| About
MONEYSCHOOL
A Brief History
Hello! My name is Joe Colgan. I’m the founder and
president of MONEYSCHOOL.
The idea for MONEYSCHOOL was originally planted in my mind about the
time my older daughter graduated from college in 2002. I knew that
the average college graduate earns about 70% more than someone with
no college, and that a bachelor’s degree can increase lifetime
earnings by hundreds of thousands of dollars. But I also knew from
my own experience that higher education does not automatically confer
financial wisdom.
My own education, which includes a Master's degree from an Ivy
League university, has enabled me to earn a very good living—most
recently as a fiscal and management consultant to dozens of California
cities.
But as I reached an age where
retirement planning started to seem important, it dawned on me that
I had not paid nearly enough attention to my financial future. I
had a nice income, but not much financial security, and I needed to do a much better job of planning for my financial future.
A Rude Awakening
As a result of that rude awakening, I became intensely interested
in personal finance and spent a lot of time educating myself about
money and investing. The more I learned, the more I understood how
many opportunities I had missed over the years through ignorance
and inaction.
So naturally, when my first daughter finished college, I wanted
her to get smart about money a lot earlier in life than I did. As I searched for resources to help with her financial education,
I was struck by the lack of material designed to appeal to someone
like her--a smart twenty-two year old with almost no training in
financial matters. I was also realizing that most high school and college students receive little or no practical preparation for the job of managing their personal finances.
How We Got Here
To make a long story short, I have spent the last few years figuring out how to make the fundamentals of personal finance
and money management relevant and appealing to an under-25 audience. The result is KaChing!, the electronic newsletter
on personal finance described elsewhere on this web site. It seemed obvious from the
start that electronic communication is the best way to reach our
target audience, so KaChing! is offered only by e-mail.
To get to this point, I enlisted the help of my wife and two daughters
(my younger daughter graduated in 2005 with a Business degree and majors in Finance and Risk Management), and
a small group of advisors. They deserve much of the credit for getting
this enterprise to the point where KaChing! is now a reality.
I want to emphasize that MONEYSCHOOL is an independent company founded specifically
to publish KaChing! and undertake other financial education activities for the benefit of our subscribers and the public. We do not accept advertising or receive funding from financial institutions, or other outside interests.
A Breakthrough in Financial Education
I believe KaChing! is a breakthrough in financial education.
Everything we are doing with the newsletter is intended to make
it accessible and interesting to young people at an age when they
are beginning to make financial decisions that can affect the rest of their lives.
It is also the
time in our lives when most of us develop habits and attitudes that determine
whether we control our finances or they control us. I firmly believe
KaChing! has the potential to change many lives for the better.
|
