Financial Literacy, Investing in Ourselves, & Providing Value to Others

Tyler Nicholls is an entrepreneur who is passionate about helping others at scale. He taught seventh grade Math with Teach for America before getting his Masters from Boston University. Tyler is the creator of Kudosy, a digital rewards system that helps solve the problem of financial literacy in the U.S. while strengthening families.

Today, Tyler joins the show to share his thoughts on having an abundance mindset, why it’s critical to develop sound financial habits early, and his passion for giving back to others.

📺 Watch on YouTube

https://youtu.be/1_2prh3gCy4

Key Takeaways

00:57 – Jonathan introduces today’s guest, Tyler Nicholls, who joins the show to talk about financial lessons he learned during his upbringing, including spending on what you value, and being intentional with money

08:29 – Having an abundance mindset

10:38 – From software products to financial literacy

11:59 – Jarring statistics on financial literacy and the vision for Kudosy

16:00 – The importance of building great financial habits early

24:15 – How the Kudosy app works

27:25 – The Lemonade Stand

31:13 – One thing that we can do to lead to greater personal and financial success and one thing to avoid doing

38:38 – The last thing Tyler changed his mind about and one place Tyler has visited that had a profound impact on him

42:16 – Jonathan thanks Tyler for joining the show and lets listeners know where to connect with him

Tweetable Quotes

“[My mother] taught me to really respect money. Money is not necessarily hard to come by, but when you have it, you want to make sure you spend it wisely. You want to be intentional with it.” (05:24) (Tyler)

“When I bought my home, I realized I liked owning real estate and I wanted to own a rental property. My head was turning like, ‘Is there something that I have that I can leverage here?’ And l realized, ‘Oh, my house has a whole bunch of equity in it and I can leverage a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit). And then I used that money to buy a second property so that I can rent out and have two homes that are appreciating.” (09:27) (Tyler)

“I started realizing, especially with my young family, that I wanted to help kids learn how to manage money.” (10:55) (Tyler)

“In the game of money, there’s not necessarily one way to win. There’s lots of different ways to play it and there’s lots of different levels of understanding. The diversity of thought in finance is actually really good and there’s lots of different strategies to win in this game.” (15:27) (Tyler)

“The way that it works is Kudosy helps kids behave really well. So, as a parent, when your kids are doing things that you like that they are doing, you can give them ‘Kudos.’ Then, the kid starts accruing these ‘Kudos’ and they can decide what to do with them.” (24:45) (Tyler)

“You should be investing, but I think we often underestimate the need to invest in ourselves to improve our earning capacity.” (34:10) (Tyler)

“The greatest satisfaction I have had is in giving value to other people.” (39:24) (Tyler)