Find out why NFL star Brandon Copeland has made financial literacy such an important part of his platform, what he wants to teach the next generation and all about his collaboration with the MoneyLion app. Watch!

Wake Up With Cheddar

NFL Superstar Brandon Copeland Talks Importance Of Financial Literacy

earlier I had the chance to talk to NFL player Brandon Copeland all about his passion for financial literacy and how he plans to help future generations take a look, Brandon good to have you here. So you're working beyond the world of professional sports, you're getting the word out when it comes to financial literacy specifically with college students. So how did this work sort of come about for you? Yeah, years ago, you know, being in the NFL and trying to make some major financial purchases in my life and, and ultimately these, some of the most important decisions in my life. I just felt completely unequipped and unprepared. I remember uh in 2017 I bought my first home with my then now wife and, and she called me, I was playing with the Detroit lines at the time, she called me and said, hey does everything in this closing disclosure look right. And after scrolling through 80 pages of documents that I had never seen before in my life, I was like, this is a little backwards, I'm about to sign my life over for 30 years and I have no idea what I'm looking at. And so uh, we, we started the journey then of trying to educate people and equip people with the information to make these decisions financially confidently right to be able to walk away from a major life decision like that happily. And so now we've been kicking off this partnership with money line to figure out more more ways to deliver this information to the people that need it the most and the people that deserve it the most. Yeah. So true. I mean as somebody who also purchased the house, I can tell you and I agree with you the paperwork is the most insane thing you've ever seen in your life. So Brandon, what do you want people to know about the huge gap in financial literacy in this country? Yeah. I just think that ultimately it starts with our education and we have to take ownership of our own education unfortunately. Um as much as people are trying to push for education reform and financial education mandates as they're calling it around the country, ultimately, we have to again take ownership of this journey ourselves so that we can uh live our fullest lives. We want to create the lives that we want. And although we don't wanna be comparing ourselves to other people and trying to do things for other people when it comes to our money, we are trying to attack the mental psychology when it comes to not only earning money, but also just knowing and understanding your money. I want people to be happy. I want people to create the lives that they want. And it all starts for me with educating you on how to make manage your money and how to make money a tool for you as opposed to you always having to work for your money. Yeah, very good point. Brandon. We heard the terms invest and save a lot, but more often than not we aren't told how to do so. So what advice do you have for people in terms of getting that education? Yeah, first and foremost, obviously there's a lot of information on the internet nowadays, but I say you gotta find the trusted resources obviously what we're building with money line and money line University. I'm the Dean of Financial Education years ago, I'm not gonna lie to you in high school, I was afraid of the dean right now. I'm the Dean of Financial Education. So hopefully I'm a little more cooler of a dean than people have seen in the past. But um you know the goal is to find those resources and find those delivery men mechanisms that work for you, find a step by step plan that you can not only follow but actually execute and build on top of for the rest of your life and understanding that financial education is, is a journey, this is not just a one time thing, this is not just investing in one meme stock. This is not just, well, I'm not gonna lie to you, we hit the lottery then you should be pretty good lottery today. You should be pretty good. But this is a, a lifelong journey and you're always growing on this journey and as you master certain things, hey maybe I finally built my emergency fund to have six months in it. Well now finally paid off my debt. Well now there's another lesson to be learned and there's more growth to be had in terms of how to continue to manage your money. So I think first unlocking your mind and understanding that you'll never be to the place that you want to be financially simply because there's always going to be something else for you to learn. There's always going to be some other thing that's going to pique your interest and help you grow your money because as soon as we accomplish certain goals, naturally as human beings, we're looking to the next thing Yeah. Brandon, you mentioned your partnership with Money Lion. It's a money app that everybody can download on their phone to help spread awareness about this topic. So tell us a little about this app in your partnership with them. Yeah. So money line, they've been trying to continue to democratize the access to financial education information and ultimately make it cool, right? Um you know, I've been a professor at the university of pennsylvania for the past four years, we're going on our fifth year now and, and there's sometimes where I'm teaching and I'm like, man, this is kind of tough talking about these saving accounts and checking account interest rates right now. Right? So what money line is doing is they're re energizing this space and bringing some of the top talent in the world um, to create information and content around our financial education and the beautiful thing about that is this is something that affects us all, you know, the best pitch in the world to about understanding your money is the fact that, listen, this isn't science where only some of us may be interested in it or uh, you know, super high mathematics were only, again some of us may use in our lives. We all are going to need to understand our credit score at some point. We're all gonna want to buy a car or rent a car or rent a home or rent or buy a home one day. And so um, we're trying to work on making this information something that you don't even feel like you're sitting through a class or a course when you're learning it, how do you make this material as entertaining as just sitting down and scrolling through some of the other things that you see on your favorite social media platforms. Alright, Brandon Copeland, good to talk to you, congratulations on all your success. Brandon, thank you for joining us.