Tackling Financial Literacy with Jed Collins

Financial literacy is a problem that educators around the country are trying to tackle. Today, we’re speaking with Jed Collins, a former NFL player, who is leading the charge in the financial education arena by guiding high school and college students, as well as professional athletes, through the world of finance.  He’s passing down essential knowledge on understanding taxes, showing students that a good financial game plan can lead them towards a prosperous future.

Links:
https://taxfoundation.org/taxedu/podcast/all/economic-education-month/
https://taxfoundation.org/blog/do-people-really-move-because-of-taxes/
https://course.yourmoneyvehicle.com/p/your-money-vehicletke
https://yourmoneyvehicle.com/product-one-hour-course-certification-tax/
https://yourmoneyvehicle.com/high-schools/

Transcript

Intro: 0:00

Financial literacy is a problem that educators around the country are trying to tackle. Today, we're speaking with Jed Collins, a former NFL player who's leading the charge in the financial education arena by guiding high school and college students, as well as professional athletes, through the world of finance. He's passing down essential knowledge on understanding taxes, showing students that a good financial game plan can lead them towards a prosperous future.

Kyle Hulehan: 0:26

Hello and welcome To the Deduction a Tax Foundation podcast. I'm your host, Kyle Houlahan, and today we are joined by Jed Collins, a former NFL player, a certified financial planner, author, CEO, and Financial Literacy Advocate. Jed, thank you for joining the podcast. How are you doing today?

Jed Collins: 0:46

Oh one. First off, never delayed. Gratitude. So appreciate you for having me on, for Zoe for connecting us. I'm having a great day. You know. We're, we're looking at this idea and this concept of financial education and financial empowerment. I get to connect with groups like yours who are experts in your field, and truly start to better understand how we can get more people to speak this language of money. So excited to be here and excited to, uh, bestow a little bit of our value onto your audience.

Kyle Hulehan: 1:16

and honestly, I, I'm very excited to hear about your guys' values and, and your own personal story. I'm, I'm wondering if you could start by sharing a little bit of your background and maybe what, what sparked your interest in financial literacy?

Jed Collins: 1:31

My story began about 15 years ago when I walked into the National Football League and started getting my first paychecks. Now, a lot of people look at the amount of money NFL players are paid and say, well, how can you ever destroy, ruin, or. Not handle that well. And I think this, the, the headlines have shown that there are a lot of ways to do that. Um, mine began because I got my first real paycheck from the NFL and spent every dime of it before it even hit my bank account. Now I bought an engagement ring and 15 years later, yes, it's a cute story. She's still around and we love each other. I looked at the habit, the habit of I received money. I spent money as something that was going to lead me down a path, and it was down a path that a 30 for 30 documentary from ESPN said I was about 70% of professional athletes. And so few days after that, I really kind of started waking up in sweats and cramps and fear and anxiety. I was gonna be part of that 70% who didn't take advantage of the opportunity within the NFL. And so I went and went to a Borders bookstore, walked down the personal finance aisle and picked up Rich Dad, poor dad as millions have, and started a journey in financial education. I then went to Dave Ramsey, Susie Orman, a lot of the great books that kind of begin people on this path, but it was all an understanding that I, I was an accounting degree, a business major in school. I got a great business education. You gave me a hundred thousand widgets. I could fill out some financial statements, but nobody ever said, well, it's not a hundred thousand widgets. It's a hundred thousand dollars. What? What do you go do with it? How do you build your plan? And as I looked around at the people I trust and love my father, my brothers, my brothers who were at Berkeley, getting a master's in engineering, another brother who was at Harvard Law School. I started to ask them, well, what is the big dumb jock? What is the football player supposed to do with these dollars? And they really didn't have an answer for me. And so that's when that light bulb started to go off of. It's not a JED problem. I had a problem, but it was a bigger, bigger vision. And bigger picture of this is an everybody problem. NFL players get exploited because it happens to them faster, but most people don't know how to speak this language of money. And so 15 years later, that's, uh, that's where my journey began.

