Ross Mac: educator, entrepreneur, and financial literacy champion
&
Femi Foaoye:Co-Founder and CEO of D.R.E.A.M.

About Ross Mac and Femi Faoye

Ross Mac

Ross Mac is a champion of financial literacy. After graduating from the Wharton School of Business, Ross began his career on Wall Street at Morgan Stanley. He is now an educator and entrepreneur committed to improving financial literacy through his hit segment, Maconomics, on REVOLTtv.

Femi Faoye

Femi Faoye, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of D.R.E.A.M, has a lot to say about the state of financial literacy in America. In 2009, Femi started D.R.E.A.M. (Developing Responsible Economically Advanced Model-Citizens), a non-profit organization that empowers America’s underrepresented, urban youth through financial education. (In Femi’s spare time 😉, he works as a Real Estate Executive at WeWork.)

The Interview: Digging Into Their Financial Literacy Work

In honor of Black History Month, we sat down with Ross and Femi to highlight the important work they are doing in the financial literacy space.

What does Black History Month mean to you?

Ross: “So what does Black History Month mean to me? That is a great question. Obviously, I don't like that it's the shortest month of the year, but it is a great opportunity to honor those individuals who came before us and made a crazy amount of sacrifice to get where we are today. In the grand scheme of things, we haven't come that far…or far enough. For me personally, it's just amazing to see the sacrifice that was made. It also gives me a different type of battery in my pack to get motivated to progress even further. We are marching into the 21st century still faced with events like George Floyd. During Black History Month, it is important to honor the progress, but also to think about how we can make black future brighter, as well as make history living during our lifetime in order to progress forward. I am always trying to help educate my community, and while a lot of different people play pivotal roles such as those in office, my role is to continue to educate my community.”

Femi: “Black History Month represents the annual moment when our nation can collectively acknowledge the atrocities, injustices, and struggle but also emphatically celebrate the perseverance, beauty, and successes that define the Black American experience. It’s a time when non-Black Americans can further educate themselves on the Black experience to better understand and appreciate the perspective and culture of what it is to be Black.”

What are your thoughts on financial literacy and financial inclusion today, especially among the African American communities?

Ross: “Financial literacy is a language, and in the black community, unfortunately it's a language we don't speak too well. To me, we have a very long way to go. As it stands the net worth for a black family is about $12,000, relative to $120,000 for a white family. Even more alarming, black net worth is predicted to be zero in 30 years…so how do we avoid that statistic? This could come in a multitude of ways but I am focused personally on what we can control, and that is to help prioritize financial literacy. I want to help people regain trust in a system that was broken, as seen in the 2008 credit crisis in which black net worth decreased by half. Financial literacy is a way to give people more hope and to start doing the right thing with their money that just isn't being taught in schools and our communities.”

Femi: “A lot of progress has been made in the effort to improve financial literacy in Black and Brown communities in the last decade. However, financial inclusion remains an area of opportunity as these communities remain underbanked and under invested relative to their majority peers. Much work remains to be done to ensure that Black and Brown communities have equitable access to financial products, the ability to build wealth through homeownership/real estate investing, and receive equal rates of approval for small business loans or venture capital to fuel entrepreneurial endeavors. The knowledge of managing personal finances is a noteworthy education, however without the ability to be a full participant in the banking sector, financial literacy education will not yield the intended goal.”

Which black voices in the financial literacy/personal finance space do you admire and why?

Ross: “I’m going to have to say myself, and my homie, Brandon Copeland. I love the work we do on our podcast Money Music Culture. We speak with top athletes and performers while we work to equate financial literacy to music which drives our culture. We dissect financial lyrics from songs to help those understand how to think about real estate, saving, and more importantly investing. I also love Earn Your Leisure with Ian Dunlap and what he is doing for our culture. He’s putting in important work to make a very hard and taboo topic easy for people to follow.”

Femi: “I greatly admire Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO of Ariel Investments. I used to look forward to reading Mellody’s personal finance column in Black Enterprise magazine. Each column, she provided real insight to important financial literacy topics in a manner that was easy to digest. Her approach to personal finance conversation is always practical, grounded, and rooted in “real talk.” Additionally, I share the view of Mellody that financial literacy needs to be included in K-12 education and stipulated as a requirement for graduation. Not only does she ‘talk the talk,’ but she also ‘walks the walk.’”

About Their Company: D.R.E.A.M

D.R.E.A.M. is sparking real change in underserved communities across America. $5 from every Benji Bank sold goes towards D.R.E.A.M.’s mission to close the wealth gap in urban neighborhoods.

For more information and to donate to D.R.E.A.M., please visit http://dream-usa.org/support.