Meet Troy and Ebony Smith, a married couple who founded G1 Investment, the sole private lender in Charles County, Maryland, the richest black county in America, with a $100 million loan capacity. They have started a free program called Youth Investment Program Series 1 (YIPs1), where kids ages 7 to 17 can collaborate and demonstrate the power of pooling economic resources and learn the intricate details of becoming a lender and real estate investor, in addition to teaching their own three young girls about financial literacy.
As the first African-American mortgage lender with delegated underwriting power over a $100 million warehouse line, Troy and Ebony’s business, Their Youth Investment Program, will be the first of several in a series that will allow kids to learn about and examine the specifics of mortgage financing and real estate investing while also getting a sense of the strength of collective economic resources. Only the first 10,000 children and teenagers who register for free will be accepted.
Depending on their educational level, each student will receive a digital monthly case-study curriculum package that will closely examine a recent mortgage transaction or a real estate investment. The curriculum includes studying history, which will include case studies and historical facts pertinent to the transaction or investment; learning finance terms, which encourages them to learn words beyond what the modern school system teaches; and math problems, which encourages them to appreciate how math is used in everyday business.
Access to carefully chosen educational materials that working experts have created is invaluable. But this program’s most significant potential is intertwined with how these forward-thinking visionaries want to use their lending resources to build wealth for our children.
It’s one thing to teach a child about how money works and the value of financial literacy; however, when placed in a child’s hands, this knowledge and information are frequently treated as seeds without any soil to grow. This can hurt a child’s outlook on shaping opportunities for the future. With this initiative, we hope to serve as the soil, water, and sunshine for their knowledge seed, according to Mr. Smith.
The money they make will be applied toward a “membership fee” for a monthly curriculum, depending on their age group. This is a program component since legal limits prevent kids from pooling money together to lend or invest.