Kyle Hulehan: 4:00

And you know, Jed, I, I tell people this all the time. I'm, I'm just 28 years old, but you need a course. You need a class for somebody to teach you. All these things, you're talking about your brothers, your, your father, your family. Maybe they They don't know everything perfectly to tell you or, or to teach you, and, and they've never maybe received a check that large in, just in one sum. And so they don't exactly know what to do. You, you really like, uh, especially at a younger age, you need someone to kind of show you the way. So I, I really, I understand that. I understand that, that fear. Um, one thing I, I do want to tap into real quick is, is. You had a really successful career. You, you were, you played with Drew Brees, you helped the Saints become a better rushing team, and you, unfortunately, you beat my beloved Eagles in the playoffs. Um, but I, I So like, what do you feel like motivated that transition from professional football to then focus on financial literacy and education? What, what was the motivating factor?

Jed Collins: 5:01

Well, Kyle, it's, it's going back to what you originally said. You need that class. You need a teacher. You need a teacher who is not gonna come in and tell you how much they know you need a teacher who's gonna come in and try to simplify things to where you are going to understand it. Um, as I started down my path, uh, as I mentioned going to Borders bookstores, I actually had a mentor about a year after all of this, challenged me and say, Jed, if you really wanna start learning this, become a certified financial planner. He was a CFP and he kind of guided me towards that education. What I found was the moment I took one or two steps ahead in my financial journey, I loved turning around and helping people better understand what that was. Let me explain to you what I just learned, and as I was going down that I started to see this road open up. That said, I've always been defined as a football player, as the athlete. That's kind of who I was growing up. All of a sudden I was being identified as something beyond that. Something where a, a new skill was going to not only benefit my future, but something that I got to share and start to benefit others. And so even later in my career, as you mentioned, I got to play seven years, which as an undrafted free agent, a fullback, which is kind of unheard of these days, uh, is a lot longer than anybody expected me to, to last I, I looked at the end of my career and I started to say. What, what is next? What? What is going to be me after football is done? And that's when this idea of the transition appeared. So many athletes struggle with that transition because it is your identity and it is your opportunity that is going away. I. So I started to be able to sit in a locker room and talk to the, the highly educated, maybe quarterback to whoever else, and try to start getting them to understand how money works. And as I started to do that, I kept realizing that was what I loved. I loved translating this complex language. Making it understandable for every guy to capture this dream. And so I actually wrote in my journal in 2008, once my journey began, I would love to come back and teach rookies first, second, third year players in the NFL about this language I'm learning about. I. And I'm very proud to say, number one, write down your dreams, write down your goals. But 15 years later, that's a partnership with the National Football Leagues Players Association that I get to live that dream and go into those rooms today and be able to host those conversations. Um, so it was really the idea that I started to invest in myself, and as I did that, I realized it was a value that other people were interested in. And so how could I pay that forward? You do that by becoming a teacher.

Kyle Hulehan: 7:55

Yeah. Well first off, I want to congratulate you on, on that. That's, that's incredible. Your, your journey. Here is, is very impressive to honestly be able to, write something down, manifest it, make it happen. That's very, very impressive. But, since we are a tax podcast, you know, I, I want to stay a little bit focused on some of the financial things, but I am curious about your story. And I'm wondering, you shared about spending all that money from that first paycheck, but I'm curious if there are any other stories from your own financial journey or, or your own journey along the way that that influenced your approach to managing money and, and financial literacy. I.

