Financial literacy in the African American community was the topic of a recent discussion held as part of Black History Month.
- February is Black History Month
- As part Black History Month programs put on by University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh, a discussion was held on financial literacy in the African American community
- Watch the video to hear from the financial advisor who was the guest for the program.
(The following is a transcript of the broadcast story.)
I'm Jon Erickson in Appleton, and this Black History Month, a local pastor who's also a financial advisor is part of a talk on financial literacy in the African American community.
Talking about money can be tough.
"It's called difficult discussions, it's a series that we have at UW-Oshkosh in the African American Studies Program," said Alphonso Simpson, director of the African American Studies Program at UW-Oshkosh.
And the topic in one of those talks was financial literacy in the African American community.
Alphonso Simpson leads the African American Studies Program at UW-Oshkosh and hosted the talk.
"How do we spend our dollars, you know? How do we take care of ourselves financially? How do we become our best selves financially? So I think in this season, in this time, it's important," Simpson said.
The guest at the talk was Charles Butler, a financial advisor who's also pastor at Breakthrough Covenant Church in Appleton.
"I want to help people in my community start to feel comfortable about investing, and not looking at it as something to be fearful of, because maybe no one in their family had ever done that, or you know someone had done it before and they had a bad experience," Butler said.
And as so many of us can learn money lessons the hard way, Butler can offer his own stories to try to help.
"I haven't always done it right, even as a financial advisor. There's been times where I've made bad mistakes, and if i can just help someone not make those same mistakes and just start out handling their finances the right way, or get their finances back on track, then I can be happy with that," Butler said.
