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Financial literacy is one of the most powerful life skills parents can teach—but for many families, knowing where to start can feel overwhelming. In this episode, Suzy Shaw talks with Geoff Howard, CEO of the Money Confidence Project, about how parents can move beyond traditional budgeting lessons to help kids, tweens, teens, and young adults build confidence, reduce money anxiety, and develop healthy financial habits that last a lifetime.
From Venture Valley’s award-winning entrepreneurship game to Million Stories’ relatable financial content and Groove’s goal-setting tools, Geoff shares practical, engaging ways families can make money conversations less intimidating and more effective. This conversation offers real-world strategies for raising financially capable kids—while also giving parents permission to let their children make mistakes, learn responsibility, and build independence.
Geoff Howard is a dad of two, a seasoned finance executive, and the CEO of the Money Confidence Project. His career has focused on helping organizations simplify complex financial systems, build sustainable growth, and create practical tools that empower others. In this conversation, he shares how that expertise now fuels a mission to take the anxiety out of money by helping families build confidence, healthy habits, and stronger financial decision-making skills.
The Money Confidence Project includes three innovative resources designed to make financial education more engaging and accessible:
The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Consult with a qualified professional for specific guidance.
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Financial literacy is one of the most important and powerful life skills we can give our kids. It shapes how they make decisions, how they handle challenges, and ultimately how they build their future.
But figuring out how to teach those skills isn’t always straightforward. Many of us didn’t grow up having open conversations about money. It was a different time. Fraud wasn’t as prevalent, money didn’t move as quickly, and financial decisions weren’t showing up at such an early age. Now we’re preparing our kids for a fast-paced financial world.
Today, I’m joined by Geoff Howard, Executive Director and CEO of the Money Confidence Project, an organization focused on economic empowerment with practical tools and fresh approaches to financial education. Geoff, I’m so glad you’re here.
Geoff Howard: Thank you for having me, Suzy.
Suzy Shaw: You know, this topic of financial literacy has been one that I’ve wanted to talk about since I launched the podcast. It was probably one of the more challenging parts of parenting for my husband and me. And I was really excited to learn about the Money Confidence Project and all the tools that you have developed. Can you start by sharing the mission and how it all fits together with financial literacy?
Geoff Howard: Absolutely. Yes. So at Money Confidence Project, our actual mission is to take the anxiety out of money. I know that sounds a little different, right? Because we’re talking about teaching, about financial literacy, but really what we’ve learned is that it’s all about removing anxiety.
Suzy, there’s plenty of curriculum out there. There’s curriculum, there’s content. You can find a lot of information that teaches you about money, but what it doesn’t really address is the anxiety that we all feel about it. To complicate that even more, each of us has our own relationship with money. You brought that up in the opening. My relationship with money may be different from yours, and even within a household, you have different relationships with money.
And that gets very complicated, and that transfers onto our own kids as well. So this is a topic that we’re very much invested in. And we approach it a little differently than maybe some of the traditional curriculum and tools that are out there. So we use the power of entertainment. We want to be entertaining. We want to be inspirational, and we want to have a gamified approach. We want to make this fun. We don’t want it to be boring.
If I can give you an example of this. My kids went through a, happened to live in California, and it’s a requirement here to have, or at least in their high school, they had a requirement to have a personal finance class. (Nice.) Yes. I’m very happy about that. Right? My kids came home, and both of them took the class. They’re a grade apart. And they said, you know, Dad, this stuff is kind of like boring and this content is just, it’s like anything else we’re doing in school. They’re just kind of teaching us a whole bunch of things, but I asked my daughter about it today, and she said, you know, I don’t really remember what they told us. I just remember it was boring.
And so our mission is to actually make this not boring and to help you help inspire people to kind of take those next steps or to get on the right track. We want people to be confident with their money or at least to remove the anxiety about talking about money. And we want to, just as important, help people build healthy financial habits. And I think those things are important to have a successful financial future.
Suzy Shaw: So, what age range are your programs targeted and designed for?
Geoff Howard: So our programs are actually targeted for Millennials and Gen Z. That’s our target market. However, all of our programs can be used, you know, down to, we have programs that are used in middle schools and in high schools and up through even beyond that with Boomers even. You know, it’s not too late to learn these sorts of skills.
Suzy Shaw: So in doing research about what your organization does, I’ve come across a couple of different products. I’d like you to sort of dig into them. We can do them one at a time. Okay. There’s a Venture Valley, Million Stories, Groove, and Slyngshot. Did I get them all?