Jed Collins: 8:32

I mean, being in, uh, the NFL world introduces you to one kind of a microcosm of what the United States is. I always love to see the salary cap and people say, oh, the NFL players make all this money on any team. About four or five guys of the 50. Make half the salary cap, and so I always thought that was kind of unique. I loved talking to those people, the front office people around how all of that works. I've gotten into cars of teammates. Back before everybody was on automatic deposit where I picked up envelopes and I had checks hand sitting in my hands of 30,$40,000. Of guys just haven't even cash to their checks. I've got to see hundreds of rookies open up their first paychecks and ask who the bleep is, fica. Get to really see that kind of acknowledgement and awareness of, again, a language nobody had ever warned them to or prepared them for. So really it was me being in a unique lifestyle in, I always said, you know, one, I'm a great failure. I got cut 13 times in the NFL before I became the number one rated fullback. But that idea of how do I continue to fail forward? It is money. It is the mindset you need to take with money because you don't know everything, even the experts, A lot of guys in today's world, athletes are trying to become more of the entrepreneur, more of the brand identity, and I tell them venture capitalists, people who do this as a profession are wrong. Most of the time. You're gonna fail in money. It's how do you manage your failures? How do you try to minimize them? And then how do you learn from them and go forward? Uh, so that experience walking into the NFL, seeing the statistics, the true reality, having a first round draft pick, come back three, four years later and begging for a chance to just get in a training camp because they were out of money. And then you do see the headlines. Uh, one of the more recent ones was Charles Barkley, who was like a childhood hero of mine being a basketball fan of him falling on financial hardships. And the question everybody looks around and says, is. Guys made hundred million dollars. How so? It was really the idea that I was never gonna be the$50 million contract player, but how did I become, how could I become the 30% that walked away from the NFL saying, look at what it gave me, not look at what it took. I communicate that to every guy getting to walk into that world. The game is gonna take from you. It's gonna take a lot. Make sure you take as much from it, and that's gonna be somebody that you see yourself as 10, 20, 30 years down the road.

Kyle Hulehan: 11:21

it does really stick out to me when you talk about failure because something we We talk about a little bit at the tax foundation is, is trying to secure a narrow win or, or the trade-offs that are, you know, in tax policy is like not everything, you're not gonna win a hundred percent. The the political system we're in is not set up for, you know, everyone's gonna uh, yeah, exactly. It's no one's gonna win a hundred percent of the time. It's not a hundred. You know, there's compromise that needs to take place everywhere. And so you have these These trade-offs that are very important. And I, and I think that that's, that's a very interesting part of this is understanding not everything is going to be perfect, but how do we make it better? I think that that's a really fascinating Part of all this. And, and I know, I know here, as I'm working at the, the tax foundation, there's this big struggle in, in educating because of how complex the tax code is. And, and I say this to people all the time, so maybe listeners are tired of this, but people don't even know how tax brackets work because it's, it's really complicated. They don't even, they're not even sure how that works. And so I, I'm wondering what are some of the biggest challenges that you face in teaching about finance?

Jed Collins: 12:24

So I love this, and you're right, it is short, small wins. Those 1% wins. the first question every athlete, every student asks me is, well, how do I pay less in taxes? Or because of social media today? Well, how do I not pay taxes at all? And it's like, well, I. You are looking at it wrong. So one of the first things we really try to kind of get students to understand is what we call it, money vehicle, the society choice. We don't call it taxes, we call it the society choice because A, it is a choice. You're gonna be taxed based on your choices, what you spend, how much you make, where you live. All of those are your choices. And the second part of that is the society aspect. Taxes support, everything in between what I own and what you own. And yet. Everybody has such a negative view of what they go towards. I actually have been teaching taxes later in the season, uh, to three or four of the NFL teams, and my first question is always, what's the first word that pops in your mind when I say the word taxes? I. And I don't know if you want me to share some of their answers, but they're not positive answers. They're not encouraging and they're not understanding what the system is and how it works. So we really try to frame it in a perspective of this is not a negative death and taxes are the only guarantees in life. This is something that you have chosen and it's a society that we are all fortunate to be around. One of the greatest lessons I started to. Kind of break into was when I understood the progressive income tax bracket system. Not only because it allowed me to have some confidence that I kind of started to get taxes, but it also showed me, wow, the system is set up for a reason and so one of our Chapter nine lessons because we obviously do talk a lot about taxes throughout money vehicle. We try to break it down to simple analogies and simple stories that students are gonna understand. And so I always stand in front of rooms virtually or in person and say, you know, what's your favorite kind of ice cream? And student will, you know, often say, mint chocolate chip. I, I if I, if that first student says vanilla, I move on to the second student because vanilla is what you start. Your ice cream flavor with, but that first student comes in and I say, okay, for a quarter I'm gonna give you a scoop of mint chocolate chip. You move to that next student, you say, what's your favorite Rocky Road? Awesome. This student wants three scoops of Rocky Road. I charge this person over here a quarter for that first scoop of ice cream. So I'm gonna charge this second student one quarter for that scoop of Rocky Road, but because they get a second scoop and they're fortunate to get it. I'm gonna charge them 50 cents for that second scoop of ice cream. And as they are fortunate enough to get a third scoop of ice cream, I'm gonna charge them 75 cents for that third scoop. And it's a very simple analogy. It's a very silly story, if you will. Sometimes I do bring ice cream to make it more engaging, but you show them that, you visualize it, they get to understand it, and then you ask them why as an ice cream parlor, would I charge both of them a quarter for their first scoop of ice cream? And the reality is it's because I think everybody should be charged the same amount for that first scoop of ice cream. And then you flip the idea, flip the concept, and say, that's exactly what our income tax brackets do. Everybody in America is charged the same amount for their first scoop of ice cream. As a matter of fact, you actually don't even get charged for your first scoop of ice cream. We'll talk about that standard deduction here in a minute, but getting them to visualize, see ice cream scoops. Well, that makes sense. I like ice cream. Now I'm understanding taxes because I like ice cream. And then you actually can get to them to go through and do a couple of the quick calculations of how the federal, federal income tax code works. And you walk away from that lesson saying. It was digestible, it made sense to me and then I understood it. And that's really what we're trying to do at Money Vehicle with our translation of the language. But we're also trying to educate, again, going back to that idea of the language of money needs to continue to be updated because our, our spenders are users, our people are being updated. Taxes, budgeting, those are words that students today don't want to hear. We translate those to society and cash management, more empowering terms that this new age of student is gonna connect to

