During my senior year of undergrad I founded Lulu’s Nitrogen Ice Cream. From our founding, part of my vision for the company has been to create a community of empowerment through which all Lulu’s team members are trained in financial literacy. I currently host workshops taught by community leaders in this space which team members are paid to attend. In the last 12 months, we had three team members between the ages of 18 and 20 open Roth IRA’s and set up automatic contributions.

The importance of early exposure to financial literacy is best demonstrated by the following scenario: assuming 8% annual return, person 1 starts saving at age 25 and saves $3,000 for ten years and person 2 starts saving at age 35 and saves $3,000 for thirty years. At age 65, person 1 will have $472,000 and person 2 will have $367,000. By providing financial literacy training to my team members I am creating a world with a lot more people in the first category.

People with low financial literacy are more likely to have problems with debt (Lusardi and Tufano 2009), less likely to accumulate wealth and manage wealth effectively (Stango and Zin-man 2007), and less likely to plan for retirement (Lusardi and Mitchell 2006, 2009). Increased levels of financial literacy not only empower individuals but can have significant impact on our well-being as a nation. Through Lulu’s I have the unique opportunity to positively and concretely impact the lives of the young people we happen to employ. With the Awesome foundation’s help, we can continue to equip young minds with tools that will empower them for the rest of their lives.