Geoff Howard: Yes, you did. And I’d like to just maybe focus on the first three. So Million Stories, Groove, and Venture Valley, if we could. Yeah.
Suzy Shaw: So let’s start with Venture Valley. Okay. So Venture Valley is the fun video game where you can, you know, build a business from scratch. And it’s won more than 25 awards, and it’s available for free, right? Mobile and PC. Tell us a little bit about that.
Geoff Howard: Well, a couple of things. It’s not what you may think of… it’s an edutainment sort of game, first of all. So it’s fast-paced, it’s competitive, it’s multiplayer, and we actually use it in tournaments. We actually have collegiate tournaments that use Venture Valley, where students compete against one another for actual prizes.
So Venture Valley takes the gaming experience, I think, to the next level. So, in other words, your players are actually learning financial skills. They’re learning how to, as you’re building these businesses, you start off with a dog walking business and then you kind of progress, progress, progress, and then I think there are 20-some businesses and at the end you end up with a robotics factory.
But as you’re progressing, you’re actually, you’re learning how to pay wages. How much do you pay? Do you pay more? Do you pay less? Should you invest in marketing? Should you invest in R&D? What type of product do you want to offer? So you have all of these different factors that are real-life business decisions that you’re making, and you’re learning all this as you’re actually playing the game. It’s not like you’re sitting down and learning a bunch of concepts and then playing the game. You’re actually starting right in the game and learning how to play and using these concepts.
I want to give you an example of how this actually worked. So when we completed Venture Valley, and my son at the time was 14 or 15, okay, and he completed it, and I said, Keaton, I want to get you and your buddies together and I want you to play this game. And he said, I said, I’ll buy pizza and so I kind of, you know, encourage them to sit down and play the game, and I wanted their feedback. So, you know, I kind of left them on their own, and they played against one another in a tournament style, and at the end, you know, they said, I checked in and said, yeah, Dad, this is a fun game. And I thought, okay, they were, you know, just bought a pizza. So, you know, maybe they were nice to me because I bought them pizza.
And then I was driving my son and one of his friends to school, and they’re in the back on their phones as always, and I hear him talking. And I said, What are you guys talking? Because it sounded like they were talking like playing a game, and they said, oh, we’re playing that Venture Valley game. I said, oh, really? And so tell me more about that. And they said, you know, dad, this was actually a lot of fun, where, you know, we’re playing against, you know, some friends that were also on their way to school. And then I heard him talking, and he used the term net worth, which is one of the outputs from the game, you know, the net worth of your businesses. And I thought to myself, did I just hear my son use the term net worth? And he doesn’t know; he didn’t know what net worth was before this game, but here he is playing the game. And so, you’re kind of indirectly learning all of these skills as you’re playing the game.
And so, I thought that was pretty fascinating. And I think it was confirmation that we were on the right path in trying to make financial education fun, entertaining and inspirational.
Suzy Shaw: So, it sounds like Venture Valley could be played, I don’t know, eighth grade? I mean, is it middle school and above? Or what do you think the right age is?
Geoff Howard: We actually have some middle schools that create a curriculum around Venture Valley. And so, it is absolutely 13 and up for sure. But I think there are also some other middle schools that have been using the Venture Valley concept and creating curriculum around that.
I mentioned before that we do tournaments, collegiate tournaments. And one of my favorite quotes, there’s actually like three quotes here. One of my favorite quotes is, one of the winners said, “You know, I learned more about running a business playing this Venture Valley in this two hours of Venture Valley than I did my whole entire semester of my entrepreneurship course in college.” So, I thought that was pretty profound, right?
So, obviously, it’s kind of taking what you’re learning but actually making it, putting it into practice. And I think maybe one of the biggest compliments that I appreciate about Venture Valley is this. We had a tournament, and somebody said to me, I said, “What did you think?” And they said, “Oh, I loved it. I loved it.” And they said, “You know, I can actually see myself now starting a business.” And I think that was, if anything, that’s the inspirational component here that I thought was the most impactful from this game. If people can see themselves starting a business after playing Venture Valley, and also owning a business, I think that’s a big accomplishment.
Suzy Shaw: Absolutely. In fact, as you’re speaking, I’m thinking, I have a sophomore in high school who’s helping me do some planting and things like that. And he’s told me he wants to be a landscaper and have his own landscaping business, so I am going to give it to him and tell him to go, right? (Yes.) So, I mean, and that’s the kind of action that a parent or an aunt or anyone can have with a young adult, right?
