Taking Flyte and Changing Lives Through Financial Literacy With Alex Bigbie
In this episode of the Stuff About Money podcast, Erik Garcia, CFP®, BFA, and Xavier Angel, CFP®, ChFC, CLTC, hear from Alexander Bigbie of Flyte as he shares his story of running small programs to help individuals in vulnerable communities with their financial literacy. Be prepared to be inspired.
Episode Highlights:
- Alexander explains that establishing credit at a young age and learning how to effectively manage credit cards can have long-term benefits and help avoid future financial mistakes. (3:13)
- Alexander discusses his journey in creating Flyte, which aims to provide financial wellness programming and support to small business owners, particularly focusing on black women-owned businesses from low and moderate-income households. (9:11)
- Alexander mentions that Flyte partners with local banks to provide virtual sessions on personal and business finance, covering topics such as building credit, cyber security, P&L and balance sheets, and separating personal and business finances. (14:09)
- Alexander explains that Flyte’s financial education program focuses on credit building and counseling, helping individuals pay down bad debt and improve their credit scores by an average of 40 points, while also guiding them on establishing credit, budgeting, and reducing overspending. (21:25)
- Alexander discusses the importance of planning for retirement and avoiding relying on uncertain future windfalls or burdening children financially. (27:01)
- Alexander shares that Flyte brings in volunteers with various skill sets to help small businesses, including lawyers, bankers, and college students, and makes volunteering easy and rewarding by providing feedback and opportunities to see the impact of their assistance. (33:29)
- Alexander explains how Flyte helps local business owners in New Orleans, particularly those who couldn’t get into other programs. (41:01)
Key Quotes:
- “Get into saving habits early, even if it’s a little bit of money, you know, $50 a month, you know, whatever, start, put it have a savings account, start putting that money away, and then start investing that money into index funds. Because that will just passively grow your net worth in the background.” – Alexander Bigbie
- “We make volunteering very easy, and very rewarding too. Because you get feedback on everything and you get to see the business kind of take what you taught them and apply and, hopefully, you know do great things with it.” – Alexander Bigbie
