During the filming of our documentary movie, on the topic of the Financial “Illiteracy” Epidemic in America, in early 2009, I noted the following memorable quotes from some of our interviewees, which I wanted to share. For more details, or video clips of the interviews, please visit: http://www.SecretsOfMoneyMovie.com. The quotes:
Adam Carroll (Co-Author of “The Money Game”): “It takes about 3 years of constant action towards something before you begin to achieve the success you think you should.”
John “Spider” Salley (NBA Superstar): “I don’t read the sports section of the newspaper because it does not contain anything that helps my business.”
Peter Bielagus (Young America’s Financial Coach): “In America, you can have ANYTHING you want, just not EVERYTHING you want.”
Rob Stumbaugh (Bank President): “Young man, the key to financial freedom is as follows: same house, same spouse.”
Chris Gardner (Entrepreneur & Movie Icon): “The person who is going to best lookout for your financial well being does NOT live in the White House, he lives in YOUR house.”
Sanyika Calloway Boyce (Financial Fitness Coach): “I did everything right academically, but everything wrong financially, so I turned my MESS into my MESSAGE.”
We’ve been getting a lot of inquiries lately about the status of our documentary movie on Financial Literacy. We’re still working tirelessly on “post-production,” which involves editing more than 120 hours of raw footage to make a “rough cut” which can then be marketed to possible networks, JV partners and other distribution sources. We also think that waiting slightly longer may improve the potential audience of the film as Financial Literacy continues to garner more media exposure (and consumer attention) everyday. Thanks to everyone for their continued support of our project and please check back frequently for updates!
The “Pit Bull of Personal Finance,” New York Times bestselling author, and host of A&E’s Big Spender, Larry Winget, posted a clip of his interview with us on his website: http://www.LarryWinget.com.
Here is the FIRST DRAFT (rough cut) of the trailer for Secrets of Money: The Documentary Movie. We are not widely promoting this yet, as it obviously needs some tweaking, but we wanted to share a sampling of the interviews to give many of our supporters a feel for the content. With this said, your feedback and input is greatly welcome.
Although I wish the video quality was better, I was almost physically sick after watching this 20/20 segment, and felt compelled to share it. Beware: It is shocking and scary, and will likely make you angry too. Unfortunately, the interviews speak for themselves as it relates to our educational system.
While I am certainly the first to say that there are numerous hard working teachers, principals and administrators, the traditional SYSTEM has not changed with the times and is broken in terms of unions and seniority; we need to give good (effective) teachers bonuses and fire those who do poorly (gee, just like in the real world…). I could care less if you’ve been a teacher for 2 years or 20.
I was especially frustrated with the part where the NY Schools superintendent said it took 6 years to get rid of an admitted sex offender. I think he said their state spends $40 million PER YEAR for a “Rubber Room” — an office building where they send teachers (who just read magazines all day) who are no longer fit for teaching in the classroom, but they must continue to employ and pay due to the union rules. Give me a break!
Being on a fast-track for this production (due to the timeliness of the topic), we still plan to “wrap” filming in early March so that the movie can be released in May. Here is our 2009 travel and filming schedule:
1/2 – 1/5 – San Francisco, CA
1/14 – 1/16 – New York, NY
1/17 – New Hampshire
1/18 – Connecticut
1/24 – 1/27 – Phoenix, AZ
1/28 – Fort Collins, CO
1/31 – Denver, CO
2/1 – 2/8 – Crew Break
2/15 – 2/18 – Chicago, IL
2/24 – 2/28 – Los Angeles, CA
3/1 – 3/4 – Las Vegas, NV
Braun Mincher will be a return TV guest with Neil Cavuto live on the Fox Business Channel on Thursday, January 15th during the 6 pm hour (Eastern) to talk more about his nationwide financial literacy initiative and his new documentary film project, The Secrets of Money. Be sure to tune in and click here for the channel finder.
[UPDATE - 1/14/09]:
This appearance has been pre-empted for coverage of President Bush’s farewell address. Please sign up for our mailing list so we can let you know when it is re-scheduled.
Since we filmed our 51st interview for the documentary on Friday in Northern California (we plan to do +/- 100 total, so are now more than half way done with interviews) and it is now a new year, I felt this to be a good opportunity to write a quick summary of what we have completed so far and give everyone a status update on our exciting film project.
We started filming for The Secrets of Money: The Documentary Movie, just over a month ago and have been keeping ridiculously busy, to say the least. We spent most of December filming in Colorado, but now we are on the road for the next 2 months to finish the remaining interviews. In January and February, we will be traveling coast-to-coast, from LA to New Hampshire and everywhere in between, capturing on camera more interesting perspectives on the topic of financial literacy and trying to find out why schools generally do not teach this important subject at any level.
Although about half of our interviews are with “real people” everyone can relate to, the balance will contain a variety of well-selected and interesting educators, students, government officials, celebrities, personal finance experts and others. So far, the interviews have been nothing short of fascinating and I am confident that we are getting material that will shock, entertain, educate and inspire viewers, and will hopefully lead to change as it relates to how and where financial literacy is taught.
He is a summary of just some of the interviews we have already completed:
• United States Senator – Says financial education should be the “top priority” for every school.
• President’s Financial Literacy Council Member – Thinks both schools and parents share a responsibility for financial education, but neither are doing anything about it.
• Retired High School Principal – Has “no clue” why schools do not require financial literacy classes.
• Bestselling Author – Feels that schools are committing “child abuse” by not teaching basic personal finance skills to all students.
• Real Estate Attorney – Says consumers have “no clue” what they are signing when it comes to real estate and mortgage closings.
• Well-known Personal Finance Blogger – Gets 200,000 people per month to visit his site and teaches them the basics of financial literacy since the schools do not.
• Dog Groomer & Plumber – Became “financially free” by age 40 and share their secrets of success.
• 28 Year Old Web Developer – Makes $39k/year, but has $40k equity in his modest condo and $40k in retirement savings. Probably one of the most truly “happy” people we have interviewed.
• 27 Year Old Teacher – $65k in credit card debt and has no clue where to turn.
• 39 Year Old Police Officer – Lots of credit card debt and too much house than he can afford all because he was never taught about personal finance.
• 23 Year Old Plumber – After loosing his $100k/year job is now living in his van and not sure where his next meal will come from. Blames never being taught in school about basic financial literacy.
• 34 Year Old Landscaper – Makes $35k/year and works hard, but loves his life, has no debt and just got married.
And, here are just several of the remaining interviews we still have coming up:
• TV Host & Author – Specializes in “Financial Interventions” and has a unique way of providing financial education.
• Nationally Syndicated Personal Finance Columnist – Sees the lack of financial education everyday.
• Young Physician – Went back to get this MBA, because even with all of the education received through medical school, still was never taught even the basics of personal finance.
• Young couple – Getting ready to graduate from college and trying to figure out how to pay for their wedding.
• Coverage of Jump$tart Financial Literacy Event in New Hampshire – teaches to both students and their parents.
• Coverage of “Money X” Event in Los Angeles – uses an engaging MTV Awards style production to appeal to students.
Thanks to everyone for your continued interest and support of our documentary film project exposing the state of financial literacy (illiteracy) in America. We are still planning for the movie to be released nationwide in May 2009. Please be sure to visit our website at www.SecretsOfMoneyMovie.com for frequent updates and our new FAQ’s page. Happy 2009!
We just added an FAQs Page to the site. We hope it helps answer many of the common questions we are getting about the documentary film project. Feel free to contact us with additional questions.
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