ESCANABA — Financial literacy was the topic of discussion at the Stonehouse Restaurant and Lounge in Escanaba Thursday during a “Lunch and Learn” session. CEO of Pershing Advisor Solutions, Mark Tibergien, Financial Literacy student Caitlyn Gimler, and Erika Fix, American government, economics and personal finance teacher at Gladstone High School, presented about how to get younger generations to take part in building financial futures and spread awareness about how to handle finances. The event was hosted by Gladstone High School.

Tibergien, a Gladstone High School alumni, is the chief executive officer at Pershing Advisor Solutions in New York, a subsidiary of BNY Mellon Company. The firm is one of the “country’s leading custodians for registered investment advisors and family offices.” In 2017, Investment Advisor survey named Tibergien the most influential person in financial services and for eight consecutive years, Tibergien has been recognized as one of the “100 Most Influential” people in the accounting profession.

In addition to his countless other accolades, Tibergien hasn’t forgotten about his former high school, and has been the leading contributor to camps and courses offered at Gladstone related to managing finances.

Tibergien explained the main issue is that a majority of Americans don’t fully understand fiscal responsibility and those who help manage it.

“The level of financial illiteracy in this country is horrible,” said Tibergien.

According to Tibergien, there are 40,00 fewer financial professionals in the U.S. today than there were in 2008. In addition, there are 1,400 fewer broker dealers than in 2008 and there are more certified financial planners (CFP) over the age of 70 than under the age of 30.

In an effort to bridge this divide, Tibergien helped fund the Gladstone Area Schools Elementary Summer Financial Literacy Camp, which teaches students the basics of budgeting, saving, and making better choices related to money. Not only does the camp provide valuable information to students, but it also stirs conversations with parents as well, noted Tibergien. The camp ran from June 6-10 where 22 students joined together for five morning sessions to learn the basics of fiscal responsibility.

“This is a career where you can profoundly impact the lives of other people,” said Tibergien.

After attending a lunch with a fellow financial expert a few years ago, Tibergien was inspired to bring the idea of teaching finances in the Gladstone district. Working with teachers and Gladstone School Superintendent Jay Kulbertis, they brought a personal economic program to the school. Tibergien said although the course is an elective, more than 50 percent of students are participating in the class and many are looking into a career in finance because of it.

“The nature of the course is profound because it’s not just on investing, it’s about the way in which people think about their money,” said Tibergien, adding this course is special because currently only 12 states in the United States require financial education as part of the course work.

A recent graduate of Gladstone, Caitlyn Gimler, spoke about the benefits of the class and how it has opened her eyes to a possible career as a CFP.

“It was probably the most helpful class I had at the school,” said Gimler. “This is the one class that throughout the day that I knew that I was going to really learn something that I am going to use for the rest of my life.”

Gimler explained that throughout the course, financial experts from the area talked about what a career in finance is really like, including salary, day-to-day duties, and why students should be interested in a career like theirs. Gimler said these presentations really gave a clear glimpse into the real world and also provided a better understanding of fiscal management.

In addition, the personal finance class participated in Financial Literacy Month in April. Throughout the month, the students did presentations and made posters to underclassmen on a variety of topics including FASFA for college bound scholars, budgeting, and 401K for future savings.

“Basically the personal finance class summarized for kids who are younger and kind of just exposing it to them,” said Gimler of the financial month.

Although the month wasn’t a huge success, Gimler said the main reason for this could be correlated with the fact that the idea of fiscal responsibility isn’t fully discussed until students reach high school. Instead, Gimler said schools and parents need to be exposing their kids to these kinds of topics at a younger age.

Gimler also touched upon the summer financial literacy camp, where elementary students had the opportunity to take field trips to credit unions, Pat’s Groceries, and participated in an activity designed to show how different choices could result in savings. The youngsters also learned the basic concept of investing, bonds, stocks, and mutual funds.

“It was very successful,” said Gimler, adding a camp was also held for middle school students.

Gimler plans to attend Grand Valley University in the fall to pursue a study in finance and international business.

Leading the personal finance class at Gladstone is Erika Fix. According to Fix, even though she is not an expert in the field of finance, the course has also helped her develop financially.

“It actually helped me,” said Fix. “I really started to believe in it.”

Throughout teaching personal finance, Fix said it’s helping build her purpose of being an educator of providing a positive place to grow and learn because she’s teaching them realistic things like budgeting, saving, accumulating credit, debt, and investments. Fix noted that some kids see poor financial practices at home and that can effect where they will be in the future and how they approach money later in life.

“And if that’s what they’re seeing at home, how do we expect them to take the steps to be a successful adult?,” questioned Fix. “How would they even understand how to approach the financial world?”

At the end of the presentation, Fix said that because she is not an expert, she hopes that more masters of the finance industry will come forward and help move the personal economics course forward to continue the great progress happening at Gladstone High School and also continue the conversation of teaching economics in schools.

“Without Mark’s help we wouldn’t have this class, without Mark’s help we wouldn’t have the camp,” said Fix. “But what we’re doing is experimental, it’s one step at a time and we don’t have anyone to help us. I want experts and I want help. I’d like some leadership.”