information on After School All Stars, visit www.asaschicago.org.