Kyle Hulehan: 16:56

Well, I, I think the key is food. That's what I think, that's what I took away from that. If you put everything in terms of food, you're gonna really understand it because that's the best I've ever understood brackets so far is like, and then you were talking about ice cream, one of my favorite things. And mint chocolate chip is the best flavor. That's the best flavor. Yeah.

Jed Collins: 17:12

That's debatable, but I, I will give it.

Kyle Hulehan: 17:15

We're not a food podcast, so I'll stay away for now, but, but I, I, I couldn't agree more. I, I think simple analogies that people can understand what you're doing to, to translate it into something that's very relatable is so important. But I, I want to touch on, uh, a different aspect of, of the work you're doing with, with the younger audience. We were talking about professionals, but you know, in your expertise, how important is it for to have that financial literacy You know, in high school and, and for college students, because I, I know that you have curriculum in high school and throughout different states and you're doing really great work there. And I, and I'd love to hear what your thoughts on the value of that.

Jed Collins: 17:56

I. So my, my financial personal journey started 15 years ago, 10 years ago is when I was confident enough to go start standing in front of rooms full of students, college students. Mostly I. And really try to start creating those stories. That first time I stood in front of students was, let's go through the calculations of an income tax bracket. You just saw the gloss over and the, I don't understand what you're talking about. And so 10 years ago, I really started to ask myself. If we were to teach this in high school, what does a 17-year-old need to know and need to understand and then need to go do around their personal finances? And Kyle, what I could not have ever envisioned is a decade later that every high school in America is not just gonna want to, but is going to be required to Go through that class I've been building for a decade now. We've had plenty of team members, plenty of experts come into Money vehicle and go way beyond just Jed. But this notion that in the li, since the pandemic we have had almost 20 states require to graduate high school, you have to learn financial literacy. The memes around social media for the last 20 years since I was a student have always said, why don't they teach me money in school? And they're going to become a requirement. Utah was the first, Virginia was the second, but now we're nearing 30 plus states in the United States that are gonna say to graduate, you need to have this. And why? I think it's such an important. Piece is because it is a life skill. I love to say if you're an astronaut to a zookeeper, A to Z, everybody receives a paycheck. If you don't know how to do or work or treat that paycheck like your employee and make it go to work for you, then you are going to fall on some real struggles in life. And if that's a guarantee, if, you know, if they don't have this skill, they're gonna struggle in life after. What is the purpose of school and what is the purpose of preparation? I think one of the biggest counterintuitive notions today is I don't tell students to a, go to college or B, buy a home. Why? Because that is just not the structured set straight line path for everybody to go to. But you don't understand that until you see the risk reward, the opportunity cost, and the financial consequences of both choices. So as we look at schools today. They are really trying to challenge the status quo. If so much of the public is outcry about this, can we change it? Where does it fit? Right now we're seeing states pass it under social studies in the economics lane. We're seeing, uh, states pass it under mathematics in the financial algebra lane. Each state is going to figure out where on the core curriculum it will fit, and it's gonna change from a nice to have resource. To a must have curriculum. And I think as we look at it going forward, this is going to change the landscape of so many futures. If, if I had a dime for every person that goes, you teach financial literacy. Ah, if I only would've known this earlier, I wouldn't have to have a business because I'd be a millionaire and they'd be great. The reality is one general consensus. We all need to understand this language better, not to make it the focus and money. Vehicle never tries to make money. The focus of everything. In fact, that's the title Money, vehicle Money is a verb, it's a tool. It's a vehicle that takes you somewhere. We try to get students to really focus on. Where that destination is. It's not money. It's not a million dollars. It's what that million dollars represents and what it can afford you in your lifestyle. So as we look at a more prepared student for the future, financial literacy is no longer a nice to have skill. It's a must-have life skill.

