Dear Reader,

The first time that I learned about budgeting was when I lived on my own. Before that, I had not learned how to plan for my financial future. As a child, I didn’t have those discussion with anyone. From my grandpa, I did learn how to bargain and sell or buy for a good price. I also have to give credit to Carl Almquist, who was a natural teacher and friend. As a young woman on my own. I achieved the crowning glory of owning a credit card. I bought all kinds of cute items. I worked in a mall so you can imagine the temptation to pull out that little rectangle that gave me access to lots of “things” – that I didn’t need. For those that might remember me back then, I even owned a green leather coat. I thought I was cool. Well, Carl was a wise man. Under his guidance, I threw my credit card away and learned how to plan, save and make wiser purchases. However, my skills on making my money work, without “robbing Peter to pay Paul” as the saying goes, came after many more years of learning, making mistakes and slowly finding success in my balance sheets. Reader, who first taught you about money management?

Image Description: Picture of Debbie, white woman with silvery hair dark glasses, finger leaning on face, pursed lips with a thinking expression.

 

I am curious, before we move on – what does it mean to “rob Peter to pay Paul”. According to English Language & Usage, “the expression refers to times before the Reformation when Church taxes had to be paid to St. Paul’s church in London and to St. Peter’s church in Rome; originally it referred to neglecting the Peter tax in order to have money to pay the Paul tax. The Peter tax referred to the tax that people had to pay to fund the building of St. Peter’s Church, while the Paul tax referred to the tax that the people had to pay to fund the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral.”

Whew! That’s a mouthful. Reminds me of the “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked? Readers, do you see what I am doing? I have already digressed into two different conversations rather than talk about money management. Why is that?

 

Image Description: photo shows three people, two with their backs to the camera sitting in a conference room, in the middle is a young Black man, Lorne, maroon shirt and smiling, white board behind him and laptop in front of him as he speaks to his audience

 

Well, part of the reason is that we aren’t taught good money practices, and then we don’t have or know the language around those conversations. That’s why Lorne Jenkins and his mom, Ellen Ross, greatly sparked my curiosity. The first time I heard Lorne was at a Longmont Museum event. He was one of the panel speakers. I remember people talking about him as this up-and-coming entrepreneur. I wanted to know more about his company. Hence, I am excited to introduce you to Lorne. However, to begin his story, we must start with Ellen, his mom. She established the foundation of what became Lorne’s future.

Image Description: Ellen, a Black woman with shoulder length wavy hair, white sleeveless dress trimmed in navy at the neckline, necklace with four red stones, smiling

 

Ellen grew up in St. Louis, Missouri in a middle-class neighborhood. She said that money was an important value taught in her home – often by example and the lifestyle of her parents. Ellen’s dad was the owner of a distributing business that served the 7-up company. By the age of ten, Ellen would sometimes accompany her father to work and help with office paperwork and simple accounting tasks. Her dad taught her to save and live off the interest. Her mom also managed her money well. When Ellen’s parents divorced, Ellen saw her mother purchase a home and Ellen’s grandparents move in with them. Reader, is money management important to you?

Image Description: Ellen as a young girl, sitting at a table with a birthday cake, smiling, with dark hair flowing behind her back, blue and white gingham dress and white lace around the collar

 

Another piece of her heritage that influenced Ellen was the fact that both Ellen’s parents died before they were 60 years old. She said, “I had no parents to fall back on.” Living on her own, Ellen said she often felt the stress of “how do I do this?” She would ask herself, “how do I plan for retirement?” Early on, she didn’t have a picture of her own financial success for herself. Ellen said that in her young adult years, much of what she learned about finances, “I learned the hard way through my experiences.”

After high school, Ellen attended the University of Missouri and then transferred to Howard University in Washington, D.C. There, she received her degree in Computer-based Information Systems.

Image Description: Ellen on a wooded lot of land with trees behind her and snow on the ground, she is wearing blue jeans, dark blouse and smiling at the camera

 

As a young single woman, she bought a house. Later, when she met her fiancé, he too was buying a house. When they both wanted to refinance their loans, Ellen had a rude awakening of the equity iof both homes. There was a huge difference in the interest rate of one versus the other. Much of Ellen’s payments had been towards the interest so little had been paid on the house. This was in contrast to the other home where more of the payments were actually paying off the purchase of the home. “The difference was huge,” Ellen said.

