Music: The Key to Financial Literacy!

How do you get young people interested in financial education? With music, is one answer. Today, artists like Shirin David and Jay-Z draw young people's attention to financial education with unconventional approaches. Modern influencers have long been aware of their responsibility and are increasingly contributing to the fact that financial literacy can also be popular thanks to the universal language of music.

What connects Jay Z and Eminem? They are rappers, agreed. And both were (and are) inspirations for Barack Obama. Jay Z's "My 1st Song" and Eminem's "Lose Yourself," Barack Obama revealed years later, gave him strength and inspiration when he first ran for office as POTUS. In an interview, Obama said, "It was rap that set my thinking in the right direction."

From Obama to smart phone addicted teenagers

Eminem was able to reach Obama in situations in which he was more or less unreachable. Eminem gained access through his music. He gained access through the world's social media and digital music streaming services. And not just Barack Obama listened in - Eminem's song "Lose Yourself" alone has been heard more than 1.25 billion times on YouTube alone to date.

Music, as Nikolaus Harnoncourt once said at a New Year's concert in Vienna, is the language that everyone understands. And if the lyrics are also (at least partly) influential, which - whether we like it or not - they are for those who hear them, then we should take advantage of this. Especially when it comes to a topic that is difficult to convey, such as financial education. And even more so when we aim at reaching young people where they are: online.

Compound Interest - by Kendrick Lamar & Ray Dalio

Imagine a rapper as you imagine him: with pants that only find their support in the northern part of the thighs, a wide cap, gesticulating with confused hand movements, and a Compton slang that is second to none. One or the other will notice at this point that I no longer belong to the younger generation either. And imagine, on the other hand, Ray Dalio: white-haired billionaire hedge fund manager with a degree from Harvard Business School, dressed as if he arose from an image campaign for white retirees in Martha's Vineyard. And both are standing on a balcony and chatting about entrepreneurial opportunities that result from compound interest; or the challenges faced by high volatility investors. This is financial education that reaches out to the youth, this is financial education that matters.?

The Bitcoin Academy: Jack Dorsey & Jay-Z

One thing in advance: I am not propagating Bitcoin or other “coins” from the crypto universe here. But there are millions of people out there who are interested in what the future of money will look like. There are millions of people who are interested in "smart contracts", a highly efficient way to conclude contracts digitally. And – you guessed it – there are millions, probably even billions, of people who just want to get rich quick. Yes, that's how it is. And that's where Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, and Jay-Z, one of the most successful rappers and record producers of all time, step in. Even if initially only on a regional level - in the district where Jay-Z grew up and on a selected topic that is currently not so "hyped" due to the crypto winter.

Together they reach people where they are, with "courses" that you would otherwise only expect at Ivy League Universities: "Wealth Building and Assets", "Bitcoin & Taxes" etc.

From rapper to entrepreneur

In fact, many who have made it in the music industry go on to start a business as a second step. Shirin David is considered an icon and role model for many women. Formerly bullied and made small, today a rapper and businesswoman with many mainstays seen a million times on YouTube. The Viennese rapper RAF Camora also runs a tattoo shop, has joined the Viennese startup NEOH, owns real estate and shows it publicly and with pride. No matter where you look in the scene, being smart is "en vogue", and interviews talk about "business" and point out the importance of education. The sentence "Do what you enjoy and do it" has almost become a standing sentence. But it demands motivation and personal responsibility - and that's what matters if we want young people to approach the topic of financial education in an autodidactic way.

Nobody reads that ...

... at least no one who should read it. That was my reasoning when I originally opposed further written contributions to financial education. After all, 14-year-olds who are just beginning to take an interest in money should also read it. Or those who are just doing an apprenticeship and are earning their first money; or those who want to study economics and think they know everything better anyway. We have to do more and talk less, that's my claim. And we need to reach the people who are worth reaching out to.

But if this article has the potential to adding music as an effective mean of transmitting financial literacy to the youth, then I would write it. And I'm writing it for the rappers across the continent who are highly successful entrepreneurs, investors and musicians: Please continue promoting financial literacy. Because only a society that is also financially educated enables fruitful framework conditions for business and innovation and financial satisfaction, and thus freedom and prosperity for all of us in the future.

N.B.: This article was inspired by the Financial Times Literacy and Inclusion Campaign, as well as Rhymer Rigby's contribution, Psychology of Wealth – Why the Masters of Rap Could Help Bridge the Financial Literacy Gap, published in FTwealth, October 2022 . Thank you for that!

The original version of this article was published in German language by ?BAG, Austrias state owned holding company managing a portfolio comprising of large parts of key Austrian industries, such as OMV, Telekom Austria, Verbund and ?sterreichische Post.