Kyle Hulehan: 21:55

It is, it's certainly a must have life skill, and I think. you see these documentaries, you were talking about the ESPN documentary, I believe it's called Broke. you see those documentaries and you're like, oh my God. Like, it, it, it's, it's so hard to watch that. It's very heartbreaking and I. You'd wonder if we had had these, earlier or beforehand potentially, what, what could have been different? What could have been, changed? What could have been, just, just altered if we had spent a little bit of time, in high school focusing on that. And, and it really, it, it sucks that, that all of these people they didn't have that education and they weren't able to like, learn these things and these valuable tools that, that you're teaching and espousing now. And you mentioned this earlier that you, you worked with NFL teams to, to educate them on money management and financial literacy. And, and I saw like recently on your Instagram, you know, you worked with the Falcons and the Lions and And I'm curious, you know, I think anybody would be, do you, do you approach your work with college students making NIL money or professional athletes with, you know, a higher income, how, how different is that approach from a high school student? Or is, or are there principles that just apply across the board? I.

Jed Collins: 23:11

There are principles that apply across the board now. Is the difference of a, of an income for a high school college in NFLA hundred percent. And so the depths and the strategies and the things you're able to do vary and change. Honestly, one of the biggest kind of understandings now is the shift from a college athlete who's a 10 99 contractor in in college to a W2 employee in the NFL. From a tax perspective, the deductions alone is an entire hour, two hour, five hour class on just what that shift of being your own boss and being an employee, what you're able to deduct. You know, a few years ago the athlete laws shifted a lot in the tax world. What I love to tell people, and you know, we spend a lot, I spend a lot of time, our team spends a lot of time, is how do we continue to make the program better? When we say that is not, how do we teach different things? It's not how do we change what we're teaching? It's how do we teach it better? Because our, we, we are teaching principles. I tell everybody we're not teaching hot stock tips. This isn't the day the latest, greatest, you know, notion. These are concepts and evergreen things that will be true from today. They were true 20 years ago. They will be true in 20 years. So. The method of our teaching definitely shifts in tone, in examples and in kind of, uh, what we're using to teach. But the concept doesn't change. We need students, and that's what I'm most proud of. Money vehicle. We don't have a client. We only work with students, that student could be 16, 26 or 56, but we are only educators. And so as we look at that, yes, the examples can change, the depth can change, but the starting place, the principles, income tax brackets, that's gonna be the same for everybody. NFL player and shoot some NIL athletes now are gonna land in higher tax brackets. And what I love is, is showing a NFL player, Hey, you made a million dollars, here is your federal income tax and we should go through the calculation. What happens if you make another million this year? If you have 2 million, how much is that calculation? How hard is that going to be? And to get them to start to attune and see it and say. Oh wow. Well all of it falls in that last one. Is that just it? And you go, boom. You are starting to understand how this system works. So the message doesn't change. The lessons don't change. How far you can go and what you can do, and maybe some of your examples, those kind of change from person to person. But the reality is, if I'm 23 NFL rookie, and I never went through a money vehicle financial literacy class, we gotta start at step one anyway.

