Emily Koochel, PhD., Assistant Professor
We are pleased to have Emily Koochel share a “First” money memory and moment with us.
About Emily
Emily Koochel, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Michigan State University.
In Her Own Words
Sammy, I love this idea! I have a story.
As an instructor of personal finance, I often start off the first day of class by flashing the word “Money” on the screen and asking students to tell me the first word that comes to mind. We later follow-up this activity with having students sculpt their first money memory using play-doh. Now doing it myself, here is my story!
I grew up in rural Kansas, right smack-dab in the middle of the state, in a working-class family. Money was tight, but my parents always found a way.
Slowly but surely, through good money habits I started to notice small changes at home – very small. I can remember the day my mother brought home name brand cereal. I thought, “we’re rich, we never get name brand food”! It may sound silly, but we always had large bags of cereal with some variation of the name brand, Lucky Charms were Marshmallow Mateys, that kind of thing!
These small changes started to occur more frequently, and I could feel our lifestyle starting to shift. As a child you notice these small changes, and the money habits that lead to them.
My parents were diligent and committed savers, and is some ways they had to be. It was through this financial socialization that I developed my own conscious and unconscious values and beliefs about money.
I was ultimately taught the importance of saving and setting a budget, but more importantly sticking to the budget.
To this day my parents still sit down together and reconcile their finances together, and at the beginning of each month I schedule an evening to review my own personal spending and saving.
According to research, we know children model behavior and learn through observations as well as deliberative instruction.
If we create purposive learning experiences through financial literacy initiatives and financial education, in my opinion, we could be changing the trajectory of someone’s life – that’s powerful!
Discover more about Emily Koochel by visiting her LINKEDIN Profile!
Share your story with Sammy and his global audience, whether it's a:
…”jaw dropping” moment like Richard Busby;
…a first, favorite or “aha” money moment;
…or your childhood money memories.
We enjoy highlighting and sharing the stories of wonderful people and leaders as a part of our mission to spread awareness on the importance of early age, youth and family financial literacy.
You receive valuable exposure and “deposit” knowledge toward ending financial illiteracy!
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