Geoff Howard: Right, exactly. And this is, by the way, this is something you can play along with him. Think about that, Suzy, how much fun that would be as your children are playing the game and learning, and you’re playing along with them as well, because you’ll probably learn some things as well.
Suzy Shaw: I can always learn some more. I love the idea.
Geoff Howard: Not only did we engage professors and experts on education and technical ability, but we also actually had some of our gaming developers who are from the field and have been lifelong developers. And so we were able to blend the education and accuracy of that with a fun game together. And so that was the goal. And that’s what we accomplished.
Suzy Shaw: Well, bravo.
Geoff Howard: Thank you.
Suzy Shaw: And so if a young adult wanted to compete in one of the challenges that you have, is it open to the public, or would you have to be at an educational site to do the competition?
Geoff Howard: So the game can be downloaded from the Apple Store. It’s available on Steam and on Android as well. So you just download the game, and you can create your own tournament and play it on your own if you like.
We have sponsor tournaments where we’ll get universities together and students to come in and compete against one another, but it’s certainly available to anyone to download and play.
Suzy Shaw: Wonderful. So, another project that you have done is called Million Stories. And it is also really very impressive. It’s a YouTube product. There are hundreds of videos, many of them are under 10 minutes. There are a couple of different programs, and they seem to talk about everything from the stress of investing to everyday decision-making, like the difference between needs and wants. So what can you tell us about that project?
Geoff Howard: So first of all, Million Stories isn’t just YouTube. We actually are on all the social platforms as well. And we have our own channel. So you could go to millionstories.com and access the same content directly from there. 
So we set out with the same sort of objective that we did with Venture Valley is we didn’t just want to have a bunch of content that just tells you, it talks at you, right? We wanted to make this inspirational and hopefully then encourage people to take that next step.
At the same time, we wanted people to see themselves in the content. In other words, if some of our content has people who are going through difficult financial situations, and we wanted to create a channel and content where people can say, “You know, that’s me. That’s me. That’s the way I feel about this. And I’m really glad that somebody is talking about this and what is it that they did to help themselves out of it?” So, Million Stories is all about the inspirational content.
And we use both real people like you and me telling our stories, but we also use celebrities and influencers to also tell the stories or to help tell these stories as well.
For instance, Richard Sherman, instance, Richard Sherman, he’s a former NFL football player. He does a series called Adulting, which is kind of fun because it talks about kind of like some of the things that even million-dollar football players aren’t doing that they need to do, right? Basic finance things. So to listen to Richard Sherman, it’s very entertaining.
We have other programs. Let’s see, Wags to Riches. That’s another one. So Wags to Riches is a program where people are talking about all of the ideas they had to do something with pets and then bringing those to market. So all these stories about pet businesses that you can create from, you know, with your, from your pets.
We have things like George Goes Everywhere. George Goes Everywhere is a series where George travels to a city, and we’ll do this on less than a hundred dollars a day. And he talks about how to spend money and how you can still do these fun things on these trips.
So Million Stories is all about the inspirational content, getting people to not only learn, but to be inspired to kind of take that next step.
Suzy Shaw: And which ones resonate the most, do you think, with younger audiences? Because it did seem like a lot of the content was focused on 20-somethings.
Geoff Howard: It did.
We actually have a series called Startup Kids. So, and that, in that targets- shows kids eight to, I think it’s like eight to 16 who have actually started businesses. I think that is very relevant to this.
I think Wags to Riches is fun to watch because kids can look at, Oh my gosh, that’s a really cool business. They, I have a pet myself. What if I have an idea? You know, so it’s, because it’s all about creating opportunity and inspiration in the kids.
We have Pay to Play. So, I know this is a show that also has a kind of emphasis on, you know, mothers of boys and Pay to Play is about the gaming industry, you know, there’s a lot of games, a lot of boys that play games and statistically and here’s about how that works. They may find that interesting.
You’re right, there are some pieces of content that maybe the kids wouldn’t find as exciting to watch, but maybe the parents would, you know, and again, it’s all creating this environment in your home that encourages healthy conversations about money, because one of the things we have learned is that a lot of our relationship with money starts when we were kids. And so what we learn and what we observe from our parents at home is very relevant and a good indicator of how our relationship with money is going to be when we become adults.
Suzy Shaw: Well, and it’s not like when your kids turn 20, they suddenly stop needing you.
Geoff Howard: That’s correct.