Kyle Hulehan: 26:04

Absolutely. And I, and I think one of the things I really admire about your work and that sort of aligns with what the tax foundation does, is it, it is, it is based on principles is, it doesn't matter where you're coming from and where you're going you have to have a principled approach in, in what you're aiming for. And, and that applies to people across all income brackets and across all places when you have sort of like a north star, a guiding line. Those things are, are so helpful in your journey. And so I'm gonna, I'm gonna transition here. To a little bit of a different style of question, and I just want you just, just follow me on this journey, Jed, if you will. Um, so Jed, I look, I, I know that time machines don't exist, but let's just say I have access to one and I'm a nice guy, so I'm just gonna let you use my time machine. What, what is the one thing, what's the one piece of financial advice you would go back and give your younger self in regards to either tax planning or financial management or, or something in that regards? What would, what would you, what would you say to your younger self there?

Jed Collins: 27:05

If I could go back into your time machine, I would go back and I would create it. And so then technically it would be my time machine. So I, there's, there's some strange there, but, uh, I, you know, and this is a question I've asked and challenged myself, and I am Maybe the most proud that I put this into practice my second year in the NFL when I started to learn about it, and it is that idea of how to receive tax-free growth through a Roth account, and truly understanding the implications of what that means for the rest of my life. If I could have gone back and, you know, income I would've made as a, a teen or, you know, my father ran his own company, if we could have known some of the strategies there around becoming an e uh, an employee getting income and putting it into these vehicles, it is a game changer. And that's one thing I try to get every, you know, chapter 10 in Money Vehicle is around your greatest advantage as a student and young professional today. Is a Roth IRA or 401k because of A, you're in the beginning of your career, so in good and bad, your taxes are probably only gonna go up in your lifetime because your income is gonna go up in your lifetime. So you're in your lowest tax bracket today. And B, you have the longest time horizon for tax-free growth. Using those tools. And so our chapter 10, and we have a whole story and analogy around trimming trees on how to explain why this is the benefit, but getting a student to see the long-term mindset, beginning their money vehicle journey, getting all their foundational and cash management, everything set up, but really summarizing the entire program and the entire concept of what we're trying to teach. Through that Roth IRA with their first paycheck doesn't have to be a million dollar. It could be 5, 15, 20,$50 into this vehicle and it is gonna become an employee of yours. That is gonna create more employees and it will never be taxed again. I think that is one of the biggest tools, again, for students and for young professionals.

Kyle Hulehan: 29:17

I've just written down Roth IRA in all caps because this is clearly something as a 28-year-old I need to get, need to get on very quickly. Um, I wanna touch on, what you are looking to down the road, what, what your goals may be. And, and I'm wondering, you know, in the realm of finding financial literacy. what the impact that you're trying to make, what are your goals and, and where are you trying to head with, with your organization?

Jed Collins: 29:40

So as I mentioned 15 years ago, I wrote down my dream of, of working with NFL players and get to live that. My problem is about six years ago, I wrote down a new dream and my dream is to have a million students a year. Go through money vehicle, and if they go through money vehicle and they receive their certification, they've taken an action. If that action's a Roth, IRA, uh, unbelievable, incredible. We've done our job, but there are also plenty of other actions that they can take to start financial plans. I went and worked in wealth management. I loved the, the, the impact. I loved the opportunity. It was a great career. What I realized was my passion was gonna be in helping people start their journey, not so much land their plane kind of atmosphere. And so where we look at it going forward with all of these states requiring this new subject, requiring this new language, we really wanna become that gold standard program that not just. Educates, but it engages, it entertains and it empowers students to take action. And I, I got challenged about five, about six, seven years ago now. Jed, you're good at teaching students in person, but how do you reach a million? How are you going to impact a million people with this message? And that's what I'm most proud of right now is we have a, a virtual curriculum that can plug into any high school in America. We're in lots of schools in 20 plus states. We have statewide adoptions going in Georgia and Oregon, and hopefully many more states to. The mission would be empowering a million students every year to speak the language of money, and that's the road money vehicles headed down. I've been told for a decade, Jed, there's no money in this business. Jed, don't pursue it. Jed. You're never gonna be able to build a curriculum that students across America are gonna use, and we're proving them wrong.

