Sep 10, 2021

NGPF Podcast: Kevin Matthews, author of Burning to Blueprint: Rebuilding Black Wall Street After a Century of Silence

 

What's clear from this conversation is that Kevin Matthews is an educator at heart. After spending several years in the classroom, he took his interest in finance and parlayed it into a financial advisor role. Ultimately, he realized that his interest lay in providing financial advice to educate a larger audience. This led to his current venture, Breaking Bread with the tagline "Investment education for people who look just like you." Listen to Kevin describe his entrepreneurial journey as well as his decision to research and ultimately write a book about an incredibly painful chapter in his hometown's history, namely, the Tulsa Race Massacre. 

Details:

  • 0:00~1:19 Introduction
  • 1:19~4:10 Early money lessons
  • 4:10~5:53 Experience bringing personal finance topics to a middle school math class
  • 5:53~6:43 Role of a financial advisor
  • 6:43~10:24 The power of habit
  • 10:24~11:39 Making investing less scary
  • 11:39~13:12 “Get an index fund and mind your business”
  • 13:12~15:10 Increased access to investing
  • 15:10~15:39 A word from NGPF
  • 15:39~17:52 Developing BuildingBread and creating content
  • 17:52~19:11 Biggest myths and misconceptions about investing
  • 19:11~27:51 Researching and writing about the Tulsa Race Massacre
  • 27:51~29:40 Learning about Black Wall Street
  • 29:40~32:26 The experience of writing From Burning to Blueprint
  • 32:26~33:20 Reception of the book
  • 33:20~34:37 Conclusion

Resources:

Quote:

  • “Writing the book at the time I wrote it, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement last year with the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, it was extremely important to tell my side of the story but to provide a blueprint to rebuild Black generational wealth going forward.”

About the Authors

Ren Makino

Ren started interning at NGPF in 2014, and worked part-time through high school and college. With his knowledge growing alongside NGPF, he joined the team to work full-time after graduating from college in 2020. He is also the producer of the NGPF podcast. During his free time, he likes to try out coffees from different roasters across the world.

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

Mail Icon

Subscribe to the blog

Join the more than 11,000 teachers who get the NGPF daily blog delivered to their inbox: