MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In a survey of youth age 15-years-old, about 18% of them did not learn “fundamental financial skills” like budgeting and comprehending what an invoice is according to youth.gov. This fall break, Banking and Buckets is instilling financial responsibilities into kids from a young age. Young Memphians are learning the best way to build their net worth while shooting hoops.
“Financial literacy and basketball didn’t really tie in, then I started putting two and two together,” camper Adrzej Bloomfield said. “If I wanna go to the NBA, I gotta make money first, and if I wanna make money, I gotta keep that money. And they’re all teaching us and it’s all starting to come together and I really appreciate that.”
Banking and Buckets presenting sponsor is First Horizon and their arena sponsor is Pinnacle Financial Partners. All the fun takes place inside the Memphis Athletic Ministries Grizzlies Center.
Camper Jonathan Adkins said “I learned about budgets. That means like how much money you have to spend.”
The kids aren’t just learning finances. Running drills up and down the court are a key part of the camp too. Co-owner Brian Latham said only former professional athletes are able to be coaches so the kids are getting top-notch training.
“All of our coaches have all played high Division One basketball and professional, being overseas, or like Coach Shields – have actually won the WNBA Championship,” Latham said.
Brian and his wife took their passion for financial literacy and basketball and created something that kids in the community can look forward to.
“We learned about income and our expenses and don’t go over our budgets and use our money wisely,” camper Christopher Martinez said.
Camper Carley Pierce said “We need to make a budget for ourselves for when we get older so we’re not spending all our money.”
“This is something my wife and I came up with. We just wanted to give back to the community,” Latham said. “She’s been in banking for a long time so we just wanted to do something to give back to the kids.”
The camp really focuses on empowering kids to do whatever they want in basketball and with their money.
“They’re telling us that we got free range to do whatever we want but they want to teach us the right way to do it,” Bloomfield said. “They want to make sure we can all be special with our own money and do it the right way and all make our own business decisions.”