During the month of February, NGPF will be celebrating Black History Month by highlighting Black financial leaders and educators via dedicated posts and student activities on the NGPF blog! 

We’re kicking off our blog post series by highlighting the work of Bola Sokunbi, a Certified Financial Education Instructor, money expert, and the CEO, best-selling author, and founder of Clever Girl Finance. Bola’s main goal, as found on the CGF website, “is to help women become accountable, ditch debt, save money, and build real wealth.” You can learn more about Bola’s inspiring story here!

Featured Resource and Activity Idea: Podcast Episode

In light of all the stock market frenzy around meme stocks, we couldn’t have discovered Episode 164: Navigating Your Emotions Around Investing with Nicole Hatcher of The Clever Girls Know Podcast at a better time! 

This episode focuses on how to deal with the highs and lows of the stock market ride - something many investors are currently dealing with - and how to stay true to your long-term investing strategies through it all! The episode is just under 20 minutes and can be chunked per our suggestions below. We’ve also provided some discussion questions and answers for each section to extend the learning. Happy listening! 

0:00-6:03

1. What kinds of emotions might someone have when seeing the value of their investment portfolio drastically drop? 
2. How might someone’s life situation affect how they emotionally respond to the ups and downs of the stock market? 
3. Nicole says, “The thing that I kept reminding myself is that the loss is not real...I see it on paper, but it’s not real. The only way that loss becomes real and I lock in those losses is if I panic and decide to start moving things around and selling things off.” What does she mean by this? 

6:04 - 9:00

1. According to Bola, how can having a solid emergency fund help you ride out the ups and downs of the stock market? 

9:01 - 12:20

1. What are some examples of long-term financial goals? 
2. What might be some long-term financial goals for you 1 year from now? 5 years from now? 10? 20? Longer? 
3. Why is it important to know what your long-term goals are? 

12:21 - 16:31

1. What tips does Nicole provide to help you navigate your emotions around investing? 
2. Are there any other things you might do to better navigate your emotions around investing? 

16:32 - 17:56

1. Nicole reminds us that it’s important to “keep an eye on tomorrow but to also remember to enjoy today as well” when budgeting. How can this approach help you budget more effectively? 

Additional Questions: 

1. A lot of investors are currently trading meme stocks like GameStop, AMC, and more. What advice would you give to these investors? Explain. 
2. Why might someone want to be a “buy-and-hold” investor? 
3. What is your main takeaway from this podcast episode? How can you apply this learning to your life? 

You can view the answers to these questions here! This interview is also available as a video. 

Clever Girl Finance has a treasure trove of resources that you can use with your students, including: 

• A number of personal finance videos via their YouTube Channel or Clever Girl Finance TV
• Informative articles on the Clever Girl Finance Blog 
• Educational episodes on the The Clever Girls Know Podcast

PS: Don’t miss NGPF’s Speaker Series event on Thursday, February 4 which will highlight four Black financial influencers including: Chris Browning of Popcorn Finance Podcast, Melissa Jean-Baptiste of Millennial in Debt, Kevin Matthews of Building Bread, and Ashley Copeland of Stacks & the City Podcast! Register here!

NGPF will be featuring Black financial leaders and educators in the majority of our weekly Speaker Series this month, focusing on Black creatives from different social media platforms who emphasize financial literacy in their content.

About the Authors

Sonia Dalal

Sonia has always been passionate about instruction and improving students' learning experiences. She's come a long way since her days as a first grader, when she would "teach" music and read to her very attentive stuffed animals after school. Since then, she has taught students as a K-12 tutor, worked in several EdTech startups in the Bay Area, and completed her Ed.M in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is passionate about bringing the high quality personal finance content and instruction she wished she'd received in school to the next generation of students and educators. When she isn't crafting lesson guides or working with teachers, Sonia loves to spend her time singing, being outdoors, and adventuring with family and friends!

Jessica Endlich

When I started working at Next Gen Personal Finance, it's as though my undergraduate degree in finance, followed by ten years as an educator in an NYC public high school, suddenly all made sense.