Analysis and Interpretation worksheet

Jennifer Vitale: 00:01 All right. Well thank you so much I'm sitting here with Mrs. Olya and I am getting ready to interview her. The purpose of this interview is to be able to view financial literacy from a varying standpoint or perspective. This is such requires the contribution of parties who are familiar in this field of practice. And I know you are familiar, so that is why I chose you. Please ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible because it helps reflect the perspective regarding the topic. So if you could just take a minute, Olya and tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do and then we'll go into the interview.

Olya Dadressan: 00:46 I am Regional Vice President was the company called Primerica Financial Services that provides financial literacy, financial education and financial solutions for the middle income America, lower middle income, middle income, and actually higher income as well.

Jennifer Vitale: 01:04 Great. So how would you describe financial literacy?

Olya Dadressan: 01:12 Well, um, it is sort of, um, I would compare it mostly like with the light. It's hard to describe light when you don't have it right? Because without it, it's darkness. You can't see anything. So is financial literacy. It's sort of similar, right? You don't realize you liking something until you have it. And so most people that grow up in the United States, they are actually financially illiterate because there is no education on finance provided in our educational system. Right? So really the only things that we are exposed to are commercial content such as, uh, you know, credit card advertising, right. Or, uh, information about student loans, or information about mortgages. So we are only exposed to the literacy that really benefits the financial institutions and the banks. But we don't know anything about our own financial goals, how to save, how to invest, how to make the right choices. So, most Americans, again, they don't realize that they are financially illiterate. It's because they are just, all they know is darkness. So they don't realize that something is missing.

Jennifer Vitale: 02:36 I love that. Um, at what point can you remember the initial contact with the topic of financial literacy?

Olya Dadressan: 02:47 Well, I am very educated, right? I have three master degrees. I was working at the university, n Washington D.C as a career counselor. I was participating in a 401k. I was making good money. I didn't think of myself as financial illiterate at all, but meanwhile we would accumulate some debt. Since I got married, we put our wedding basically on credit cards. It was hard to pay that off. It was sort of just hanging in there and growing a little bit. So there was a lot of financial mistakes we were doing without realizing that we were in, you know, going down the wrong path. And then what happened is, um, I had a baby and realized that my choices were pretty limited in terms of maintaining our standard of living. Uh, it was either to, uh, to hire a babysitter or nanny and continue working or to quit my position and stay, become a stay at home mom.

Olya Dadressan: 03:49 I chose the latter. I stayed home with my child, but, uh, my income of course, went away, which wasn't a lot, it was about $52,000 at the time, but, uh, the bills didn't go away. Right. And so my husband and I have, we've already struggled at the time with paying off the credit card debt that we had already and now we were slammed with 30%, 30, 40% reduction of our income. And that's when we just realized we're suffocating, we're drowning. We don't know how to manage, even though, I mean, he was making six figures, you'd think that on six figures you should be able to survive. And we were drowning. So that's really is the first time when we started facing some hard questions, how to pay off debt, how to find solutions to basically manage, managed financially within our means and things like this.

Jennifer Vitale: 04:53 Okay. Got it. Great. And can you tell me about other contributory factors of influence that you can remember like over the course of your life? Maybe there was a time when you were younger or something that may have...

Olya Dadressan: 05:10 uh, would you like the contributing factors to financial literacy or to financial illiteracy?

Jennifer Vitale: 05:16 contributing factors to financial literacy.

Olya Dadressan: 05:19 Okay. So the financial literacy, I think there was a lot of self-study, right? I, you know, I'm generally, uh, educated, I like to figure things out and I, I would take courses and uh, classes whenever I could about a lot of different things. So overall I think I had a pretty good grasp on general economic concepts and the general financial concepts. I just wasn't really applying them to myself. Right. Uh, in, uh, growing up in the former Soviet Union, we never had access to debt or credit. And I'm not, not that I was unfamiliar, I was really uncomfortable, was an idea of that to begin with because of the cultural influence, right? Right. To have to spend something you don't have. Right. And it's only switched for me when I married my husband because he was an American and I thought, well, if they do it, I guess that's the right thing. He just kind of let yourself be talked into it without realizing that maybe the way you were educated or you were conditioned previously might have been a better way. Right. Right. So that's what I had to learn it the hard way.

Jennifer Vitale: 06:35 Absolutely. And with regard to experience now, how many individuals would you say that you think you come across that are familiar with the concept of financial literacy?

Olya Dadressan: 06:50 Not nearly enough. I would say that probably about 90% of people I interact with, uh, have never discussed financial literacy with anybody. In fact, uh, they often don't even talk to each other as a couple about money because it's such a sensitive topic. And there is, you really need somebody to navigate this discussion with some knowledge and you know, uh, science-based principles or some sort of solid, uh, markers where you could gauge your right or on us on. Right. That's what I meant. And so, uh, unfortunately, uh, I'm usually the first person people talk to about their debt, about their money, or about how much they struggle or their retirement and that they have no idea what it is. And you know that they're not on track for it. And, uh, the, you know, when it comes to insurance concepts, life insurance, no one is aware of anything at all. So, um, yeah, no, I think majority of people, are not familiar with financial literacy and those who are, uh, and you know, by familiar, I mean they actually apply it not that they've heard the word. Um, those do pretty well. Those do pretty well. So I can usually tell. Right.

Jennifer Vitale: 08:21 Awesome. What do you imagine life would be like without your current education of financial education?

Olya Dadressan: 08:29 We would be much worse off than we are today and probably heading further down. Right. And, uh, without, getting this knowledge and that I got that doesn't adult not in school or anywhere. Right. There's already, after having a family, I've understood about investing, about putting money aside about paying yourself first about discipline, offer, you know, a financial planning and setting money aside today, even though you don't see the results immediately. Uh, if I, uh, my needs that we or, uh, get in life insurance, I think I would feel incredibly vulnerable without it. But if I didn't know that there is a solution, I probably would just keep going on writing vulnerable, leaving my family and protected and uh, we would probably have a lot more debt,

Jennifer Vitale: 09:25 I'm sure. So what are some different ways would you would consider implementing financial literacy into the education curriculum?

Olya Dadressan: 09:37 Well, I think it has to be mandatory. It should start with middle school. When they start learning math, they have to be taught investing, they have to be taught compound interest as an application to their personal finance, not just as a mathematical rule. Right. And uh, I know in some schools these days there are financial literacy course courses, but the teachers that teach those courses and not educated financial planners, so they typically follow an instruction book or something like that without understanding a real value of it. So I think, uh, creating a very straightforward educational support for the teachers so that they teach things correctly would be really important. Because I've come across high school students who were very excited to share that they do have a financial literacy course. But when we started discussing the specifics, I realized they'd say, we're taught, taught all the wrong things. And uh, you know, there wasn't really an emphasis on that elimination. There was promotion of very poor financial products, you know, and, um, so I think, and I don't want to make it too long, maybe we'll have to adjust the book, edit me out. But, um, I think, and that's the thing is that, uh, the books on financial literacy should not be influenced by the financial companies or lobbyists or whether it has to be really straightforward financial principles are that benefit the people.

Jennifer Vitale: 11:28 [inaudible] absolutely. And finally, what do you think would improve their experience and learning about the topic?

Olya Dadressan: 11:38 Well, I think the best way to learn is by doing so maybe if there was, because right now you have to be 18 to open an investment account or your parents can open it for you if you're younger. Right. Uh, and maybe, uh, if we had an option for students to open their own investment accounts and start saving a little bit, then that could be a challenge that they can be encouraged to take on in middle school when they first learned about investing was minimum with as little as $5 per, you know, contribution or something like that that could be affordable. That could be a really cool way to encourage people to do the right things with their money. And same goes for budgeting. Absolutely no figuring out, um, how to budget. I think most people never really teach their kids what to do as a gift money they get, you know, they might be saving for one thing, but they're not really budgeting in terms of a lot of categories that the money is needed. And so what I usually teach my children is, um, when you get any money, a lump sum or any sort, it's a hundred dollars $50, whatever, you know, to divide it into three, right, thirds. And you donate one third, you save one third and you spend one third and this way you develop healthy habits for the future for sure.

Jennifer Vitale: 13:13 Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time. I'm sure I will use your expertise again throughout this journey. And again, I can't thank you enough and we need more people like you in this world, so continue doing what you are doing. Thank you so much.

Audible Link: Interview with Olya