As a young man growing up in Tallahassee, Florida, I knew that working with kids in some capacity was in my future. My mother operated a child development center from home and I was her personal assistant. After completing my college education, I departed Tallahassee in 1983 in pursuit of a military career that spanned 21 years.
While serving in the military I always enjoyed working with kids whether it was coaching a sport, teaching Sunday School, or participating in a mentorship program. The military brought me to Charlotte in 1999 for a two-year tour of duty. I immediately fell in love with Charlotte because it reminded me of Tallahassee. I knew that I would return here after I completed my obligation to the military. I returned to Charlotte in April of 2003 to prepare for retirement and to pursue a dream of starting a small business. Since retiring from the US Army in October of 2003, I have worked in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system as a substitute teacher and at Back Creek Christian Academy as a volunteer, substitute teacher, and physical education instructor.
I launch my first entrepreneurship project at the age of 9 selling TV Guide Magazines from door to door. Other projects included a paper route, selling t-shirts and managing my own band. My biggest success to date has been a children’s transportation shuttle company called Totz-N-Teenz on Wheelz.
Over my life time of producing successful small business ventures, I developed a passion for financial literacy. Learning different money concept such as budgeting, income versus expense, investing and credit utilization were all fundamental to operating successful businesses. Additionally, financial literacy is just as important in our personal lives as well. It’s one of the few life topics along with education and health that impacts us either positively or negatively from the cradle to the grave. We must all realize and understand the importance of learning and teaching financial literacy early and throughout our life cycle and it’s potential impact.
Lastly, as we began to unpack the subject of financial literacy, let us also embark on the possibilities of closing the wealth gap with an eye towards generational wealth as the future end goal.