Kyle Hulehan: 31:36

Well, one thing I'm certain of is when you write something down, it happens. So I think you're probably gonna get there.

Jed Collins: 31:42

That's the beauty and curse of being stubborn. Persistence. It's a, it's a blessing and it's also a curse.

Kyle Hulehan: 31:48

yeah, persistence. Yeah. It really is a blessing or a curse, but I think you're handling it as a blessing. As we're starting to wrap up here, I, I just want you to take this opportunity, to plug any and all of the things, the places we can find you, what you are working on, what you're doing. Uh, I know that we've already heard a lot about it, but I just want everyone to know exactly where to find you and, and what you're working on.

Jed Collins: 32:10

Well, one, again, I appreciate the opportunity, the platform. Any chance I get to share this message, I jump on and with your audience? Being financial experts, but also financial curious people. It is connecting the dots. And so our website is your money vehicle.com. We actually just republished our textbook. Um, that can be used for individuals and a lot of individuals, students and families. Our purchasing it to create family conversations around that dinner table. Again, you bring the ice cream scoops, that's one of Dozens of stories that are housed in that program. Uh, but if I could make one request, go check out our website, check out who we are, make sure we are, you know, kind of what we say we are, which is pure educators, we only work with students. We have no up upside or upsell or trying to open some accounts. Um, if you are interested in this journey, if you say, Hey, my local high school, my district could use this program. I know they're looking. All we ask for is a connection. If you connect us to a school, we are, have the opportunity to show them that we can align with their standards, we can integrate with their technology, and most importantly, we can support their educators. Those are who we are saving the most time for. Those are the people we are giving the most resources to because they are our muse in the classroom and they are people across the country who need more support and more guidance. So, um. That is my only request is see if we can bring this to your high school. Doesn't matter where you are, remote inner city. We can reach you, we can impact, and through the program they will learn the language of money.

Kyle Hulehan: 33:53

Jed, thank you so much for being here. And I will say real quick, this, this podcast is, is educational and, and we wanna link people together who are doing good things. And I think what you're doing is a really good thing. Um, I. And I'm, I'm grateful that you're here and, and I just want everyone to know, we'll have all the links in the show notes to everything Jed's mentioned so that you can go find his work. Uh, thank you for being here. And, and I'll say this, uh, you seem like a good guy, so I'm probably gonna forgive you for beating my Eagles and like ruining a childhood memory of mine, watching a game with my dad. But I'll forgive you for that. Uh, it was really nice to meet you. Ooh. Oh, he's okay.

Jed Collins: 34:30

that. So I started my journey as an eagle that was payback. They cut me twice. So that's just, that's how

Kyle Hulehan: 34:37

that's fair. So for the audience, I'll just let everyone know. He just held up a, a, a player card and showed it a rookie card that was a, a Philadelphia Eagles rookie card. That's really cool that you were on the team, but I, you also got revenge, so I mean, that's kind of nice for you. It was terrible for me, but I, I'll forgive you of that this time. Yeah, it was really nice to have you and it was really nice to meet you. Thank you for being on our show.

Jed Collins: 34:59

Appreciate it. Enjoy the day.

Kyle Hulehan: 35:01

This has been another episode of the deduction to learn more about the tax foundation and the deduction. Visit us at taxfoundation. org slash podcast. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn at tax foundation. If you've been enjoying our show and want to help us grow, please leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. It helps others find the show. And if you didn't enjoy the deduction, well, keep it to yourself. Another way you can support our work is by donating to the Tax Foundation on our website. Thank you all for listening, and we'll see you next time.