Both of my sons are engaged right now. And some of the videos, you know, I found really interesting and sent some of them. There was a conversation about, you know, joint checking accounts.
Geoff Howard: Yes!
Suzy Shaw: Like, should you have a joint checking account or should you keep separate checking accounts? And that’s going to be a different answer for every couple, but really interesting, you know, topic and discussion around that.
Geoff Howard: You know, that’s actually one of our series, Heartbroke, and it deals with couples and their relationships with money because they’re coming at it from different perspectives. Maybe somebody’s a saver, somebody’s a spender, and how do they resolve that? And so the Heartbroke series, I think, maybe one that, that, that would be very relevant to your, to your sons.
Suzy Shaw: So, the other product that you have is called Groove. Another super interesting tool that seems to be focused on goal setting and building, you know, healthy habits. (Yes.)
And it made me remember when my kids went off to college, and they suddenly had access to credit cards. I mean, to a real debt that they could get on their own. And that was not necessarily a positive learning experience. It was a learning experience, and how nice it would have been to have something like Groove earlier. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Geoff Howard: Sure. So first of all, we worked with researchers from Duke University’s Common Sense Lab to develop Groove. And so it’s grounded in behavioral science, first of all. So let’s talk about that. So it’s actually, it’s designed with behavioral science in mind. That’s, that’s number one. 
Number two is Groove is a personal finance app that, as you observed, also has some goal-setting features as well. You could say, and it categorizes your expenses. So it does the things that a traditional finance app would do. You would expect a personal finance app to do, except that, as you observed, it does two things that are very unique.
Number one is the goal-setting feature. The goal-setting feature allows people to set these financial goals, or actually non-financial goals. It could be a goal like I want to get a new job, you know, whatever the goal is. And you can set these goals, and then it breaks that goal down into many steps.
So, for instance, if you said, if you had a goal that, let’s say, you watched an episode of Million Stories, and you were inspired, you said, I like that idea of creating an emergency account. I don’t have an emergency fund. I want to do that. If you set a goal to have an emergency fund, it would probably take you a couple of years to get it funded all the way. So we’ll take a goal like that and break it up into little steps. Maybe step number one, just open a checking account or savings account, step number one. And then when you do that, you get rewarded. Oh, that’s wonderful. You get the narwhals and the dopamine hit from accomplishing that particular task. And then step number two, maybe put $5 in.
So we take something that’s, that seems like it’s a big goal and we break it into these little goals. So in each stop along the way, you’re getting rewarded for an accomplishment, right? So then you’re, you’re feeling inspired. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. So, that’s the goal-setting feature of Groove.
What really differentiates Groove is that we assess a person’s money personalities. We have one of eight different money personalities that exist in Groove. And you, you, you, you, we assess that when you first log on to Groove, and then we reassess that later on, you can assess it kind of any, and based on what your money personality is, Groove will then adapt to that and make sure that it’s talking to you in the way that you relate to money.
So again, Groove’s going to provide a different experience for me than it is for you based on our unique money personalities.
Suzy Shaw: So what are some of the money personalities?
Geoff Howard: Yeah. So there’s a thoughtful manager, there’s the dreamer, and we have some others as well. I happen to be a, you know, part of the dreamer category, if you will. So, I will say that your money personality changes over time. It depends on, sometimes when I’ve taken the, taken the assessment, I’ve been, they, I’ve been thoughtful. The other times I’ve been the dreamer. So changes over time.
Suzy Shaw: And, and what age do you suggest parents start introducing something like Groove? And it’s a, it’s available on mobile systems. Yes, it is. And iPads too?
Geoff Howard: That’s correct. Okay. Yes. So, Groove can connect it to your bank accounts if you choose to do that. So, it has that feature, as any other personal finance app would expect. So kids don’t have a bank account that they don’t need to connect to, but they still have access to all of the content in Groove. They can still take the money personality.
But I would say that Groove is sort of for those who have bank accounts, maybe have a credit card or thinking about trying to save for something, you know, that’s where, where, where Groove really fits in because it, it takes, it takes these things and allows you to create these goals to see content around what it is, the goal that you’re trying to, to achieve and then tracks all that for you.
Suzy Shaw: So, financial literacy isn’t just about numbers. It’s about confidence, decision-making, and promoting independence. So, what do you think are three things parents could start doing to help build those skills?