Ellen and her fiancé married in 1991.  They lived in Rochester, New York and Ellen worked for Eastman Kodak as a systems analyst.  Three years later she decided to get her law degree and moved to Cleveland, Ohio. In 1995, Ellen graduated with her Juris Doctor (Law Degree). As well, their first child Lorne was born. The couple moved back to New York where they lived for three more years. Work opportunities then took the couple to Seattle, Washington. In 2001, the couple moved to Colorado.

 

Image Description: Ellen and Lorne, both smiling, Lorne is wearing a black and white shirt and a gold birthday hat; Ellen is wearing a red and white dress

 

By 2003, Ellen was a stay-at-home mom with three children. Her firstborn, Lorne, was 8-years-old and he had two sisters, age 5 and age 2. As often happens, the siblings would often ask their parents to go out to eat or other things that came at an expense. While Ellen tried to explain, as an example, about the extra costs to eat in a restaurant, the children didn’t get the concept. Ellen knew, from her own experiences, that they would learn more by what is showed to them versus what is told to them. To help them understand the value of money and the consequences of spending frivolously, Ellen created a new way of teaching her children.

Ellen’s preparation started by creating an age-appropriate application form for each child. She designed a job description for the position of a son or a daughter. She bought play money and was ready to begin.

Each child completed the job application. Treating it professionally, Ellen called their references and she began her interview process with each child. A lovely memory was when her, then, 2-year-old daughter wanted to participate. She came to her interview, sat up straight in her chair and answered her mommy’s questions. When asked the question by Ellen, “What would you like to do?”, her daughter answered in that cute voice only a toddler could do, “Play”.

Each child then, weekly, received $40 (in play money). Ellen explained to her children that activities in the household now had a cost attached to them. For example: one meal = $1, to eat out = $3. Based on Ellen’s prices, the children paid for their transportation to and from school, laundry, hair appointments, and other routine household activities. To discourage some activities, Ellen had higher prices for such things as time to play video games.  She even charged for arguing time among the children.

Almost immediately Ellen noticed differences in her household. “I used to be a fusser,” she said. “Now, I didn’t have to fuss anymore.” Ellen said if the children were starting an argument, she would calmly ask them for some of their dollars. She said they began to realize there was a cost for their behavior. Ellen said they started to recognize, “I don’t want to spend money on things like fighting,” so they stopped the arguments. They began to prioritize what the important activities were in their life. Eating out or video games now had a cost attached to it. The children had to plan ahead to be sure they had enough money to do the “fun”, and more costly activities.

As the “game” or teaching tool developed, Ellen allowed the children to take out loans. For example, one time, Lorne laid his money near a window. It blew away. He had to apply for a loan with his mom to be paid back from his weekly “salary” of $40 in play money. As a part of the lesson, Lorne also paid interest on this loan.

Another element to the “game” was the ability for the children to make extra income. Chores such as pulling weeds or other odd jobs around the house could be completed for pay above and beyond their weekly forty dollars.

Ellen used this creative education model for her children for six months. It was successful for several reasons. Her children were much more aware of the concept of money. An example of how the children applied this was their ability to shop in a more economical way. Ellen said, “they went to the sales racks.” She said they now understood the cost of items and its value.

Now grown, Lorne told me he remembers having to negotiate his choices. He said that the money game principals stayed with him his whole life. It taught him how he spent his money and time. He sees it as a “good foundation”, he said.  “It became a part of my life. This is how I was raised”. If you are a parent, Reader, what values do you think you imparted on your children?

By 2003, Ellen was part of a group called MOPS – Mothers of Preschoolers. As she talked to several of the moms, she recognized that her teaching tool might have value for others. She explained her concept. Some of the mother’s started it, but they did not follow through to the end.

In 2008, Ellen opened her own law firm – the Law Office of Ellen M. Ross.  and by 2010, Ellen was divorced and settled in the city of Longmont.

Again in 2017, some friends talked with Ellen about rearing children. She shared her money concept game, and once again, this group of moms started the money game, but they also did not follow through.

As Lorne grew into a young man, he and his mom talked several times about the long-ago money game that his mom had invented. They always thought it had potential to become a viable business. However, the timing wasn’t right to start this idea; it was put on the shelf for another day.

Image Description: Lorne in track uniform of dark shorts, orange tank shirt, wearing #222, arm spread; wide legs in a active movement position in the air, Lorne smiling a victory smile

 

Lorne attended college in Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina. During his undergraduate years, he enjoyed being a part of a Division I track and field team. Lorne graduated in 2017 with a degree in economics.

Later that year, he moved to London, England. He attended the University of East London. There he received his master’s degree in finance. After graduation, he took a position as a foreign exchange broker with Alpha FX. His clientele were companies who bought and sold products throughout different countries. Lorne worked to give his clients the best exchange rate costs to ensure success and minimize risk to their finances.

Image Description: Lorne wearing black, white and two shades of blue striped shirt, water fountain and trees in the background, Lorne is smiling

 

By June of 2019, Lorne was ready to fly back home to Longmont. When he returned, he took an extended family vacation and then started sending out applications for work. He sent his resume to many companies throughout the United States.

Lorne’s life changed after one of his in-depth interviews.  As Lorne talked with the interviewer, he answered questions about his creative ideas and drive. The gentleman on the other end of the phone said, “you know you will always be working for someone else for the rest of your life.” This was that moment for Lorne – the significant instant when he decided to form his own path. Are you an entrepreneur, Reader? If so, what sparked that decision for you?

Understanding the importance of the money game from his childhood, Lorne began to formulate a method of teaching financial applications to students. Over the years, both he and his mom recognized that people do not often talk to their children about their cash. Lorne said, “They don’t know how to educate their children about money. Adults often don’t have a lot of information about finances which adds to the difficulty when trying to talk to their children.” Reader, what early conversations about money matters took place in your home?

Throughout Lorne’s initial planning, he felt that the best way to implement his new idea was to use the school system as the vehicle for introducing families to the money game. Lorne had kept in touch with his former fourth grade teacher, Mr. Brian Huey. Lorne visited him, presented his idea and said, “what do you think? Will it work?”

Mr. Huey thought it was a great idea because he said that financial literacy is not taught in the classroom. As well, he told Lorne that there is limited resources and literature about the topic. Mr. Huey suggested that Lorne create an app. This is a software application that is designed for use on a phone or tablet. Building on his former teacher’s advice, Lorne started working with a developer and a software company. Within six months, his team generated the money game idea into a working app.

Lorne planned March 2020 as the time to rollout the Mini Money Management application – his financial program for students. His team had completed the pilot program, and he had teachers ready to use the teaching app in their classrooms. However, remember March of last year? That was when COVID-19 entered our world and schools were closed.

Consequently, Lorne’s team pivoted. They decided to unfurl the financial tool by collaborating with parents. It wasn’t until later, with hindsight, we see what parents were going through in 2020. Moms and dads were losing work days, learning to work from home, applying for unemployment and finding ways to feed their families. On top of that, the pandemic times created a turn in our educational processes. Many parents had no choice but to enroll their children into online homeschooling. Lorne said, that in the midst of those changes, “parents were not interested in picking up a new online program.” As well, the app was not originally designed to be used with parents. It was a tool created for teachers in a classroom setting.

Once again, Lorne questioned how he could educate students about financial responsibility. In fact, he pivoted his roll-out plan to a different model. Instead of putting the responsibility on parents, Lorne and his mom, Ellen, took on the teaching role. Throughout the early implementation, with their mentoring and technology, the program created an environment for students to see how their current financial choices affect their future economic stability. In the past school year, they worked with ten to forty students a week. As well, as they continued to grow the business, about two dozen teachers began using Lorne’s Mini Money Management team.

By February 2021, forty new teachers signed on to learn the program. Moreover, teachers in other states requested Mini Money Management’s programs for their classrooms. Lorne said the low-cost monthly subscription fee for the program is “cheaper than Netflix”. As his new business grows, Lorne is constantly tracking the efficacy of the program. He regularly reviews the input he receives, acknowledges the successes and looks at how to improve. Reader, are you flexible in your planning to allow for unforeseen circumstances? Do you keep moving forward? If so, give an example, please.

