Barbara O’Neill.
Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE) will host a stop on a 10,000 mile road trip, The Road to Financial Wellness, a local grassroots and social media campaign designed to turn local discussions about money into a national conversation on financial wellbeing. The Rutgers stop will be Thurs., June 4, from 2 to 3 p.m., in the Cook Office Building on the George H. Cook Campus in New Brunswick.
According to Rutgers Cooperative Extension Specialist in Financial Resource Management Barbara O’Neill, the Rutgers stop will feature the seminar “Money & Mindset: The Road to Financial Wellness” as well as the recorded financial stories “from the road.” RCE welcomes participants to this important conversation but are encouraging those interested in attending to send an email to O’Neill at oneill@aesop.rutgers.edu.
“We’re pleased to be able to welcome Phroogal and to be a part of this very relevant conversation about money on its historic cross county road trip to promote financial wellness during the entire month of June,” says O’Neill. “The road trip is truly financial education in the making.”
“Millennials have a great resource – four to five decades of compound interest to build wealth – but only if they make wise financial decisions today,” says O’Neill. “As someone who provides financial education to people of all ages, I’ve seen the problems that result when people don’t pay attention to their finances. Both Phroogal and Rutgers Cooperative Extension are trying to change people’s financial lives for the better.”
Initiated by the financial education startup Phroogal, this unprecedented journey across the U.S. is the brainchild of Jason Vitug, a New Jersey resident and former senior executive with a Silicon Valley credit union. Vitug is a 2007 graduate of the Rutgers Business School.
The road trip, which begins on June 1 in Portland, Maine, will include 30 events in 30 locations in 30 days. It’s meant to break the last social taboo – openly talking about money, according to Vitug.
“I believe the road trip can highlight the importance of financial education that empower millennials in making better financial decisions that lead to living their dream lifestyle,” says Vitug.
“Focusing the conversation on financial stories and lifestyle goals is a powerful medium to bring about awareness and change,” he adds.
The Phroogal team will zigzag its way across the country, traveling to a different location each day to record and share the financial stories of people through informal street interviews and coffeehouse discussions.
Phroogal, which is based in Elizabeth, NJ, has partnered with nonprofits, credit unions, community organizations, college and universities as well as financial technology companies, who will host financial literacy events around the country.
RCE is part of a network of financial education providers in New Jersey through the Jump$tart Coalition affiliate called the NJ Coalition for Financial Education. It also originated Small Steps to Health and Wealth™, a national Cooperative Extension program developed by Rutgers educators to motivate Americans to take action to improve both their health and personal finances.