Geoff Howard: For the financial skills for their kids… So number one, I would actually start talking about money with the kids. For whatever reason, I think a lot of people are, they, they, they don’t want to expose the kids to it, but I think having a conversation about money and what is it? You know, kids don’t even, they just know sometimes they get things and, you know, there’s food on the table, and there’s gifts that come in, but they don’t really understand where maybe those things come from. And so I think having a real, honest conversation about the kids about money, first of all, this is the way the household works.
I’ve seen some examples that we’ve actually used ourselves with our kids, where you take your monthly income and put it into envelopes and show the kids how the different envelopes represent how the money is spent in the household. And so that’s, that’s one way, is to just kind of teach them not to be afraid to have a conversation about money.
Number two is I really do believe there’s this, the content, being able to not necessarily teach them how to do a budget, but have content that allows them to get inspired, right? Because I think the next thing we want to do is inspire them to do the right thing.
I didn’t tell my kids, I need you to put part of your, your money away in a Roth IRA to do these things. I said, Hey, here are the benefits. If you, if you do these things, and this is what, if you, you know, if you are able to save, I think the number is $40,000 by the time you’re 30, that’s going to give you a million dollars at retirement if you did nothing else. Those inspirational conversations are important as well.
And then the third thing I would say is that I would encourage them to create healthy financial habits. Now get in the habit of taking an allowance. If you give them an allowance and say, “Let’s put some of that in a savings account,” let’s actually do that and teach them savings.
Suzy Shaw: Well, you know, the responsibility part is, you know, I think one of the trickiest as parents, which often comes with tough love, I guess.
I know when my son got himself over his skis on the credit card, it’s like, well, what are you going to do about it? You know, it’s like, we’re not going to bail you out with this. So you’re going to have to get a job on campus, and you’re going to have to pay it back. And what’s the minimum amount, and what’s the plan to pay it back? And I think, you know, not bailing your kids out can be one of the best things you can do for them.
Geoff Howard: So, Suzy, my son had saved spending money for college, and he’s in his freshman year, most of the way through the year, he ran out of his money. So now he is, you can’t do the things that he wants to do. He was going snowboarding, and he was, you know, ordering from DoorDash all the time. And now the money’s gone. So you’re right. It’s the, I’m sorry that happened to you. You know, maybe this means you’ll have to get a job in the summer again, or maybe you’re out to get something on campus to supplement, but you’re right. Letting the kids make the mistakes now.
And Suzy, this is the, this is actually the time you want them to make the mistakes. You want them to make it when they’re young, when the stakes aren’t high. You know, if a spending problem progresses and you don’t address that early on and you don’t understand what happens when you are on your own, then the stakes are so much higher. I actually believe that I’ve even said this to my own kids. I think you have to make mistakes to actually learn. So you actually, it’s okay to make a mistake because you’re going to learn from it.
Suzy Shaw: Yeah. I fully agree. Completely agree. And, you know, it’s, for some kids, that’s the only way they learn.
Geoff, I ask all of our guests at the end of the podcast if you could leave us with a simple motto, something that a parent can say to themselves as they’re trying to teach their kids about money. Is there anything you said to yourself during those moments?
Geoff Howard: So I’ll have two things maybe if I could offer up to you. One thing I would say is, say to yourself, I’m not alone, and there’s plenty, there’s people out there, there’s resources that want to help. I think that’s the first thing to resolve the anxiety, is, okay, I can do this, and there’s help available.
And secondly, I’m going to refer back to what I said, which is that you have to make mistakes to learn. So it’s okay. It’s okay to have these little mistakes right now. So it’s okay. In fact, that’s the way you’re going to learn is through these mistakes.
Suzy Shaw: Right. And building on that relationship, hopefully, you have an honest relationship, and so your kids will come to you and not dig themselves a deeper hole.
Geoff Howard: That’s right.
Suzy Shaw: Which then depends on your reaction. I mean, if your reaction is to go nuclear, then they’re not going to have that trust and want to learn with you.
So, Geoff, I really, really appreciate everything that your foundation is doing and the tools that are available for parents. I just feel this is so powerful. Where? What is the best place to go for more information about the tools we’ve talked about?
Geoff Howard: Visit MoneyConfidenceProject.org. And from MoneyConfidenceProject.org, you’ll learn about Venture Valley, Million Stories, and Groove.
Suzy Shaw: Fabulous. And we will include the information in our show notes on this podcast and hope you podcast and hope you continue to develop new things and come back and tell us about it.
Geoff Howard: We absolutely will. And thank you again for having me, Suzy.