 

Image Description: Lorne and his mom standing in an office holding a large cardboard check granted to Mini Money management; both are smiling; Ellen is wearing a black dress and wide silver necklace; Lorne is wearing a gray suit and black shirt; check is written for $1000 and signed by Entrepreneurship for All

 

Lorne’s work has been quite successful. Mini Money Management has now served over 750 students on their platform. They are working with teachers in Colorado, Texas, Hawaii & Iowa. As well they worked with multiple Colorado based nonprofits including AOPYO, Minds Matter, and The Urban Camp which is located in Canada. Lorne said, “We are also partnering with an education company called Everydae to supplement the teaching that my mom and I do in the classrooms.” To finish out this school year, they have ten different schools & nonprofits scheduled to take their classes through the end of the year; Lorne was happy to say that one was his alma matter – Campbell University.

Oprah Winfrey once said, “Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.” I listened to Lorne and Ellen as they describe their journey as entrepreneurs. They had ideas. They tried to implement. Sometimes it did not take off the way they hoped. Things did not go as planned. World events got in the way. Notwithstanding, they persevered. Their seed – their dream – to build a teaching model about money responsibility began to germinate. Now with two years of measurable success, they are able to see the company, Mini Money Management flourish.

I would also recommend that you follow Lorne on his social media. I have been reading his posts for almost a year and he gives excellent tips to help us grow in our financial intelligence. His links can be found at the end of this blog.

 

Image Description: Lorne wearing long sleeved white pullover shirt; smiling

 

Readers, it is exciting to watch this new business grow. As Lorne said, “we are building financial foundations.” I started this blog scrambling for words to use. Writing about money and making it an interesting conversation for readers is challenging. I grew up in an era where money was not discussed. If I asked questions, I was told it was “none of my business”. I soon stopped asking. Like Ellen, I had to learn through the trials of experience. I made a number of financial mistakes along the way. I also learned how to be successful. I learned to reach out to others who did understand money. I listened. I applied what I was taught, and I gained a better financial foundation for myself. As a mom and a grandma, I love that Mini Money Management is an option available for my grandchildren. Let’s pass on financial wisdom to the next generation.  Reader, what step could you take to pass on financial wisdom to your young family members?

Image Description: top left photo is older woman with silvery shoulder length hair; wearing a gray/purple knitted scarf; top right is a young man with dark brown hair wearing a turquoise t-shirt that has a sun emblem and the words, “Best Day Ever”; bottom left is a young woman with light brown long hair; wearing a red and white long-sleeved t-shirt that has the words, “Choose love”; bottom right is a young woman with short blond hair; wearing a black and white blouse; middle is a logo that has a handprint and the words “Joy House”; below logo is the same young man wearing a black t-shirt with same logo on shirt. Everyone is smiling.

 

I apologize for the confusion with the email blog last month. I hope that you all received the corrected email telling you the story about my art journey and the exciting collaboration with Joy House in Estes Park, Colorado. Thank you for those who have already purchased items from their store. You are helping me give back to my community and that is a wonderful moment to celebrate JOY! Because of last month’s mix-up with the emails, I am posting the link to my story again here: read last months blog.

Here are some of the comments from our readers: Jan said, I read your blog today.  I can see why it gives you so much joy. You as well as the other artists lives exude JOY!  Virginia said: I just finished reading it. I love it. Also, many readers such as Jen, Ginny, Mike and others said, “I’m checking out their website!” or “Can’t wait to see the items in the store!” Rita is an old friend from my childhood. She said, “Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy reading your blogs. I especially love seeing the pictures of you from years ago – brings back such nice memories!” Linda said, “As usual, loved your latest blog. Seth is very lucky to have parents who recognized his potential…not his limitations.” Quite a few readers mentioned that they read it or watched the videos on Facebook too. Thank you, Christi, Ann, Laura, Chris, Cathy, Donna, Bev, Lisa, Johnson, Bob, Leah, Myriam and others. As well, a few of you have mentioned that you stopped in and visited Joy House. Thank you all for sharing your excitement with me!

Until next month, may peace be at your side,

Debbie Noel

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Debbie Noel
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Contact for Lorne Jenkins and Mini Money Management

• Visit Mini Money Management on Facebook. 
• Follow Mini Money Management on Instagram.
• Subscribe to Mini Money Management on Youtube.